Episode 94: 5 Lessons from Learning to Ride a Unicycle with Bertrhude Albert
In this episode, Alisha is sharing her conversation with Bertrhude Albert on failing forward and 5 leadership lessons that came with learning to ride a unicycle during the pandemic.
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Episode 94 Notes:
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A daughter of Haiti
Immigrated her for education
After graduating wanting to give life to her country
Works full time for a non-profit that she co-founded for P4H Global
Improving the quality of education in Haiti
One vision: We will see Haiti rise when we see the education system reformed.
Starting a non-profit is not for the faint of heart
Failure is an important part of success and leadership that we don’t talk about and embrace enough
Through failure we see the beginnings of success.
Great leaders aren’t afraid to say I completely screwed that up.
Show your work of waking up
The failure shows that you want to walk with me
UnicycleA beautiful thick black girl on a unicycle
Didn’t realize how much I would fall, how much I would fail and how much it would hurt learning to ride a unicycle
Lessons
1) We’ve got to let go of the wall, if you keep holding onto them they will cripple us
2) You will fail, falling and falling is part of the success, but you must fall forward. If you fall backwards you loss control you might break a bone. Falling forward is controlling your failures. It’s reflecting on them and learning something from them.
3) Goals: Goals give meaning to everything you do! The thing pushing us forward is our goal. Even though you fail but you reach the goal. When you reach the goal, you can celebrate the failures because they got you to the goal. You’ll probably fail at the goals but they can change
4) Scares that proof that you’re stronger than what came at you. The scares tell a story and they say they are stronger than what came at us. The scare shows that I’m resilient, that I survived and that I’m strong.
5) Nobody can find your center of balance for you. Nothing compares to me sitting on the bike and finding my own center of balance. You have to make decisions that sit with you in your own heart. Nobody can talk you in or out of things it’s you’re journey, your life. Your failures are your own.
You need people in your corner, but you can’t rely on other people’s approval.
I want my life to contribute to the rising of my nation.
Often times we’re encouraged not to do things outside the box. Because people are afraid of failure. We are taught that we should run away from failure and pain.
Pain is a signal to stay away, Failure means stay away
But we overload and see pain and failure and try to stay away and go to maximum comfort. But we can’t reach self-actualization if we don’t try and fail.
It’s not the falling or the failing that causes that much pain, it’s the aversion and resistance of failing that causes a lot of pain.
You have to go through it, you have to keep going and keep trying.
When you keep going, what pushed you on? An internal knowing that I was doing the work I was put on this earth to do. There was a missing piece in my life. I had to learn to lean into faith.
Leadership, empowerment, failing, we don’t achieve what we want to achieve because we don’t go through it. You have to feel it, embrace it, learn from it, be better because of it.
When you know you’re operating in the fullness of your gifts
Bertrhude turned 30 this month. She decided she wanted to learn 12 things this year. Juggling, unicycling, photography. Learning to drive stick shift
Visiting 30 countries by 30. Visiting 100 countries.
You don’t learn from experiences, you learn from reflecting on experiences.
When you’re talking with teaching adults, you can’t do that without recognizing that they have a wealth of experience that you need.
Even if there trauma with failure, recognizing the distinct role that failing and failing has in our success.