“Hope is not a strategy.”

I need to apologize. Several years ago, I heard an executive say, “Hope is not a strategy.” I thought it was brilliant leadership, so I began using it too. I’ve been using it for almost a decade now. But I’ve been thinking about hope a lot lately and that phrase no longer sits with me the way it once did. I remember when I was trying to leap from non-profit to corporate. Companies didn’t want to take a chance on someone without “real business experience.” Hiring managers in Seattle felt it too risky to hire me since I hadn’t lived through a Pacific Northwest winter. But I kept believing. Kept hoping. Eventually someone took a chance on me. And then another person did. And another. And here I am today, coaching leaders at one of the largest companies in the world. Time and again, at work and in my personal life, my belief that something was possible; that I could defy the odds placed before me by recruiters, doctors, and friends, kept me going and landed me where I am now. Like others have done, I refused to accept what I was told was possible for me; refused the small dreams and lives I was sold... And so, I’m sorry. Hope alone may not be a strategy, but it is the foundation of every good vision that has ever come to life. Keep believing in your dreams. Do the things they say you can’t. Hope.