When people think of leadership, they usually imagine big things – starting a company, leading a team, giving a TED Talk. But for us, that’s not how it began.
Real leadership didn’t start with a boardroom or a title. It started with figuring out who would load the chessboards into the car. Surprising, isn’t it?
That tiny, awkward moment – where no one wanted to say it but everyone was wondering – “Wait… who’s bringing the boards?” – was one of the first times we realized something important: if you want something to exist, you need to take ownership of it.
Starting with Small Moves
Our very first events weren’t glamorous. We didn’t have a website or a logo. We literally only had the volunteers, a small venue (Godfather’s Pizza if you don’t remember!), a few chess sets, and a group of kids excited to play chess. Every detail felt like a mini challenge:
- Who prints the pairings?
- How do we set up the tournament software?
- What if we run out of pencils?
They weren’t the biggest problems. But solving them made us feel big. Like we were accomplishing something every time and taking small steps in the right direction.
That’s the thing about tiny problems – they give you momentum. Every time we fixed something small, we got more confident fixing the next thing. And slowly, without even realizing it, we were leading.
Leadership Isn’t Assigned. It’s Chosen.
We’ve learned that leadership doesn’t happen when someone gives you permission. It happens when you raise your hand for something no one else wants to do.
It’s choosing to arrive 30 minutes early when no one asked you to.
It’s emailing the librarian for space when your team forgot.
It’s making a new checklist after forgetting the trophies – because, yes, we forgot to order the trophies once.
These things are, in a way, trinkets. But together? They matter.
A Moment That Changed Us
In the book, we talk about a time when we were prepping for a tournament and everything was going wrong. We were short on volunteers. One of us had to grade dozens of homework assignments. And Costco was not ready with our pizza order.
It was chaos.
But instead of panicking, we just… got to work. We figured it out. We stayed calm. And that’s when we realized that leadership isn’t just fancy titles and bossing others around. Leadership is just calmly fixing problems, over and over again, until everyone else believes things are under control – even if they aren’t.
What We Tell Other Young Leaders
If you’re just getting started and you don’t feel “ready” to lead, that’s okay. You don’t have to be ready. You just have to:
- Notice a problem
- Decide it’s yours to solve
- And then actually solve it
And that’s what real leadership truly is.
Not with speeches or spotlights. But with duct tape, checklists, and remembering to bring the pencils.
