Victoria Venable

Leadership 1301

Dr. Wood

MW 2:30

Academy Lecture 4

Brian Williams

The Tragedy on the Journey to Triumph

Brian Williams started his lecture discussing his life story and about the trials and tribulations he has faced throughout his life. At a very young age Brian Williams was enrolled in a “mentally retarded school”, as he put it. However, he we not at all “retarded” or slow, the truth of the matter was that he was just a shy and quiet kid. One afternoon one of his teachers came to the realization that Brian was not supposed to be enrolled in that class, for he was not slow as the other children were. As a result, she took his out of her classroom. Later in his education Brian actually skipped a few grades, placed in an academically gifted program at school and earned the privilege of graduating early and before the rest of his class. He also discussed how he did extremely well on the SAT and ACT standardized tests and that he went on in live to play football in college, which was the deciding factor on where he went to school for he had always dreamt of playing football in college. However, it wasn’t an easy integration. Upon arrival, he was told that he needed to get in shape and work to become a stronger player. With enough work, he made his way on to the football team, but when looking around he realized that one of his teammates who worked harder than even him never got any playing time. Curious to why that was he began to ask around and one of his teammates told him it was because he was African American. Shocked by this response Brain realized that then he too would never get any playing time for the same reason. Brian was distraught by this news for he had chosen this school specifically to play football and had declined school that had offered him scholarships and ever full rides. Swallowing this hard realization, Brain applied to every academic scholarship he could to get his tuition paid for. After his years in college he got married and after what seemed to be a normal day turned bitter in an instant. His wife told him that, “marrying him was a mistake, getting an apartment together was and mistake and that he was a mistake”. After begging for her to stay, saying that he’d do whatever it took to gain he love back. Over coming this obstacle in their marriage, they are, to this day, still married, have 4 kids together and put their heart in soul in to their marriage.  Years down the line Brian attended funeral of one of his family members. Only eight people approach him and tell him that they were not only related but siblings. As a result he booked an Air BNB to spend the night talking and getting to know his new siblings and they ended up talking until the sun came up the next morning.

Through all of this, William expressed to us that along the way he had learned a few things. He told us that if we walked away with anything from this lecture it was these three things: Get Dumb, Get Quiet and Get Help. He said that you get dumb by realizing that you do not have the answers and to not shut down advice by saying “I know that already” when someone is speaking to you. Which leads to Get Quiet, meaning that you need to know when to just be quiet and listen to what the person is saying so that you can benefit from it. Lastly Get Help, meaning that when you know you don’t have the answers, get help and ask for help understanding. He concluded his lecture by saying that thing don’t always go the way he hope or plan for. He admitted that he has not yet reached his goal but that he has accomplished a lot. This impacted my understanding of leadership because I had never realized that a leader can go through so many trials and tribulations and still overcome all of that and become the influential leader that he is today. I learned so much about the relationship between personal values, integrity and ethical leadership through that way Brain talked about his faith and how it aided hi throughout his journey. I will apply this to my leadership practice by not letting shortcoming derail my leadership journey and use them for places to grow.