legal sanity

Executive coach Doug Sundheim has written a great post for FC Now on the Gift of Risk. In it, he relates how his coaching work has lead him to conclude that people feel “most alive” at times when they’ve “pushed themselves out of their comfort zone” and taken risks. And he’s found this to be the case regardless of the outcome of the risk-taking opportunities. Based on his conclusion, he offers this bit of wisdom: “The gift of risk-taking doesn't lie in what you achieve by risking - it lies in who you become as a result of the process. Confident. Engaged. Alive.”

Sundheim’s obeservations very much resonate for me. A couple of days ago, my vacation travels took me back to my college alma mater, the University of Michigan. When I left home for UM, it was a big leap outside the comfort zone I experienced as a sheltered suburban New York kid. But, the next four years proved to be some of the most engaging and energizing of my life. Walking the campus this week, I reconnected with the feelings of freedom, growth, learning, fun and higher purpose that I so often felt during college. Although I went to UM in the year 5 BCCE (Before Computers, Cell Phones and Emails), it seemed like I’d never left; that no time had passed since I was a student there.

Those of you who went to UM will appreciate my journey up and down South University, through the diag (stepped on the block M), to the graduate library reading room, up to the Michigan League, Bell Tower, Rackham’s grand reading room, down to State Street passing by Angel Hall, into the Michigan Union, to the Law School Quad, then to Ulrich’s. Of course, I went to the Big House and, even though it was empty, I could feel the palpable energy of 110,000 enthusiastic fans on football Saturday. I ventured to North Campus and to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library. Afterwards, I had a great dinner at Zingerman’s. The next morning, I took in Angelo’s for breakfast and then went to the incomparable arb for an amazing one-hour walk to the river, prairie, woods, open spaces and beyond.

By embracing that first opportunity UM afforded me to move outside my zone of safety, I opened myself to the many business and personal ventures that have since taught me to appreciate the gift of risk.