I still remember the day I walked into my eighth grade agricultural class to discuss a speech topic with my ag advisor. I had never successfully given a speech in my life. I received the opportunity to try the Discovery Speaking contest through FFA. I told him that I wanted to give a speech, but I didn't know what to talk about. He replied with conviction, "You should talk about cattle because they're your passion." It dawned on me that cattle are, in fact, my passion. I don't really recall what else I talked about in that speech. 

I do remember the encouragement from my advisor, and this seemingly inconsequential experience started my love for leadership. Deciding to give a speech was my first move as a leader; I was doing something to get out of my comfort zone and make a difference.

Since then, I have thought about leadership often, and my interest in the subject has grown. Now, I have developed a leadership philosophy that I would like to share. I'm a strong believer that every individual has a different perspective on leadership, but here is mine:

Leadership is a full-time job
This is a sentiment that I first heard from my ag advisor. It is one of his signature phrases that was instilled in my mind. I find it to be so true. I believe leadership begins from within. I need to know who I am before leading others, and I need to feed myself before pouring into others. Knowing that leadership is a full-time job helps me in my daily life. I often ask myself, "Is this something a leader would do?" I live as a leader in all areas of my life, but I know that I make mistakes. A strong leader works to correct those mistakes and learn. 

Compassion
Compassion is one of my values, and I lead with compassion as well. I want to accept all people. I want people to know how valued they are. Making others feel loved is accepting them without knowing who they are. Making others feel valued is knowing who they are and seeing their worth. I want to lead with empathy and kindness. When I walk into a room, every stranger is simply a friend that I haven't met yet. 

Transparency 
A value that I have gained throughout my experience as a state officer, transparency has become very important to me. Transparency is what happens when trust and honesty are put together. I will be transparent with the people in my life; I strive to live genuinely and authentically. I know when I am being inauthentic, and I make an effort to correct that. Living with transparency helps to avoid conflict and build relationships within a group.

Work Ethic
All the positive things I have received in my life have come from my own hard work. I work hard (and with grit) to achieve my goals and earn success. I'm a fan of the concept of servant leadership. I don't want to supervise; I want to do the work, too. I would not ask my followers to do something I wouldn't do myself. I have also learned recently that it's good to know when to get out of the way. As much as we all want to be hands-on and do the work, we can't always do that. Sometimes there is someone in the group whose talents will accomplish the task better than mine. Know when to let others take the lead. 

These four ideas are what I center my vision of leadership around. I also believe that leadership grows fluidly and constantly. Tomorrow, my perception may change. Ten years from now, I will have a different philosophy. But, this is good, I will grow as a leader. 

I stated earlier that I had never successfully given a speech in my life. I think I once earned a red ribbon in a 4-H speaking contest, and I steered away from public speaking. Taking the chance to speak again in eighth grade was my first step towards leadership. Without taking that growth opportunity, I wouldn't be the public speaker that I am today. I wouldn't have become the leader that I am. I got out of my comfort zone, and I will find other opportunities to do the same. 

Time is the most valuable resource we have as people.  How we spend our time now will determine what we do for the next fifty years of our lives.  Since I am, by nature, an activator, one thing that I seem to experience is a lack of time.  Over the past two summers I have spent many nights wondering what I was truly doing with my time. Then I read a book that would change my life forever:  Essentialism. This book made me prioritize my life in a way I had never done before.  I started looking at simple things that I did every day that were non-essential and cutting them out.  I started to take control of my life again.  When we see our time as valuable, we start doing valuable things with our time.  I found myself doing more meaningful things.  For example, instead of watching Netflix, I went for a run. Instead of listening to music on my ride home every day, I started listing to podcasts.

One of my favorite quotes in the whole book is, “If you don’t take control of your time, someone else will.”  I think one thing that is very important for entrepreneurs to know is this:  just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should do something.  For example, just because you can be in five different clubs on campus doesn’t mean you should be in five clubs on campus.  Protecting my time has been one of the most powerful lessons I have learned by being in the Engler Entrepreneurship program.  I would challenge everyone who reads this to do one simple thing:  invest in something that you believe in and something that lasts much longer than the four years you’re in school.  Build a network of mentors and professionals, then build fast, build forward, and build cheap. 

You’ll have to forgive me for adding another one to the pile, but the point of how invaluable internships are cannot go missed. I was in Washington, D.C. for ten weeks this summer with the National Corn Growers Association, and the first three weeks were a major adjustment. I didn’t express that sentiment in my first two blog posts—I’ve always been outgoing, curious, and adaptable; overall, these feelings were a first. 

