Journey of a Lifetime
By Pam Sherman | February 1, 2009
2009 is an auspicious year for the Shermans. This is the year of our 25th anniversary, our son’s bar mitzvah…and last but by no means least, the year my husband is chairing the Global Leadership Conference for Young President’s Organization an amazing international leadership organization he’s been a member of since 2002. When he told me he’d been asked by the then Chair of YPO, from Saudi Arabia to be the chair the Global Leadership Conference, the largest gathering each year in YPO, in March 2009 in Miami, I told him no way, that’s the same week as our son’s scheduled Bar Mitzvah — and that’s been scheduled since he was 9. The Chair suggested we try to change the date of the Bar Mitzvah. We didn’t know we could do this. I called the Rabbi, told him our Saudi friend had asked us to call, and asked if this was possible. The Rabbi questioned me, why did we want to change the date? When I told him it was because of the GLC for YPO, he started laughing and said, “Oh no problem, I know YPO, my brother is a member from Chicago.” And that is the power of YPO, a Saudi chairman, can request a change of date for the bar mitzvah of a young Jewish boy in Rochester, only to have the Rabbi nod in recognition because his brother is a member. I told my husband he was NOT going to do this without me…little did I know the journey I would begin. It’s been a most wild ride. With an amazing group of local YPO spouse co-chairs and the wisdom of a veteran WPO (World President’s Organization) spouse and Forum Facilitator and incredible support from the YPO Staff, we’ve planned the First-ever Spouse Summit celebrating spouses in YPO (the rare business organization that has spouses involved in all programming and in leadership roles since it’s inception in 1954 - BTW founded in our town of Rochester, New York in case you are wondering about why we are doing this at all). In addition, I’ve learned so much about myself and my leadership capacity and more important, the power of visualization. I had a vision when I started this project and I’m seeing it come to fruition because….I wrote it down….I wished for it…I made it happen with the team. That simple. This is a lesson for everyone…especially these days. Write it down…wish for it….make it happen. Totally fitting to my philosophy of having an EDGE in the best possible way…explore, dream, grow and excite — best to practice what you preach, I’ve heard, so I’m doing that. More to come on this journey of a lifetime.
Subscribe to RSS Feed
September 3rd, 2009 at 9:19 am
It is rather valuable information