I was one of the 37 million people that watched Sarah Palin speak at the Republican Convention last night. Even opponents seemed to agree this person from "nowhere" can give some speech. To cut to the chase, there is strong sentiment among many people that Mrs. Palin is a new political star. And hardly anyone heard of her a week ago. This makes me wonder: how many other raw talents we have never heard of are out there?
Go to the book store and you will find any number of books on how to get to the best colleges. Families now invest in couselors to help them get their teenage children eligible for Yale, Brown, or Cornell. The purpose is to grease the way to the elite experiences that lead to the best opportunities. Nothing wrong with this, but how many times do we see people who underperform their resume? I was talking to a faculty colleague and he noted the number of experienced executives -- many of them with exquisite predigrees -- who are recycled into new jobs to continue to underperform their "so-called" credentials.
Politics aside, Sarah Palin has outperformed her resume (graduated from an shool in Idaho and started in the PTA) and not just based on the speech (read here on what she has accomplished as governor). My guess is there are scores of other people in other fields with equally inauspicious credentials who perform at very high levels. I would much prefer to be under-credentialed and over performing. There are many, many of these overachievers anonymously getting things done in all walks of life.
I don't need to teach at the Ivy league to work with smart, high performing colleagues. Most importantly, I look for some more of these raw talents to emerge to have . . . Rockhurst degrees, of course!
Go to the book store and you will find any number of books on how to get to the best colleges. Families now invest in couselors to help them get their teenage children eligible for Yale, Brown, or Cornell. The purpose is to grease the way to the elite experiences that lead to the best opportunities. Nothing wrong with this, but how many times do we see people who underperform their resume? I was talking to a faculty colleague and he noted the number of experienced executives -- many of them with exquisite predigrees -- who are recycled into new jobs to continue to underperform their "so-called" credentials.
Politics aside, Sarah Palin has outperformed her resume (graduated from an shool in Idaho and started in the PTA) and not just based on the speech (read here on what she has accomplished as governor). My guess is there are scores of other people in other fields with equally inauspicious credentials who perform at very high levels. I would much prefer to be under-credentialed and over performing. There are many, many of these overachievers anonymously getting things done in all walks of life.
I don't need to teach at the Ivy league to work with smart, high performing colleagues. Most importantly, I look for some more of these raw talents to emerge to have . . . Rockhurst degrees, of course!
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