Over the course of a career, we all accumulate a story.
Some of it is written by us. Some of it is written by the organizations we work for, the people we work with and the communities we serve. Some of it is shaped by circumstances that were entirely beyond our control.
But ultimately, I believe a person's story is best understood over time.
One decision does not define a career. One difficult period does not define a person. And one chapter, whether successful or disappointing, does not tell the whole story.
That perspective becomes clearer with experience.
I have spent more than 30 years working across healthcare, academic medicine, business, governance and community organizations. I have led people, managed organizations, made difficult decisions, dealt with financial responsibility and experienced both success and adversity.
Each chapter has taught me something.
More importantly, each chapter has influenced the way I approach the next one.
Experience Matters
One of the advantages of experience is that you begin to recognize patterns.
You learn that organizations go through difficult periods. Businesses change. People change. Circumstances change.
You also learn that not every decision will produce the outcome you hoped for.
Leadership is not about avoiding difficult circumstances. It is about how you respond to them.
That requires judgement, accountability and the willingness to keep moving forward.
Over time, those qualities become more important than any individual achievement.
Values Are Tested Through Experience
It is relatively easy to talk about values when everything is going well.
The real test comes when circumstances become more complicated.
Leadership, accountability, integrity, service and stewardship are not concepts that belong on a wall. They are demonstrated through decisions and behaviour, particularly when there is no easy answer.
I have always believed that reputation is built in much the same way.
It is not created by a title or a carefully written biography. It is built through years of conduct, relationships, decisions and contributions.
That takes time.
And it cannot be manufactured overnight.
Resilience Is Part of Leadership
There is another lesson that comes with experience.
Things do not always turn out as planned.
Careers change. Organizations change. Businesses are sold. Opportunities disappear. New opportunities emerge.
Sometimes a change is chosen. Sometimes it is imposed upon us.
Either way, eventually we have to decide what comes next.
I have come to see resilience less as the ability to withstand adversity and more as the ability to continue building after it.
That does not mean ignoring what happened.
It means learning from it without allowing it to determine everything that follows.
The Next Chapter
At this stage of my career, I have become increasingly interested in the idea of reinvention.
Not because the previous chapters were unsuccessful, but because experience gives us the ability to approach the next chapter with a different perspective.
We know more.
We have seen more.
We have made mistakes, learned from them and hopefully become better leaders as a result.
That experience has value.
The challenge is to use it rather than simply look back on it.
I believe that is true for organizations as well as individuals.
The past matters. It provides context. It teaches us. It helps explain how we arrived where we are.
But it does not have to determine where we go next.
Who Gets to Tell Your Story?
Perhaps the answer is that no single person gets to.
A career is too complicated for that.
It is the accumulation of thousands of decisions, relationships, successes, failures, responsibilities and experiences.
Over time, those things become the story.
The important thing is to make sure that the story continues.
To remain curious.
To remain useful.
To remain true to your values.
And when circumstances change, to have the resilience to write the next chapter.
That is something I have learned over the course of my career.
And it is something I intend to keep doing.