Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of spending time with several of my colleagues.

Each one of them is from a different part of the country, and some of them are from different countries altogether. We each have different temperaments, talents, and convictions.

I took several things away from our time together, talking, and getting to know each other even further. But the one thing that I appreciated the most was how we each got to where we are in life.

In many ways, we each followed a different path. But all paths led to the same place: success.

Of course, we all have different definitions of success, and mine is certainly different than most.

As we sat, sipped coffee, and offered council to each other, giving each other advice and suggestions on how to improve, what struck me as most unique is that we all listened. That’s increasingly rare in this world. But we all were open to learning, with no judgements or ego at any level; just good, honest feedback and a common desire to grow.

We’ve already began to grow from the experience.

The point, I did not know any of them very well.  Some not at all.  But we still all listened, learned, and are now executing.

And what is our life’s journey if not what we learn along the way? There are two ways to do that: we can learn from our own trial-and-error, personal experience, or we can learn from others.

When it comes to the latter, we learn far more from people who are not the same as us, those who have taken different journeys and have different perspectives in life.

Different paths, but all headed in the same direction.

I greatly appreciate my colleagues, as professionals, cohorts, and friends.

Together, we push each other to be the best version of ourselves and being a part of that growth is one of the most rewarding things in my life.

-J.D.