If you’ve ever driven Interstate 95 between Fort Lauderdale and Miami during rush hour, you know it can test your patience. Years ago, I made that drive regularly from my condo west of Fort Lauderdale to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami. I was a young pharmaceutical sales representative for Upjohn, determined to become the best I could be. Unfortunately, the thousands of other drivers on I-95 didn’t seem all that interested in helping me get there.

Fortunately, I had a cassette player, a stack of tapes and plenty of time to listen. Remember cassette tapes? You had to rewind them, turn them over and occasionally rescue them when the machine decided to eat one. Not exactly high tech, but those tapes ended up shaping my whole career.

Upjohn encouraged personal development and even provided a budget for educational programs. I loved that. Here was a company willing to invest in helping me grow, and I wasn’t about to let that go to waste.

One gentleman became a regular passenger in my car, although he never knew it. His name was Brian Tracy, and his program The Psychology of Selling became a favorite.

One of Brian’s lessons has stayed with me throughout my career. It was about two fears that hold people back: fear of failure and fear of rejection. He used the example of learning to ride a bicycle. If you’re so afraid of falling that you never get on, how will you ever learn to ride?

He also taught that rejection isn’t personal. It’s part of selling, and the more you face it, the less power it has over you. My husband has his own theory about that. He claims he developed a pretty thick skin asking girls out when he was younger. Apparently, he had plenty of opportunities to practice. Thankfully, all that experience paid off when he finally worked up the courage to ask me out. But that’s another story.

Brian’s lesson made a real impression on me. I didn’t want to fail, and I certainly didn’t enjoy hearing no. Who does? But I started to realize that being afraid of messing up was holding me back a lot more than actually messing up ever did.

So I started trying things. I’d change how I opened a presentation, ask a resident a different question or approach a difficult conversation with more confidence.

Not everything worked. Some ideas sounded a whole lot better coming out of my car speakers than they did coming out of my mouth! But when something worked, I’d leave the hospital feeling pretty good about myself. Even when it didn’t, I was learning. And here’s the funny part. The more I tried, the more confident I got. I’d always assumed it worked the other way around.

Those lessons, along with wonderful managers, colleagues and plenty of experience, helped me become an award-winning sales representative and eventually an executive leading large teams. I also discovered that helping someone else find the courage to try something new could be even more rewarding than my own success. That’s a big part of what separates WOW leaders from DUD bosses.

Years later, after writing my first leadership book, Tune In to WOW Leadership, something happened that I never could have imagined sitting in that Miami traffic.

Brian Tracy endorsed my book!

“Tune In to WOW Leadership is a unique and fun way to learn about how to become the ‘WOW’ leader of your own career and life.”
— Brian Tracy, author of How the Best Leaders Lead

Here was a man whose voice had accompanied me through countless miles of South Florida traffic. His lessons had helped build my confidence when I was just starting out, and now he was putting his name behind my ideas about leadership. I can’t begin to tell you how much that meant to me. I wish I could have told that young woman on I-95 what was coming. I’m pretty sure she would have laughed and asked what I’d been listening to.

Today, we have more information available than I ever imagined while rewinding cassette tapes. Podcasts, books, conferences and videos can teach us just about anything. But one thing hasn’t changed. Listening isn’t the same as learning, and learning isn’t the same as doing.

You can read every leadership book and attend every conference, but if you walk into work tomorrow and lead your people exactly as you did yesterday, what have you really gained? WOW leaders put what they learn into practice. They’re willing to make mistakes, face rejection, try again and encourage others to do the same.

Was I scared sometimes? Absolutely. But every time I tried, I got a little braver.

And sometimes, years later, the person who helped teach you that lesson ends up endorsing your book. Now that’s a WOW moment!

So here’s my question for you. What’s one thing you’ve picked up from a book, a podcast or a conference that you still haven’t tried? Go try it this week. Then tell me how it went. I’d love to hear!

Want more on becoming a WOW leader? Check out Tune In to WOW Leadership. And stay tuned. I’ve got something new in the works, and I can’t wait to share it with you!