The hardest work often happens before anyone is watching.
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I was at a gathering recently when I struck up a conversation with the woman seated next to me. She grew up in Zimbabwe.
As we talked about our lives, she shared something that stopped me. She told me she refuses to wait in lines. I leaned in and asked her to tell me more.
She refused to wait
Growing up in Zimbabwe, she explained, there were lines for everything — water, bread, gas. Waiting wasn’t an inconvenience. It was simply part of daily life.
Then she said something I haven’t stopped thinking about. “There is nothing I need that badly.”
Refreshed leadership advice from CEO Stephanie Mehta
Later, she told me about arriving in the United States with just $100 to her name. Fifty dollars disappeared almost immediately on books. She found a job in the campus cafeteria within weeks because, as she explained it, she hadn’t come to the United States simply to attend college.
Instead, she came to finish. She came to win.
She was already running
By the spring semester she had already been promoted into a supervisory role. Around that same time, many of her classmates decided it might be a good idea to get campus jobs. Some ended up doing the dishes she had already spent months washing. A few complained to her that she was getting special treatment.