I almost didn’t go.
I told myself it was preparation — that I needed more time to get ready for my keynote. But if I’m honest, I was shrinking back. Avoiding something uncomfortable.
The invitation was from BYU’s Executive MBA program — a Learning Adventure designed to help their leaders practice navigating the Launch Point. Outside, in the dirt and on the cliffs of Moab, doing things most of them had never done before.
That was the point.
They had asked me to come speak about change. And here I was, almost saying no to the very experience I’d be standing up to describe later that day.
So I went.
And then I found myself at the top of a 115-foot cliff, with only one way down. Rappel.
I was afraid. I was uncomfortable. But even as I was jumping off a cliff, mountain biking for only the second time, and rafting the Colorado River, I almost always felt safe.
Because there were people at every point along the way — top, bottom, and alongside — making it possible for me to attempt something I couldn’t and wouldn’t have attempted alone.
Not the absence of fear. The presence of people who help you move through it.
And then something else hit me. By showing up — afraid, feeling unprepared, going anyway — I was doing for the people I’d be speaking to exactly what those guides were doing for me.
I didn’t need a perfect keynote. I needed to be willing to be on the cliff with them.
When you’re creating the conditions for others to grow, your own willingness to grow speaks loudest.
Here’s what I’ve been thinking about since:
Who is making it possible for you to take a risk right now? Who’s at the top, the bottom, alongside you — creating the safety that lets real growth happen?
And just as important — for whom are you doing that?
P.S. This is a picture of Audrey McKeon (who it was a delight to have come along) and me.
