What I Learned This Year 2011 #26: Meredith Vaughan

By / December 23, 2011 / This year was an interesting one for VJ. Sometimes it was absolutely great and sometimes it really, really sucked. We had some high highs, and a few low lows. It was a year that saw more change than we have ever had in our 41-year history. We were finalists in a huge national pitch, and then lost just at the very end. But, on the flip side, we were finalists in a huge national pitch. We made departmental changes, personnel changes, office changes, technology changes, philosophy changes and changes to how we make changes. However, it all turned out to make for a pretty great, and in my eyes, successful year. Through it all, I took away a few thoughts from 2011—some of which will guide me forever moving forward, some of which I will forget shortly after this is published, some of which are completely worthless but still true, and some of which are total crap but I like the way they sound. I learned in 2011 that karma is a bitch. And sometimes so am I. I learned that I have even less patience than I thought—which many people didn’t think was possible. I learned that trusting the people around me really is the right thing to do. They are amazing. I learned that it’s critical to respect where you’ve been because it will likely have a big impact on where you are going. I learned that sometimes it feels really good to really hate someone. A lot. I learned that it also feels really good to really like someone a lot. And it generally feels better than hating someone. I learned that I make stupid decisions sometimes. I learned that the passion that I feel for my team, this business and the industry is critical to our ongoing success. I learned that I’m more interested in what we are going to do next than what we’ve done so far. I learned that you have to make time to lead, no matter how natural a leader you are. I learned that people generally want to do the right thing. I learned that change really does scare the hell out of people. I learned that each year is going to look completely different than the prior year, at least for the foreseeable future. I learned that saying no is sometimes much more effective than saying yes.