In Chapter 4 of 16 in her 2011 Capture Your Flag interview, non-profit founder and executive Courtney Spence answers "How are You Learning to Make Your Work More Meaningful and Lasting?" She makes it a priority to enjoy the process and the journey of her organization's impact and story. Spence is founder and executive director of Students of the World a non-profit that partners with passionate college students to create new media to highlight global issues and the organizations working to address them. Spence graduated with a BA in History from Duke University.
Transcript:
Erik Michielsen : How are you learning to make your work more meaningful and lasting?
Courtney Spence: I think it’s really important to enjoy the process. I think, for a while, there it was so much about we haven’t met these goals. Where are we? I was so disappointed in not being where I wanted to be. And when you sort of – I had to let that go this last year because we were giving it one last shot, and it was, you know, making some crazy decisions, and, you know, making some risky decisions, and it started slowly, it’s starting to pay off, but what I realized is I had a great team. I mean the women that I work with, I love, and we laughed more, and we have more fun than I’ve had in the long time, so I have really, really enjoyed the process because that’s all we have. We have the journey, the destination is not guaranteed, and when you get there, it doesn’t look like you thought it would look, and then there’s another place you gotta go. So if you don’t enjoy the journey, you’re not gonna enjoy your life, and the work that you do won’t be as impactful as it could be.