That Doesn't Make Sense!

"That doesn't make sense!" said Peter with a desperate voice.

It was July 30th, 2014 around 6 pm in the afternoon in Boleslawowo, Poland. We just had our second session with our student teams so called "companies" and we were starting the debrief. The room we were in seemed too small for all the "Company Advisors" and I noticed some of us were standing next to the walls. Most of us were Boeing employees who signed up to travel to Europe to participate in a week-long summer program run by the non-profit organization called Washington Business Week. Others were retired business professionals, teachers, local Polish business owners and local Polish teachers. Some were new to the program and some have done it before. This was my second time around, so I was familiar with the process we were about to go through that would lead to unbelievable success after 6 days.

Peter was visibly struggling to understand why would the students of his "company" make such bad decisions. Clearly those decisions were leading them to fall behind and to give up their number 1 spot in the competition.

"I cannot let them fail." He added and he covered his face with his hands. He has been told, like all participating adults in the program, to let the students make their own decisions during the sessions and not provide them with any answers or course corrections. Clearly Peter was struggling to trust the process and to trust all of us. I could see it on his face that his outcry was not an outcry for help, but an ask for doing things his own way instead.

"What if you let them fail?" I asked with a curious yet calm voice.

He moved his hands and looked up at me. The room felt suddenly very quiet. I felt all the eyes starring at me yet I only focused on Peter's puzzled look. It was like the words didn't have meaning for him and the only thing he could do was to repeat the question back in order to de-code them: "What if I let them fail?"

"Yes, what if you let them fail?" I repeated acknowledging his confusion and his search for new meaning.

That was the moment that shifted Peter's attitude and mindset for the next 4 days and for the rest of his life.

What do we believe before we realize we don't know something?

Before we are "wrong" we are what...?

Have you ever asked yourself these questions? I haven't until I watched Kathryn Schulz's TED Talk On Being Wrong .

We are deeply trusting that what we know now is the only truth. And that makes us feel 100% confident in what we know. We are right. We are sure. It all makes sense because it is the truth.

Until it isn't.

And we realize that there can be other versions of the truth as well.

Take for example one of my favorite truth: "I don't have money for that."

I was working on my website this morning and at lunch time I shared with my husband the result of me not being around for the past few hours. My 16-year old son was at the table as well pretending he was not listening. When a break in the conversation pulled him right in and he said: "That doesn't make sense, mom!"

"What?" I asked.

"It doesn't make sense. Someone can find you in those communities and can pay less to work with you." He replied, still with a puzzled look.

"That's right! Someone could find me via The Caring Leadership Community or the Human-Centered Leadership Community and I would get paid less. It doesn't make sense when you are only comparing money to money. I get it. You see my 'sense' is calculated differently than yours."

"How?"

"I value other things more than money. Like determination, perseverance, curiosity, creativity, hard work, bravery and so on. It would take, yes, maybe all of those for someone to find me in those communities. That person would have to believe something else: that even if you don't have much money you can still work towards achieving your goals. Money is not the key to achieving your goals. Finding a way, like finding me, and taking action is the key."

I want to give a chance to everyone, indifferent from where they come from and how much money they currently have, to choose to live life differently. My way of serving people is by rewarding those who are willing and daring to search for new meaning, for new sense in their lives.

I preach what I believe in because I have lived it and experienced it myself: if you want something, money is not the first obstacle you have to overcome. It is your own mindset and belief system regarding money.

If this doesn't make sense, send me a note via www.andreaclough.com.