No Short Cuts

No Short Cuts

John Paul Derryberry

I clicked the end button and exited the one-hour national webinar I just presented. Full disclosure: 22-year-old John, who set a goal of becoming a national public speaker on emotional and mental health, would have been upset that his first national gig wasn’t on a stage but in a webinar. Yet at 43 years young, I let go of that fact rather quickly and basked in the glow of a 21-year-old goal being checked off the to-do list. It was an audacious goal all those years ago, but nothing audacious happens in life without big time goals.  My first time ever presenting with this goal in mind was in front of one professor at the then-named Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, in a basement conference room in one of the not-used-all-the-time buildings.  

The professor, Dr. Jones, gave feedback that you have something here, John, but do the work and do not take shortcuts. He presented with the wisdom of years that my charm and smile could carry me a great distance, because he stated, "You are so damn likable, but it would not carry you as far as you are attempting to go."  It’s never easy to admit that the amazing mentors in our lives are correct, but he nailed it. The path I took to that webinar led me to so many important learning sessions, which helped me answer the audience's questions.  It was a combination of a 21-year journey to understand things in depth.

I have felt, at certain times, that I had everything figured out; at other times, that I knew nothing. At certain moments, I felt like I was close to a major breakthrough, only to have the ground fall out from underneath me.  The journey was real, raw, enlightening, enthralling, disappointing, and fulfilling at so many different points along the way. A journey that had no skipped steps, Dr. Jones would have been proud. Frontline work, where I knew I was smarter than my supervisors, middle management work where my front line workers thought they were smarter than me, and upper management work where I knew exactly how to solve a problem and had no clue how to solve a problem.  I mentored folks, and had a bunch of folks mentor me. It all led to an accumulation of experience, knowledge, gumption, and I never lost that youthful audacity that it was possible.

I often think a lot of us think success should come sooner and more often. Yet Wednesday was another reminder that sometimes it arrives at the correct time. I was ready for the conversations, the questions, and the feedback. I knew I still had a long way to go, but I processed valuable information to share from all the teams I have been on and from all the years I have spent trying to achieve outcomes for people in this field. I smiled as I shut down my computer screen and walked out of the office. 21 years in this field so far, and not a single shortcut taken. But arriving at important destinations on time!