GLS 2019: Session 2 – Liz Bohannon

Every day the bell would ring at noon for lunch. On one particular day, I was working on a project through lunch. The factory loses power. It gets completely pitch black, completely silent. I was locked in an Ethiopian shoe factory. There were voices. I screamed. They came and stood on the other side of the door with me while I waited to be rescued.

I decided I wanted flip flops that didn’t flop. So I took a pair of shower sandals and tore off the plastic thong and tied on some ribbons.

We knew if we were going to grow, we were going to have to evolve. We saw the future of retail. We saw that for retail to survive e-commerce, it has to be cheap and easy access or unique, social.

We had to shift from wholesale model to direct-to-consumer. We would need new finance strategy, new team, new products to expand.

I was really afraid. I was waking up most days in the state of fear. Today was the day that I was going to be exposed. That I had no business running a business.

Beginner’s Luck – the supposed phenomenon of novices experiencing success

We were creating community and opportunity for women here at home and not just in Africa.

Every time we start something, fear raised it’s head.

A few years ago, I started to think more about beginner’s luck. I started to wonder if 10 years later, if learning to channel my inner beginner could make me more successful.

I had failures. I tried to make close toed shoes in that factory and it failed. So much so that I buried a pair in my backyard. Even our bad ideas deserve to be valued.

Pluck -spirited and determined courage.

Beginner’s pluck

The four stages of learning

Stage 1 – Unconscious Incompetence: you don’t know what you don’t know.

Stage 2 – Conscious Incompetence: Ouch. You know what you don’t know.

Stage 3 – Conscious Competence: I can do it but it takes effort.

Stage 4 – Unconscious Competence – I’m so good I can do this in my sleep!

This image of the stages of learning is insidious. It will keep you from being a leader who equips and takes risks. We start acting out of fear that we will lose our place.

My new book, The Magical Land of Beginners – launches today at the Summit.

The very things that would ignite your insecurities will make you say “Honey, I’m home!”

Dream Small

You’re Never Going to Find Your Passion – Pluckies know that you don’t find your passion but you can build it.

You are Average – Statistically speaking, we are all mostly average. You don’t have to be above average in talent or intellect, you can lead an extraordinary life.

What is meant to be inspirational creates some serious analysis paralysis.

I love dreaming big. How do you get a big dream in the first place? Principle #3 of Beginners Pluck is Dream Small.

When I was in college, I was passionate about women and girls in extreme poverty. I didn’t get my dream job. Apparently the NY Times isn’t interested in hiring an international correspondent who has never really traveled outside the United States. One day in my cubicle on the 18th floor of this office building, I realized that I did not have one single friend who grew up in the situation that I said I cared about. There was a massive delta between what I said I believed and the life I was living. My new dream was knowing one friend who grew up in the situation.

As soon as I made that small actionable step, I quit being a dreamer and became a doer. I bought a one-way ticket to Uganda.

I was launched out of waiting into creating.

I met some of the brightest women in the country. I jumped to conclusions and started a charity. Keep the women together. Teach them a skill. Contribute to our local economy. I started a chicken farm. Imagine how well that went since I had to look up on Wikipedia what chickens ate.

I promised these women that if they would make sandals for the nine months between high school and college that they would go to college. We did whatever we could to make it.

Fast forward 10 years and Sacred Design is one of the largest exporters in Uganda. We’ve created fair wage and dignified jobs.

It all started with an impossibly small dream of knowing one single girl. Give yourself and those you lead permission to dream small.

You realize that leadership is not just about building your own kingdom. It’s about helping others.

Nobody needs or wants you to be their hero.

We were created to live in community, where we do the sacred dance of giving and receiving, of meeting and being met. Each and every one of us is terribly broken and brilliantly wrapped. We can equip others to be the heroes of their own stories.

Aggie – 13 years old, a village elder approached her father and offered 20 cows to become his wife. Her father said no. He kept her in school. The hiring manager would say he would give her a job if she slept with him. This is not an exclusive to Africa problem.  She offered to work as an intern for one month. Today she is our managing director of all operations in Uganda. Her village is changing. The average age of marriage was 13. Now the average 13 year old girl is in school…where they belong. She has created an eternal wake for girls in Uganda in ways that I could not.

You want to talk about pluck! Can we give Aggie a huge Summit welcome!

Truly transformation leader is about linking arms with others to raise the tide for others.

Only together can we create lasting change that will make the world a little brighter, more equitable than it was before.

Emilio Esteves – “Ducks Fly Together”  – “Plucks Fly Together”