Ordinary People Taking Action

Guest Post By: Jenna Powers
​Director, HR at Amazon 

What would you do if you knew you would fail?

You read that right. What would you do if you knew you would fail?

This past weekend was the 22nd running of the Barkley Marathons, a 100 mile race in northeastern Tennessee that likely first reached those outside the ultra running world with the documentaries Where Dreams Go to Die and The Race That Eats Its Young. I won’t detail all the race quirks in this post (you can read more about it here); the most important thing to know is that this race is hard. Far more difficult than a standard 100 mile race, of which there are dozens in the US and globally every year. In 22 years, the Barkley has been completed just 18 times. Given the number of entrants each year (a process which is tightly controlled; the race is extremely difficult to get into), that means there is a 2.5% finishing rate. That means some years there are no finishers.

2018 was one of those years.

​Every Mother’s Day, my family asks for hints before they head out to shop for a gift. Last May, I let them know I wanted something a little different –  a lemon tree. Why a lemon tree? Well, for starters, I am a huge lemon fan. Lemon blueberry cake is a top request on my birthday, and when I am in the mood for a sweeter drink, a lemon drop is my first choice. Lemonade on a summer day is a slice of heaven. Then there is lemon juice squeezed over a salad or piece of fish – delicious. Just the smell of lemon trees makes me happy. So, it was settled –  I would ask for a lemon tree.

When I reflect on the impact of my network of friends and colleagues, I see an amazing tangle of connections that has led to outcomes no one could ever predict. Take my friend, Tony, for example. Tony and I met in junior high and attended high school and college together. I am not sure we saw each other as friends at the time, although we had overlapping friendships. It’s not that we didn’t like each other – we just never really knew each other.

Several years later, a post I made on Facebook motivated Tony to submit his resume for a job. Through our connection, he was invited for an interview and today, over seven years later, Tony is still with that same company. For the longest time, people who met Tony and I at work thought we were great, life-long friends. Although that wasn’t the case, it would be accurate to say that through the years, we became friends.

Amy is my neighbor and I reached out to her over eight years ago to build me a website. I then referred her to my friend Kathy, whose website she also built. Several years later, I hired Amy again for support with an internal website at a non-profit I worked for. And, most recently, I hired Amy to design and build my current website. Through the years, people have assumed because we are neighbors and have worked together several times that we are great friends. And, as with Tony, I would say that through working together, we have become friends.

The world is an interesting place when it comes to people we know – and don’t know – and kind of know.