Common Sense Ideas for Becoming the Career Star You Are Meant to Be

Recently, I saw the movie Freedom Writers.  It is the true story of a remarkable teacher, Erin Gruwell, and a group of high school students in Long Beach CA.  The story is set in 1994, just after the racial turmoil caused by the Rodney King trial and the OJ verdict.  Ms. Gruwell was a new teacher, assigned to teach a class of at risk kids.  The racial tension in the LA area was apparent among the Black, Latino and Asian kids and one lonely and fearful white kid in her classroom. 

This movie really touched me.  I was impressed with Erin Gruwell’s commitment to her job.  She succeeded against terrible odds.  Therefore, I am going to do a series of five posts on Erin Gruwell this week.  I am doing this to provide you with a real life example of how one person embodied all five of the points on the Career Super Star model – and became a star in her career, and with the kids she taught.

I hope that after you read these posts, you will see the movie, and log on to Erin Gruwell’s site www.freedomwritersfoundation.org to learn more about her and the kids she taught.

Today is Tuesday, so this post is on personal impact.

Besides having the challenge of learning how to teach the group of students to which she had been assigned, Erin Gruwell had to deal with people outside of the classroom.  This is where her personal impact really shows through. 

As she was doing something new and succeeding in a situation where nobody thought she could, Ms. Gruwell was under some pretty close scrutiny – from the head of the English Department, from her fellow teachers, from the principal of her school, from the Superintendent of Schools and from the Long Beach Board of Education.

There are several scenes in the movie where Ms. Gruwell is quite eloquent in making her point to one or more of these people – sometimes in the face of extremely rude opposition.  Near the end of the film, she has to once again make her case – to the School Board.  She was slated to teach the students in her original class for their Freshman and Sophomore years.  As the end of their second year together drew to a close, the students implored her to see if she could arrange for a special dispensation to allow her to teach them as Juniors. 

She succeeded.  There is a very powerful scene near the end of the movie where she meets her students on the school grounds and they ask if she will be their teacher for their Junior year.  She says, “no”.  And then smiles and says, “we’ll be together for your Junior and Senior years”.  This news is followed with shouts of joy and lots of hugs.

The point here is that Erin Gruwell was influential with people who had decision making authority over her and her career.  She accomplished this through her personal impact.  Mostly, she let her results speak for themselves, but she also was quite eloquent in making her points to these decision makers.

That’s the essence of powerful personal impact.  It’s the ability to carry yourself in such a way and manner that present at a person to be reckoned with – someone who is dynamic and forceful, someone who expects to get what they want.

You’ll have to see the movie to see more of Erin Gruwell’s personal impact in action.  By the way, if you think I want you to see this movie, you’re right!

Tomorrow, I’ll post about Erin Gruwell’s outstanding performance and how it made a difference in the lives of her students.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.CommonSenseGuy.com for common sense advice on leading people and running a small business.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.