Leadership Series VI: The Real Treasures are Within Us!

Dear Faculty, families, loved ones, and GRADUATES. Thank you for inviting me to join you on this very important milestone in your life. You did it and I am proud of YOU! Congratulations. 

Dean Hall asked me to share with you my pharmacy journey. Instead, I would like to talk to you about the life journey of a seven-year-old refugee girl. This young Iraqi girl found a hand grenade in the rubble of her hometown in Iraqi Kurdistan and was desperate to trade it for a bag of candy from a United States Marine deployed in her homeland. This seven-year-old girl and her family sought refuge in the United States hoping for a second chance in the land of unlimited opportunity. In 1996, this young girl, now ten years old, landed in America. 

Even though living and growing up in the safety of a free country, the next three decades had numerous challenges for her. At ten she had to learn to think and communicate in English, her third language. Everything about her was different from her new surroundings, her dress, her religion, her food, and her culture. The smallest activity became a major challenge. She was a stranger in her new home far away from her native Iraq. 

This Iraqi Kurdistan girl now stands before you as a pharmacist, an author, a world traveler, and the CEO of the SC Pharmacy Association. None of this would have been possible if this girl did not silence the noise around her constantly telling her that she couldn’t. 

When I graduated from pharmacy school, I did not think, as many of you are doing today, about that first important job as a pharmacist. I could only think about the life I lived as a displaced refugee. Without a second thought, I chose to move from the safety of my current home in America back into harm’s way in my birth home of Iraq. After all, aren’t we in a profession of caring and giving? What better way for ME to serve than to help desperate and displaced refugees of war in conflict zones. Every day, I would treat and provide optimum care to little girls with PTSD, and hear the inner child in me crying for help, “what about me?” My own flashbacks and nightmares became unbearable. Little did I know, the individual that was crying for help was ME. After three years of service in Iraq and upon my return to the United States, I was diagnosed with complex PTSD from my childhood trauma. 

The Brazilian author, Paulo Coelho, in his famous book, The Alchemist, said, “And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. You can achieve those dreams. 

Over the years, my detachment from myself due to my childhood trauma led me to embark on a world journey of over 75 countries to meet hikers, world travelers, and citizens from around the world. I challenged myself both mentally and physically to summit some of the hardest mountains from Everest base camp to Kilimanjaro. I did it all. What I did not realize was, the more I traveled the world looking for pleasure outside of myself, the more the world brought me back to myself. You see, we often take on cumbersome journeys in pursuit of unknown treasure yet fail to realize that the true treasure is within us. 

Today, as you continue your personal and professional JOURNEY, I guarantee you those mountains in front of you will be both challenging and rewarding. Your good days will be determined by your will, your spirit, and your desire to serve others, not yourself. 

From a life journey of searching for my own purpose, I offer you seven life hints: 

1. Learn to ask for help! As pharmacists, we are educated and trained in a culture that values self-reliance and are not equipped to discuss personal vulnerability. We are trained to care for others and receive little training on how to better care for ourselves. There is strength in vulnerability. To succeed in the profession, it’s not about how tough you are or how fast you are. It is about doing it together. Life is too difficult for you to think that you can do it alone! With so much negativity in the world, it’s okay not to feel at peace. And truth be told, if you do not catch yourself feeling overwhelmed from time to time, you are not living the life of a pharmacist. Learn to ask for help. It’s okay not to feel okay! 

2. Become Comfortable with being uncomfortable. I always say that it takes a nomad to succeed! The human brain is not wired for success because success expends energy. The human brain is wired for survival because survival conserves energy. Success is about becoming comfortable with being uncomfortable. When we become too comfortable with the status quo, we are more likely to fail so become comfortable with being uncomfortable! 

3. Learn to Speak Last! When it comes to leadership, Nelson Mandela is universally regarded as a great leader. When asked how he learned to become a great leader, he responded, that when he accompanied his father to tribal meetings, he remembered two things from his father: 1. They would always sit in a circle. 2. His father was always last to speak. If you haven’t already, you will be told, “learn how to listen.” I say you need to learn how to be the last to speak for two reasons: 1. You get to hear what others have to say. 2. It gives everybody the feeling that they have been heard. 

4. Travel the world! The Muslim Scholar and world’s greatest traveler of his period, Ibn Battuta said, “Traveling leaves you speechless but it turns you to a storyteller.” And in the words of Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” The experiences and stories gained from traveling will shape your view of humankind, and that no power on earth can take away from you. So, get out there, see the places and meet the people that make up this wonderful and diverse world. 

5. Always plan for things to go unplanned! We live in a volatile world where there is so much information, yet so little knowledge. So much suffering, yet so little wisdom. So much bureaucracy with so little guidance. So much black and white with little room for grey. And so much knowledge with so little relevance. There is so much misinformation floating around that our brains simply fail to process it all, and the truth is we often don’t. If no one ever broke the rules, then chances are we’d never advance. 

6. Know that sometimes you are the problem. In the 18th century, men threw away mysticism, and tradition, and relied heavily on data. A disease spread around Europe and made its way to America. It was known as the Black Death of Childbirth. Women who gave birth would die within 48 hours after giving birth. This illness ravaged Europe and kept getting worse over the course of a century. Doctors started studying the bodies of those women. In the mornings, they would conduct autopsies, and, in the afternoons, they would deliver babies and finish their rounds. It wasn’t until the middle of the 1800’s that Dr. Oliver Wendell Homes realized that doctors who were conducting autopsies in the morning were not washing their hands before they delivered babies. He observed that “the doctors” were the problem. They ignored Dr. Homes and called him crazy until 30 years later when the doctors realized if they washed their hands and sterilized their autopsy tools, the Black Death of Childbirth would go away. The lesson here is sometimes you are the problem. Learn how to take accountability! 

7. And my favorite: People Matter! Your patients are people, your investors are people, your future learners are people, your colleagues are people, and your friends and soul mates are people. For you to succeed and live a fulfilling life, you must understand people. Studying people and learning what makes them tick is the most amazing experience. Self-transformation is key! Remember you are always becoming. And so is everyone else. 

Sarkafte ben