Triangulating early defining moments: Navigating uncertainty as innovators

Let me describe two other moments that have acted in concert with my earliest tadpole moment as an innate career guidance system — and reflect on how these moments can help individuals and teams align and navigate more confidently.

My Tadpole moment

My Batmobile moment

My Turtle moment

Let’s delve into my Batmobile moment, which surprised my 6 years old tadpole self with a small pencil-clutching appendage.

On the first day of class in third grade, a fellow classmate sketched a few lines on a piece of paper and out popped a Batmobile. “Pow!” I was awestruck. I couldn’t imagine anything cooler being pulled out of the paper’s depths. I was hooked. And just like that, I had a mobile tadpole pond.

I sketched wherever I went. I started filling bound black books with everything from from stick-figure-ish doodles to elaborate this-is-your-life drawings. I announced my creative awakening to my parents with Sistine Chapel sized drawings in charcoal on my bedroom walls. Everywhere I went, there I was — thinking about and capturing what I saw.

But every journey, heroic or amphibian, has trials and tribulations. And for me, this came in the form of My Turtle moment — a shell game, where 6-year-old Gary, vanishes from under the turtle shell.

In fourth grade, I was cast as “Turtle” in a class play. I had only one job — to carry the majestic Japanese prince across the stage. But overwhelmed by stage fright, I chickened out. Instead, I found myself in the audience, making little noises and struggling to breathe.

My body knew what my frightened self didn’t: “You should have been that turtle.”

For several years, I’d make what my siblings affectionately called, “Gary’s little sounds,” a verbal tic born of stage fright.

Overcoming this obstacle was a journey in itself, but eventually, I clambered back into my turtle shell, taking the stage before students at NYU, then Columbia University, and ultimately, corporate ideation sessions.

So by age 6, my trajectory was fixed — shaped by moments that college aptitude tests and even today’s job-matching algorithms could never understand. By reflecting on these moments, we get a better fix on where we are heading and insight into our strengths and challenges.

Here are 6 ways this can help with team effectiveness and alignment. It can…

• Foster a sense of empathy within the team.
• Reveal our own inherent strengths
• Cultivate creative expression and curiosity
• Align a team on shared aspirations
• Build resilience and adaptability
• Inspire personal growth

Reflecting on early defining moments is not just a personal exercise but a powerful tool for fostering innovation, team alignment, and success in the face of uncertainty.

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