Getting There

Gillian Zoe Segal’s book, “Getting There: A book of mentors“, offers a glimpse into the lives of people who have achieved a level of success and recognition in their respective fields.   It takes the form of each person or ‘interviewee’ offering a few pages on their own life experiences and the obstacles, failures, missteps and often surprising and unexpected events that steered them directly or indirectly onto a path that led them to where they are today.

The purpose of the book is to show that people who have achieved recognition and success in their chosen areas were not necessarily destined for success and that all of us encounter obstacles and setbacks in seeking to reach our potential.

It’s like the facebook paradox. You join facebook to ‘connect’ with others but usually what you get is the whitewashed image of the ‘perfect’ moments of peoples’ lives.

That’s not real life.

Everyone at some time in their life needs momentum to get them to the next step.

That momentum might take a while to come.

But it does come.

It won’t fall in your lap. You must seek it. And in seeking it, sometimes the advice and inspiration of others makes all the difference and gives you that push toward your own path (or one of them) when you need it the most and expect it the least.

To understand what makes a leader you need to know their story. Not just the positive or heroic bits. You need to know the struggle. The pain. The doubt. The loss. The failures. Without these elements no story is ever complete.

The stories in this blog are inspiring truths about the real lives of people and their views and experiences of leadership and failure.

And how one does not exist without the other.