Better Than What I Planned
What a Linocut Tool, a Dance Class, and a Lumpia Stand Taught Me About Leadership
I spent 23 years at one company, Adobe, before I ever tested what I could build on my own. Both halves shaped what I now believe about creativity and about leading people, and it started somewhere nobody would call strategic: a career break with no plan attached to it.
Retire the Belief
Leaving the first and only company I’d worked for since college, I knew I needed time to reset, and for me that meant turning to art and creativity. I picked up a linocut carving tool with no idea what I was doing.
None of it was about getting good. It was about proving to myself that “I’m not creative” and “I can’t dance” were beliefs, not facts, and beliefs can be retired.
Make Before You Have a Strategy
In linocut, you cut a line, and it is gone from the block for good. The plan I started with was a single stem of lavender, minimalist and elegant. My finished carving and resulting print looked like a goddess. Better than what I planned.
What are you trying to land?
Make It Land takes on one or two engagements at a time.