Despite the unease of acclimating myself to D.C., the culture, transportation, verbiage, and even the swampy weather, I knew with confidence that this internship was something I wanted, and needed. Following dreams of being an artist and a fashion designer (circa 2001), working in public policy in the agriculture industry has long been an interest of mine. I interned with a risk management firm last summer, and can’t say enough good things about my experience with the firm and the producers we worked for—I received invaluable mentorship that summer and learned more about risk, hedging tools, and relationships than the classroom could ever teach me. However, I still had a yearning for policy work. I knew that if I didn’t get policy experience under my belt I would be holding myself back, and letting myself down. Lucky for me, I had another summer left before graduation (December 2017) to pursue policy. Some may find my sentiment exaggerated, and sure, I could jump into a full-time position in public policy when I graduate and figure it out then, but an internship first provides a few advantages.

Internships are a low risk, high reward environment. You are able to immerse yourself into a company, their culture, and daily operations, without a long-term commitment. Eight to twelve weeks, that’s your only obligation. While that is a simplified notion and there are many more pieces to an internship, such as proving that you are an asset to a team, you can use it as a time to explore if the company and the field is right for you. If not, no harm, no foul. You can follow through on your commitment and leave on strong terms, whereas if you jumped into a job straight out of college that wasn’t the right fit, leaving may be a little more awkward, and you may be faced with thoughts of unease and uncertainty, between fight or flight.

Secondly, you are getting paid to learn. For most new positions, it takes time to operate in autonomy with confidence. In my experience from the two internships I have held during undergrad, I didn’t feel like things truly “clicked” until my last 2-3 weeks. The majority of the summer is an exciting, fun, and yet huge, learning curve. You have to ask a few more questions, tasks take you a little bit longer to navigate, and you’re still sorting out what exactly your role is. Most companies recognize the return from having interns, that’s why they continue to recruit, and then support them through the learning curve each summer. However, I want to reiterate this point to parents that are hesitant to support their son or daughter through an internship and students who don’t really have interning as a priority, and any business owner that has entertained the idea of developing an internship program: The personal and professional growth that can be achieved by interning is invaluable and irreplaceable.

Third, internships are an opportunity to see how you handle adversity. This adversity can come in a variety of forms. Perhaps it is a series of challenges that come with moving 1,400 miles away from home. Perhaps it is the challenge of micromanagement, or on the flipside, navigating autonomy. Maybe you have to recognize your own abilities and ask for more responsibility. Are your daily tasks not lining up with the job description? Or, maybe you are trying to succeed but the company’s structure and communication habits are restricting that. Some of these points are my own, others come from the experiences that peers have had. Bottom line, these are challenging waters to navigate, and I know that I will be able to hit the ground running much faster, in my first full-time position, than if I had never interned during my undergrad years.

Interning has helped me reflect on my interests, identify what I value in a company, and also to develop expectations for myself and what I am able to contribute to a cause. Culture, engagement, and autonomy are priorities of mine when considering future employers. From one internship to the next, I was able to reflect and identify what I think I did really well, but also set new standards for myself and identify how I thought I could perform better Round 2 (this summer with NCGA).

I by no means have it all figured out, and don’t think that I ever will, but I assure you that because of internships, I am more excited than nervous, or unsure, to graduate in December. So, thank you Nebraska corn farmers, Nebraska Corn Board, and National Corn Growers Association, for supporting internships and taking the time and resources to invest in me this summer. Your support helped me to intern, and knowing I had the support of family, friends, and advisors, I was able to take advantage of a summer of growth.

I opened my eyes the morning of December 19^th and quickly shut them again. I rolled to my back feeling every vertebrae in my body protest this movement. I slowly swung my feet to the ground while investigating the bruises found on my shins, knees, and elbows. It was the morning after my first ski attempt. The combination of my clumsiness, dislike of all things cold, and my need for speed that has earned me my infamous nickname of “Ricky Bobby,” really hindered my skiing abilities the previous day. I searched the dark room to see three of my best friends sleeping peacefully. I knew when they woke up they would be energized and excited knowing we were hitting the slopes yet again today. I swallowed my fear and anxiety and tried not to trip on my swollen ankle on my way to my suitcase. I layered up in every piece of clothing regardless of whether or not it had already been worn. I filed through inspirational quotes stored in my phone trying to find some motivation to help me carry on with the rest of my skiing experience. The one thing I could cling to is that the ski resort closed at 4 pm and it was already 8 am, so that meant the torture could only last eight more hours—tops. What a thought full of hope…

The experienced skiers decided that they wanted to try some blues (medium level slopes) that day, so they left me with my friend Michelle, who had not been skiing since early childhood. We stuck with the greens, the easiest level. We were probably ¼ of the way down the mountain when we found ourselves laying in a drift by a sign that had two arrows pointing opposite directions. One arrow was pointing towards a black (the hardest level slopes) path, the other arrow said “Free-Style Course.” While that initially sounds incredibly scary, we decided it had to be easier than the seemingly impossible black slope. The skiers on both sides of us were flying and zooming past us with such expertise and ease we were horrified!

