03/25/2026
There’s a version of this week where I’m at the Transform conference, present, engaged, building on conversations that matter to me.
And then there’s the version that actually happened. I missed my flight.
What followed was a cascade of missed meetings, lost time, and opportunities that moved on without me physically in the room.
I wrote about the experience in Business Insider because it’s easy to reduce moments like this to inconvenience, but that felt incomplete.
This experience revealed how quickly the systems we rely on—timelines, access, expectations—can shift. And in those moments, a different kind of leadership question emerges:
Who are you when your plans don’t work out?
I had every intention of being there. I was prepared, aligned, and ready to contribute and still, I wasn’t in the room. But leadership, as I continue to study and practice it, has never been about perfect the arrival. It’s about continuity. It’s about staying anchored in your purpose, even when the path changes.
The work didn’t disappear because I missed a flight.
The thinking didn’t stop because I wasn’t on site.
The vision didn’t narrow because I had to reroute.
If anything, the experience sharpened my resolve around something I’ve been exploring:
Who we are as leaders is revealed through our ability to adapt.
So no, I wasn’t there in person, but I am still very much in the conversation.
If you’re curious about what happened, and what it revealed, you can read the full story here:
The TSA line at the Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta was five hours long. I didn't make my flight, but my luggage went to my work conference.