Derek Clark: Pitiful or Powerful

The talk given by Derek Clark challenged my understanding of leadership and pushed me to look further into myself when considering how I lead. He started by telling his story of coming from a family of full of troubles to abuse to experience in the foster care system.  The struggles that he went through we terrible, and should have affected him in astronomical ways. However, instead of dwelling on the negative things he went through he allowed these experiences to transform his life into something amazing. From this I learned that with even when nothing is going right, and it feels as though everything is impossible, there is still good one can do. Being a leader is not reserved for those that have always experienced success. Instead, it may rather by suited for those that have been through struggles and pain because they know how to deal with difficult situations.

Mr. Clark proposed the idea of being able to love yourself before you can love anyone else. I think this is especially prevalent in the topic of leadership. A person should be confident in themselves before they put themselves in a place of critique and judgement. Being able to know yourself and your leadership style is essential being a great leader. Derek Clark showed this through his description of letting go of his metaphorical backpack that he was allowing to way him down. Once he was able to let go of what others thought of him and of what he thought of himself, he was able to truly succeed.

This experience has encouraged me to reflect  back on my life and find the good that came from the bad.  At times I allow myself to use my past as an excuse. Although this never fully solves the issue, or make me feel better, I still continue the cycle. Instead, I want to reflect and find my strengths and how they developed through these difficult times. The speech was very uplifting and inspired me to work harder in the future when I face issues.  I will apply many of techniques in the future and maybe even include a three work phrase to help me in the future.