From the time I was a child, I chose growth over conformity. While others gave in to peer pressure, I focused on developing my potential. It wasn’t always easy, I lost so many friends along the way, but school gave me a measure of assurance: the harder I worked, the more the results spoke for themselves.
When I entered the world of work, that clarity faded. Very quickly, I discovered that talent and integrity often attract not support, but resistance. Colleagues fabricated lies. Competitors spread rumors. Some feared I would threaten their positions; others simply couldn’t accept that leadership was about service, not entitlement.
The same patterns followed me into leadership roles in private sector organizations. Instead of working to serve the community they represented, some individuals invested their energy in lies, schemes, and deception. These weren’t small misunderstandings, they were some of the nastiest falsehoods you could imagine.
Through all of this, I made a choice: never to retaliate in kind. To respond to lies with lies would make me no better than those spreading them. Instead, I focused my time and energy on what I could control, building myself, my teams and my organizations.
Let me pause here to speak directly to three groups of people.
To those guilty of such behavior: I know who you are. I also know that karma has its way of bringing balance, as it always does.
To those who believed the lies without verification and acted in ways that harmed me: I wish you and your offspring better ethics, so you never have to face the same painful experiences you helped create.
And to those on the receiving end of similar attacks: remember this, people don’t criticize what has no value. They criticize out of fear. Fear of being replaced. Fear of being outshined. Fear of losing comfort in a broken system.
So my encouragement to you is this:
Focus on what you can control.
Protect your integrity, no matter the cost.
Keep moving forward, because your potential matters.
The world doesn’t need more brokenness. It needs the best version of you.
Share this lesson as encouragement to those who need it now.