“One of the things you need in order to thrive in the business world is courage. So this year, I did something a little weird: I decided I wanted to learn to drive a train. Not exactly what you would expect from a person who’s arrived --- yeah, I’ve arrived, I wear suits every day, I have cute shoes, I have cute bags to match --- and now as a global leader with 18 years of sales and marketing experience, I want to learn how to drive a train. Why? Because I work for an international transportation company in an industry I did not fully understand. You get a lot of grace in the beginning, right? You graduate from high school, you graduate from college, and then that grace sort of runs out and you have to show up. You have to put yourself out there. You have to walk in the shoes of the people you say you represent. I was telling young men and young women every day: ‘You can do anything. You can be an engineer, a conductor, a sales and marketing exec, you can do anything!’ (I won’t do it, but you can!). ‘You’ll make a lot of money, you can do it!’ (But I won’t.) I knew that had to change, so I decided I was going to learn how to do this courageous thing.
“I went to Chicago for the training. Now, I have my MBA, I graduated from Sheffield High School at 16, my dad is allegedly a mathematical genius --- some of that got passed on to me ---, and I’m supposed to be a really bright person. But I go to the first week of conductor training to learn how to actually conduct a train, and they showed me the air brake system, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know even where the rotors are on my car!’ My own limitations kind of came and smacked me upside the head. I was a mess. I called my mama in tears, saying, ‘Mom, I need you to come to Chicago. I need you here with me. I can’t do this! Everybody’s going to know I’m a fraud. I’m not really that smart. If I fail, I’m going to look terrible because I’m one of only two African-American women in our U.S. network going through this program.’ And my mama said, ‘So what’s the problem?’
“There was not a problem. I had the opportunity to do something that I asked to do, and I was now standing in that moment, nervous and fearful and questioning my own capacity, so I had to have the courage to say, ‘I’m afraid.’ That was an issue, but I had to find the courage to overcome my fear. And I had to have the courage to fail, if that was going happen, because that was a part of my process. Now, thankfully I did not fail. I finished the course, learned what I needed to learn, and passed the test. Conducting is not one of my job responsibilities, but that’s not the point. The point is that I understand things about the industry now that I never knew before. AND I am one of very few African-American women in the United States certified to drive a train!”
“I went to Chicago for the training. Now, I have my MBA, I graduated from Sheffield High School at 16, my dad is allegedly a mathematical genius --- some of that got passed on to me ---, and I’m supposed to be a really bright person. But I go to the first week of conductor training to learn how to actually conduct a train, and they showed me the air brake system, and I’m like, ‘I don’t know even where the rotors are on my car!’ My own limitations kind of came and smacked me upside the head. I was a mess. I called my mama in tears, saying, ‘Mom, I need you to come to Chicago. I need you here with me. I can’t do this! Everybody’s going to know I’m a fraud. I’m not really that smart. If I fail, I’m going to look terrible because I’m one of only two African-American women in our U.S. network going through this program.’ And my mama said, ‘So what’s the problem?’
“There was not a problem. I had the opportunity to do something that I asked to do, and I was now standing in that moment, nervous and fearful and questioning my own capacity, so I had to have the courage to say, ‘I’m afraid.’ That was an issue, but I had to find the courage to overcome my fear. And I had to have the courage to fail, if that was going happen, because that was a part of my process. Now, thankfully I did not fail. I finished the course, learned what I needed to learn, and passed the test. Conducting is not one of my job responsibilities, but that’s not the point. The point is that I understand things about the industry now that I never knew before. AND I am one of very few African-American women in the United States certified to drive a train!”
Did Kai inherit Mom's superpowers? :-)
Roquita Coleman-Williams, commissioner of the Memphis Area Transit Authority and manager of Sales & Marketing with CN Railway Co.
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