Houston Southard
a name that looks so fake you'll care just as little to learn it's not
DREW DUDLEY - THIS IS DAY ONE
What did you do today to recognize someone else's leadership?
This book is about recognition. Internally and externally. People may know Drew from his bombshell TED talk on the lollipop moment.
He discusses leaving a campus talk during orientation week and overhearing a girl in line for a dorm tour. She turns to her parents, overwhelmed, saying college isn't for her. Drew goes up to the kid behind the girl, hands him a lollipop, and tells him to give it to the girl to cheer her up. He walks away and forgets about it, and four years later receives an invitation for a wedding. It's from that girl, who's marrying that kid. At this point, Drew has no recollection of the incident, and that's the lollipop moment, that we have this amazing power to impact people when we have no intention to. His advice is to let people know when they've created a lollipop moment for us, because usually that person is unaware of how they've shaped our lives.
In this way leadership is letting people know when they create that feeling for us. Whether or not you're in a position to lead people in work, you are in a position to lead people in life. So lead daily, because empowering others is self-empowering.
In a world where a smile can bring someone back from the brink, how we act towards anyone, even in seemingly insignificant circumstances, can change everything.
Dudley covers a wide array of strategies that help people help themselves so they can help others. It's about not being so hard on yourself that you can't climb the next rung in your goal's ladder. It's about recognizing our emotions aren’t the problem, but judging ourselves for having them is.
Cozy up with rejection, because confidence is just acting like something doesn't scare you, but courage is doing something that does scare you. Always ask for help, because you wouldn’t worry so much about what other people think of you if you realized how seldom they do. Things don’t just happen for a reason. You’re the reason things happen.
This is day one.