To say we were scared is to lie. In that moment Michelle and I looked at each other with no hope. We had an understanding in one look that this would end badly. We scooted ourselves towards the “Free-Style Course” and found ourselves facing a “Caution” sign. The sign continued to tell us that the path was only to be taken by professionals and that death could likely occur. Something odd happened at this sign. Michelle and I could do nothing but laugh. We found ourselves struggling to stand up and for the first time since we got on the mountain, it wasn’t because of our questionable skiing skills.

The more we laughed, the more hopeful we were. That’s when a ski patrol realized Michelle nor I belonged on either of these slopes and hurried over to us. She informed us that we would have to go down a small black hill to get us back down to a green slope. That’s when the grit came in—we knew that the next obstacle surpassed our skiing skills in a painful way. Hopeful tears filled my eyes. I guess the tears could’ve been from the sight of the “small” black hill. Regardless, we skied, or rolled, (it’s debatable) down the rest of the black where we finally saw a green arrow. We took a deep breath, and laughed our way down the rest of the mountain with a decent amount of ease and a whole lot of fun.

 My mentor, Kayla Schnuelle offers us some perspective on this by writing, “purpose creates the vision but hopeful grit supplies the passion and perseverance to achieve our goals and tackle the barriers.” This is exactly what we experienced on the top of Copper Mountain. The purpose of our adventure was undoubtedly getting down a mountain in one piece. We both envisioned us skiing into the nearest Starbucks for the much needed hot cup of coffee. We knew that this would take both passion (in the form of enjoyment) and perseverance. The barriers are pretty self-explanatory. Kayla’s idea of hopeful grit is the exact presence of why I am convinced hope is something that is not only beneficial in the lives of leaders but essential.  We all have aspirations, goals, and dreams. I encourage everyone to regularly imagine where they want to see themselves in the next year, the next five years, and the next ten years. It creates hope, which in turn gives us emotional fuel and focused energy to take the steps and create a plan that will get us there, God willing.

I also had the opportunity to bounce some ideas about the simple word “hope” off of Dr. Tom Field, the Director of the Engler Agribusiness Entrepreneurship Program. He says that hope is recognizing that with hard work, sweat, and grit, and a power bigger and greater than ourselves we will reach our potential and have a journey worthy of our hearts and even our lives. The opposite of hope he says is “despair and doubt, it’s giving up and giving in.” He reminds me that hope is the “precursor,” it is the step before the plan.

Kayla and Dr. Field reminded me of another detail. We can’t talk about hope without talking about faith. This doesn’t have to be a faith in God, but I know this is my strongest case for why hope is not only a nice thing to have but a “must” thing to have. Please relate the following lines to whatever fills your own heart. My favorite prayer goes “Lord, make me an instrument of Your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.” The counteraction and the struggle against despair, darkness, hatred, injury, and doubt can be summarized in one word and that one word is none other than HOPE. This is not only a Christian principle, but rather, a human principle.

Lastly, I need to give thanks to my new friend, Mr. Shawn Koehler, District Sales Manager at Bayer CropScience. He challenged my thinking during a business and industry visit that was scheduled to network on the topic of Nebraska FFA and current agricultural happenings. He believes that there are more powerful things to pursue than hope, like preparation and the ability to inspire. This is an idealism that I plan on applying to a lot of aspects of my life. Because of our incredibly insightful conversation, everything I had ever incorporated with hope was challenged. For that, I couldn’t be more grateful.

His ideas on hope and leadership taught me so much about my personal leadership style and ways that I can work towards improvement. Often times, words like “hope,” “faith,” and “belief” are thought of as fluffy and feel-good. Indeed, if these words are used lightly they can be dangerous, deceiving, and ineffective.

Serving as a Nebraska FFA state officer has shown me that the most valuable conversations are ones that challenge you. Every person you meet not only knows something that you don’t but has lived another life that you will never be able to live. The potential in this fact is endless and limitless. Thanks for reminding me of this, Mr. Koehler!

I would love to keep the conversation going, if you have any thoughts, ideas, or arguments on the complex word “hope” email me at engler@unl.edu.  I’ll end with this: love to hope, hope to plan, and plan to serve to the best of your abilities.