In November 2004, violent anti-French rampages took place in my native country, Côte d’Ivoire. Businesses and private homes were ransacked, and eight thousand foreigners, mostly French, evacuated the country.

I didn’t know what to believe, and with hypothermia setting in, I didn’t know if I could make it. The water was 48°F and I had been in it for thirty minutes.

As the London Shine Project champion during 2003/04, I taught English and Math to students in disadvantaged schools.

This past summer, the VP and the only other associate on my team left Summit. The associate, my mentor, had been instrumental in helping me build financial and sales abilities in sourcing new opportunities.

During a course field visit to Benin, I toured a hospital where doctors substituted plastic baggies for sterile latex gloves.

I dreaded Mondays during the winter of 2004–2005. I dealt with problems: we ran into the wrong silo, ruining 150,000 pounds of material (a $75,000 mistake), Line 4’s motor blew, and the 1600 jammed.

In my senior year of college, I was selected from a pool of more than fifty applicants to serve as one of ten student directors for the Big Siblings Program.

R. J. O’Leary, a retired Marine and three-war veteran who mentored my father, presented the offer: “Son, how ’bout I find you a real job next summer.”

A great leader aspires to do more than simply accomplish her objective.