When a wordsmith like me is tasked with giving a thank you speech to my peers and community that is distilled down to three words, it becomes a special kind of challenge. Just look at my notes app to see the various brilliant iterations I came up with…
Thank you all.
Thanks Quad Cities.
Feeling pretty great.
All true. But also lack the depth of how I feel about being honored as a Forty Under 40 recipient. Sure, I am thankful, and I feel pretty great. I’m also overwhelmed by what the recognition means – that the work I’ve been striving to do in our community is worth a little box with my picture on the business journal’s cover. Can the work we do in our careers be summarized in a box any better than our gratitude be summed up in three words? Probably not, but no one has the time or patience for 40 speeches…
And so I share my gratitude here to the countless people, projects, and passions that have brought me to today. I can’t possibly list them all, but they share a common theme – giving back. “Growing up” as a leader here in the Quad Cities, if I have learned nothing else, it is that as leaders we are charged with giving back. Whenever I have needed help in this community, I have found a leader willing to help.
When I first started in my career, I was a civil servant with the state of Illinois’ ISACorps program. It was my job to help first-generation college students navigate the college-going process. As a first-of-its-kind program, no one knew anything about it. I was a new college graduate and had no network in the Quad Cities. Despite my lack of experience and social capital, the leaders in our community welcomed me. I was able to meet with CEOs, superintendents, community organizers, teachers, guidance counselors, and students across the Quad Cities, even though I was 22 years old and relatively clueless! My peers across the state in other communities were not finding as much success securing meetings; what this tells me is that the Quad Cities celebrates and opens the doors for conversations in ways other communities may not. What’s more, the Quad Cities celebrates young people, which is why we are all gathered here tonight.
Through my experience right out of college and so many times since, I’ve learned: leaders do not sit at their desks to lead; they are walking the walk inside their workplaces and across our community, willing to listen and help.
It’s why we as a community rallied around the cause of mentorship when Lead(h)er was born in 2016.
It’s why we raised money tonight for United Way, so all Quad Citizens can live a life with dignity and equal access to education, income, and health.
It’s the reason we say yes when a teammate says, “Got a minute?” and asks for our help or advice or just a listening ear.
There are many definitions of leadership out there, but the one I strive to live by is in this spirit of giving back, and from what I know about the honorees on this list, it’s their mission, too.
I keep a box of leadership quote cards on my desk. When I am stumped or feeling a bit lost, I’ll shuffle through the deck to re-focus myself. I did it just now, and here’s what I found:
“Great opportunities to help others seldom come, but small ones surround us every day.” – Sally Koch
I believe the Forty Under 40 honor is a reminder to pay it forward for those who have helped me navigate my career here in this community. Indeed, small opportunities surround us every day to give back.
Thanks, Quad Cities.
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