I am an old man and have known a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.
– Mark Twain
In Bits & Pieces a few years back a story is told of Somerset Maugham, the English writer, who once wrote about a janitor at St. Peter’s Church in London. One day a young vicar discovered that the janitor was illiterate and fired him.
Jobless, the man invested his meager savings in a tiny tobacco shop, where he prospered, bought another, expanded, and ended up with a chain of tobacco stores worth several hundred thousand dollars.
One day the banker said, “You’ve done well for an illiterate, but where would you be if you could read and write?” “Well,” replied the man, “I’d be janitor of St. Peter’s Church in Neville Square.”
The story illustrates what happens when a person is not shaken by his circumstances but seizes troubles by the horns and turns it into something positive. And this is the test of your leadership. Some might say these are troubled times we are living in at the moment. Chief among many concerns is the state of the economy and how it will impact their business, employees, and their family.
Will Foley said, “The world is full of cactus, but we don’t have to sit on it.” As it relates to troubles, are you sitting on cactus? Are you hunkered down in survival mode? Here are three simple reminders about troubles and how to respond to them.
Troubles will visit you – embrace them. Not the advice you expected to hear is it? Now that you have considered this idea, what do you plan to do about it? This is the character test of your leadership. Each leader will face his or her unique set of challenges or troubles to overcome.
Just as the janitor at St. Peter’s had to choose how he would react to his setback, you too, will choose a path forward. Harry S. Truman said, “A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” And this is what you must decide. Like the janitor, your present trouble could be the beginning of something great, but not until you embrace it.
Troubles will leave you – learn from them. It’s been said that experience is the greatest teacher. When the school of hard-knocks is in session I understand the temptation to skip class. But in the words of John Wooden, “It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.” And this is the separation point between a leader who learns from his troubles and the one who only resents them.
Leadership is a learning process. And along the journey are lessons to be learned and opportunities seized upon. How soon your trouble leaves depends on how long it takes for you to learn your lessons.
On my leadership journey the troubles that stayed with me the longest did so because I was too slow to learn, too slow to act, and at times just too hard headed. How about you? Be assured today that the troubles you face will eventually pass. The secret to growing wise as a leader is to never stop learning.
Troubles will grow you; thank them. While it is a given that troubles will grow you as a leader; the hardest test to pass is the one in which you look back on your troubles with gratitude. As you read this you are probably asking, “Why should I be thankful for my troubles?” It’s a great question that I, too, have asked.
James A. Lovell said, “Be thankful for problems. If they were less difficult, someone with less ability may have your job.” The troubles and challenges you face today are the benchmarks of your growth as a leader. The size and scope of the challenges you face today are not the ones you dealt with a year ago, and will not be the ones you will face in five years.
Think about it; your next trouble could very well be the blessing in disguise that you have been waiting for. As you embrace them, learn from them, and be thankful for them, you will not be overcome by them. What troubles have you embraced today?
© 2011 Doug Dickerson