THE POWER OF FIRSTS:
Celebrating Your First Unexpected Win
August always reminds me of the first day of school, so this month’s four weekly blogs will all highlight a “first!”
Life has a funny way of handing us victories wrapped in circumstances we never would have chosen.
When I was growing up, I wasn’t the athlete bringing home trophies. I wasn’t starring in school plays or marching in the band.
I looked for my wins elsewhere.
Art and design became my happy place.
I took every art class my high school offered and, in the early 1970s, became the first female invited to enroll in our school’s Drafting program. For two years, I was the only girl in a classroom filled with about a dozen boys, learning the technical art of architectural and mechanical drafting.
I loved every minute of it.
Then, just before my junior year, everything changed.
During summer break, someone decided it would be entertaining to hot-wire one of the massive bulldozers parked on campus for a construction project. Unfortunately, the joyride ended when the bulldozer plowed directly into our school.
The principal’s office was destroyed.
The library was gone.
Bathrooms, classrooms, and most of the Art Wing were heavily damaged.
For an already overcrowded high school, it created complete chaos.
To make room while the damaged wing was being rebuilt, the school adopted a split schedule. Juniors and seniors attended from 6am until noon, while freshmen and sophomores came in the afternoon.
There was only one problem.
I’ve never been a morning person.
Even today, my brain doesn’t fully wake up until after 10am!
Needless to say, I wasn’t exactly thrilled about my new schedule.
But hidden inside that disruption was an opportunity I never saw coming.
Because I had already earned enough credits, the school offered qualified students the chance to graduate after their junior year—as long as they enrolled immediately in college.
Badda-bing, badda-boom. DONE.
I didn’t hesitate.
Instead of spending another year in high school, I became one of the first students from my school to graduate early and head directly to a four-year university.
At the time, it simply felt like a practical decision. I wanted to sleep a bit more in the mornings!
Looking back, I realize it was my first unexpected win.
It taught me a lesson I’ve carried throughout my life and business.
Sometimes the greatest opportunities don’t arrive wearing a ribbon.
Sometimes they arrive behind a bulldozer.
As authors, entrepreneurs, and leaders, we often spend so much time wishing circumstances were different that we miss the possibilities those circumstances create.
I’ve watched authors turn job losses into books that launched new businesses.
Health challenges become messages of hope.
Personal heartbreak becomes a story that helps others heal.
Unexpected detours become entirely new careers.
Very few of us would choose the obstacle.
But many of us would gladly choose what came because of it.
As I think about the “first wins” in my life, graduating early wasn’t the real victory.
Learning to recognize opportunity in the middle of disruption was.
And that lesson has served me far longer than an extra year of hanging out for a diploma ever could.
So, here’s my question for you…
What’s one challenge in your life that eventually became one of your greatest wins?
Sometimes, the story you’re living today becomes the very message someone else needs to survive tomorrow.
