I attended the PEER 1 Leadership Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona this past week. We stayed at the 5 star resort, Fairmont Princess. It was quite a treat and I am so appreciative to work for a company that invests in their employees the way PEER 1 does. Over the course of 2 days, we had time to reflect and engage in discussions with team members regarding leadership.
Tuesday evening we had a chili cook off contest by the pool and that was exciting! Tuesday evening was also the Presidential Election. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand because we were all thinking about who was going to be our next President. All of us, including our Canadian colleagues, were so engaged and anxious. It was the first time some of our Canadian colleagues actually wanted to be an American. They wanted to be able to vote in one of the most important elections in history yet. When the numbers presented themselves and Obama won, we cheered. I couldn’t believe it! I had to go back to my hotel room to watch the speech because I wanted to be fully focused on what Obama was going to say. Seeing him and his family come out was so beautiful and his speech was more than what I was expecting, it was moving. To see all the people gathered in Grant Park, all the people march in front of the White House, all the parties held across the world made me feel so proud to be an American. I actually felt, for the first time in years, that we could be a united country. We do have people that care and share the same passion. We just needed someone to lead the way.
I watched the news until I fell asleep. The next morning, I woke up to the New York Times paper at my hotel room door. Front cover story was Obama’s Presidential Election win. I am keeping this paper forever! In conjunction on what I was able to learn from our leadership conference, I actually learned a great deal on leadership from Obama’s win. Obama has taught us that if you have a goal or a dream in life, you can obtain it even if it is against all odds. Excuses are not acceptable. He has also taught us that you can’t do it alone and need the support of others.
I will never forget this day. What I was doing and where I was will remain in my memory forever. I was able to hear stories from my grandparents about World War II, the Great Depression, JFK and MLK and now I will have a story to tell my children and grandchildren. A beautiful story on one of the most historic events in US history.