We Can All Be Leaders

Susan was recently asked to speak to a group of women of all ages about Leadership at the Frances Willard Weekend. Here is what she had to say.

When we were asked to speak today I quickly agreed because I had read about Francis and thought she was a creative and effective leader.  When I was asked to speak as a leader myself I was much more reluctant because I have never considered myself a leader.  But as I learned more about Francis I learned that in fact I was a leader, just a different kind of leader. I realized that life is like a race with a great deal of hurdles, some twists and turns and some long stretches that can feel good or harness pain. Some of us lead in the front of the race and some of us lead by pulling up the rear but I have learned that all the leaders participating in the race are doing one thing.  They are using the gifts they were given to run the race the very best way they can!

My race began when I was at 8 years old selling eggs door to door with my Mom after our Dad died, to waitressing full time at 13, opening my own food service company at 25 with two partners that I loved and then going to college at 48 years old after the loss of one of my business partners, and now here celebrating more than two years as founder of Curts Café.  A race I couldn’t have mapped out early in life, one that had many hurdles and twists and turns but one that always required me to be myself, do the best I could, and enjoy the race I was on.

Many think of me as a leader in my race, and I am very honored by that, but I am just doing what I have spent my lifetime training for.  I took a leap of faith, and perhaps was pushed a little by the voices of very desperate young adults that needed help and didn’t know who to turn to, by opening a Café, one that few thought would work and even more thought it wasn’t worth the effort.  I had good business sense and a big heart but I was shy and preferred to be in the background – I have recently learned its called leading from the rear!  It was a bold step for me but honestly I was supported all along the route – just as Francis was – by a strong determined Mother who allowed me, as Mrs. Willard told Francis to “grow as a tree grows, naturally and unhindered” so that we could become the best “us”. 

My Mom, like Francis’s Mom, did not do anything to make social change, did not open a non-profit or start a women’s movement, or even run a committee meeting for that matter.  She was not an athlete or a politician, her gift and form of leadership was to be a Mother and she demonstrated that and did an amazing job sharing it.  In my eyes our Mothers are one of the best kind of leaders.  They lit flames under Francis and under me and they stoked the fire of our spirits and our possibilities, as Francis said “allowing her to simply be herself”.

You see, I believe we are all leaders – or we all have the capacity to be.  It will look, feel and be recognized in different ways but if we do as Francis showed us, if we are true to ourselves and the gifts we hold we will all be leaders in our own special ways.  I know so many women that are leaders by participating in PTA meetings or cheering their children on at sporting events, and I know women who run multimillion dollar companies and powerful non-profits – all of them are leaders in their own way, doing the best they can, using and sharing their unique gifts. 

In a wonderful book that Francis wrote in 1878 called “How To Win: A Book For Girls: she wrote, “We are human spirit lamps, whose rays should be directed and intensified by the blow pipe of an unceasing purpose.” 

So I challenge you to find your gift and purpose, hold it in your hand and see where the light will lead you.  Be an amazing mother, a special friend, a cherished child, or be an Olympic runner, a business owner, or a social activist. If you do that one simple thing you were meant to do you will be a leader of your own destiny and a leader in our community – and you and all of us will benefit from the light from your human spirit lamp. 

Also in that book Francis said – which I believe is more timely now than ever:

“I was a daring sort of girl; you are the sort of girls who dare, I had aspirations; you have opportunity."                 

I hope you take time to find your opportunity and personal gift and dare to unwrap it and share it with all of us.  I’ll be cheering you on and will meet you at the finish line.