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Everyone loves an overnight success story.
A musician releases a hit record. An entrepreneur launches a successful company. An author publishes a bestseller. Suddenly, everyone knows their name.
Where did they come from?
Usually, they've been there all along. We simply weren't paying attention.
Consider the musicians who spent years practicing, performing in nearly empty clubs, refining their skills, and learning from their mistakes before anyone recognized their talent. Or the entrepreneur whose successful business was preceded by several unsuccessful ventures.
We celebrate the achievement while overlooking the preparation. There is a leadership lesson here. We frequently admire the competence, judgment, or confidence of accomplished leaders without considering how they developed those qualities.
We see the results. We don't see the work.
Competence accumulates through study, practice, observation, and experience. Character develops through choices, particularly when the right choice is difficult. Communication improves when we deliberately practice clear and precise communication.
Harry Potter isn’t real; nothing happens magically. Success never arrives on our schedule or automatically. Accumulating years without learning will impede improvement, not guarantee it.
Someone who has repeated the same mistakes for twenty years may have twenty years of experience making mistakes. Someone who has only done one simple job for twenty years is probably an expert in that job, but little else.
Sustained Leadership requires something more: a deliberate commitment to being a constant learner from experience and applying what we've learned. IT requires you to build your talent stack intentionally.
Don't confuse the absence of applause with the absence of progress. The preparation may eventually become the most valuable part of the achievement. And remember that the purpose of leadership development isn't necessarily to become famous.
It's to become a better version of you. IT can take decades to become an overnight success.
Quiet Dare: Identify one competency you've developed over several years. What deliberate practice contributed most to your improvement? What could you do this week to advance it further?
To your personal leadership journey,
Tom
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