Against All Odds: Lessons from a leader who never gave up!

I watched an interview this week of Sonia Maria Sotomayor, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Talk about a hard job to land. Whether you agree with her leadership, we can all learn from here example.

It’s not where you start, it’s where you end up:
She was born in the Bronx and grew up with an alcoholic father who died when she was nine. That wasn’t easy but she never let it to limit her thinking. When she went to Princeton University there were few women students and even fewer Latinos—about twenty. According to Wikipedia, she said that being at Princeton (in the beginning) was like being "a visitor landing in an alien country." She didn’t start out at the front of the line when it came to pedigree, money or connections.

Strong beginnings don’t always have strong endings and just because we start out from behind doesn’t mean we can’t end up in a winning place.

It pays to be stubborn:

Justice Sotomayor was asked about her scholarships to both Princeton University and Yale Law School in relation to Affirmative Action. She encountered prejudice and rejection from some people who wondered why she was chosen for endowments while those with higher academic achievements were passed over. When asked how she managed to handle criticism, disappointment and rejection along the way,  she smiled and said,  “I’m probably the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

Being stubborn can keep us in the game when others are trying to throw us out.

Alan Allard