Why Pioneers Always Ask This Question

Most modern-day pioneers (strike that), every pioneer who shares their story with me, starts with this question. 

A funny thing happens when you come to a crossroads in your life. You take a step back. 

I recently watched a TED Talk by Katie O'Malley, who shared a story about the moment she realized that listening was missing from all of her conversations with close friends (and probably others). She didn't realize this alone. Her mother noticed it, which led to a turning point in Katie's life. 

This talk moved me because it made me think about my mother, who kept pursuing another way for her special-needs son (my brother) to be educated in a mainstream classroom. 

No matter whom my mother spoke with locally, the answer was always the same: "He belongs in a private facility." 

Private school was not financially feasible for my parents, so they relentlessly advocated for my brother at the state level. After many trips to Springfield, Illinois, my parents succeeded in getting a referendum passed that allowed special-needs schoolchildren to be part of the public school system. That was in the early 1970's.

Fast forward to today, when Katie and I met for a 30-minute 1:1, she offered, and I found myself feeling exceptionally vulnerable. I mentioned that the Billie Eilish song "What Was I Made For" was constantly running through my mind. It made me wonder whether my passion for pioneers could co-exist with advocating for a loved one. 

When Being Relentless Is the Most Important Thing You Can Do

There is a moment in every pioneer's story when they have to decide whether to trust what they see, even when no one else has yet.

I know that moment. I lived it.

Someone I love was recently diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer's. The diagnosis came early enough to matter, early enough to shape what comes next. It came early because I would not stop asking questions.

That is not a small thing. In a medical system designed to move quickly and rule out the obvious, catching something rare requires someone in the room who refuses to accept "It's just like the other forms of the disease" as a final answer. It requires someone willing to be the difficult person, the persistent one, the one who calls back, follows up, and says clearly: something is wrong, and I need you to help me find out what.

I have always known that advocacy was one of my superpowers. For more than two decades, I have championed overlooked entrepreneurs, underestimated experts, and mission-driven pioneers who were doing important work before the world was ready to pay attention. I have written about them, spoken about them, and built platforms to amplify what they were building. 

Then I wrote a book.

What I did not fully understand until now is that the same qualities that make someone an effective advocate for ideas are the ones that save lives.

The pioneers I have studied and celebrated share a set of defining traits. They act before consensus exists. They tolerate being misunderstood. They believe the future is shapeable. They make the invisible visible. And they think long-term in a world that rewards short-term thinking.

Every one of those traits describes what it means to fight for someone you love inside a system that will not slow down for you.

Noticing something was wrong, naming it, and refusing to let it go unnamed is its own kind of pioneering. It is not glamorous work. Nobody gives keynotes or book deals to the people who sit in waiting rooms and ask one more question. But the impact is real and lasting, and sometimes it changes everything.

I am sharing this because other advocates are sitting in rooms just like the one I was in. People who sense something is wrong before there is language for it. People who hear that they are overreacting, or worrying too much, or reading into things. People who keep pushing anyway.

You are not overreacting. You are ahead of the moment. That relentlessness, that refusal to wait for the world to catch up to what you already know, is exactly what the people you love and the communities you serve need from you.

"If this resonates, I'd love to share more about how everyone has the potential to be a pioneer. 

You can find out why by taking the Pioneer Assessment I created to help determine if you're ready to explore your own pioneer mindset.