The Road to Self-Renewal

When I was an anxious graduate student, the faculty all had their offices in a dedicated building.  You didn't just drop by.  You set up an appointment so you could be anxious about it the whole day.  On my advisor's floor, there was an older gentleman at the end of the hall.  I greeted him the 2-3 times I saw him.  Always very well-dressed and dignified.  One time I walked down to check the name on his door:  "John W. Gardner."  I didn't recognize it. 

At the time I had no idea the impact this man had had on the world.  I wouldn't know it for six more years.

Six years later it was April 1994 and I was an Assistant Professor who was feeling blue because I had just been unexpectedly turned down for tenure.  Within a week of this happening, I picked up my mail and I found an alumni magazine.  While flipping through it, an article with the title "The Road to Self-renewal" caught my attention.  So did the name of the writer: "John W. Gardner."

Having just gotten turned down for tenure, I was at a cross-roads.  This article resonated with me so strongly, I must have reread it 12 times in the first week the magazine arrived.  In the 30+ years since I must have read it 50 times more.

While sorting some files last night, I ran across across an underlined and marked-up version of it from long ago.  I thought some of you might find it as wise as I found it. 

The Road to Self-renewal - John W. Gardner.pdf
File Size:	365 kb
File Type:	pdf

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https://gsb-courses.stanford.edu/building-innovative-brands/wp-content/uploads/sites/25/2022/04/johngardner-roadtoself-renewal2.pdf