Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 12 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Learning from Dad
— From What Made Me Who I Am by Bernie Swain
Happy Father’s Day!
Whether you a father, love a father, father a beloved pet, or father a project or an idea, I hope you have a fantastic day with your loved ones!
Today I’ll share a father story from a book that I love: What Made Me Who I Am by Bernie Swain. The book is a collection of stories—some happy, some sad, but all beautiful, inspiring and moving—that leaders, heads of state, athletes, business executives, and public figures have told the author. Swain is the cofounder and Chairman of Washington Speakers Bureau, today’s foremost authority in the lecture industry. (Here’s a book review I wrote for The New York Public Library.)
Throughout the book, Swain shares the human side of these larger-than-life personalities. One of the themes that he repeatedly sees is, “That we grow up, become our own person, and still, for many of us, the powerful urge to make our parents happy remains.”
It’s only natural that we want our parents to be proud of us, and that was the case with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She says that her dad, Josef Korbel, “was a remarkable man and the most important influence on [her] life. It was his clearheaded and fair minded character that saw [her] through an unsettled, even tumultuous childhood, and that set a standard [she has] endeavored to live up to ever since.”
Josef was a diplomat who moved to London, as the Czechoslovak government in exile was there after the Nazis invaded Prague. He would walk young Madeleine to school every day before catching a train to work. “As we walked, he would encourage me to do my best in school, and in life, and to always treat people with respect,” recalls Albright.
When the war ended, Josef was made Ambassador to Yugoslavia, and then representative to the United Nations. When the communists took over Czechoslovakia, Josef didn’t want to be a part of that government and went—as a political exile—to teach international relations at the University of Denver.
While in Denver, the family lived in a small and cramped house, and Josef set up a makeshift study in the basement. The problem was that the basement flooded constantly so he “would sit at his desk, working away with his feet up on bricks.” Yet they all laughed about it and took it with equanimity and grace.
Albright recalls that, as a teenager, she was embarrassed by her dad. Josef, being Old World European, tried to fit in his new surroundings in Colorado. Thus, “He took up fishing—wearing a coat and tie. There he was, looking like the very model of a European diplomat—tailored suit, combed back hair, wire-rim glasses, and a pipe—casting his rod.”
Yet every night the family would sit down to dinner together, “and the topic of conversation inevitably turned to foreign affairs,” says Albright. “Although our lives had been nomadic, my parents maintained a consistency that made it all seem normal.”
And it is thanks to all this that the former Secretary of State fell in love with the international arena. As she remembers her father, she says, “Through it all, I’ve felt that my father was with me, perched on my shoulder, still following me around, inspiring me. The volatile politics of Eastern Europe short-circuited his diplomatic career. That has always been on my mind and I hope that in some small way, I’ve made him proud. Being secretary of state is a challenging experience. But I never had any trouble staying focused. I just had to picture my father in his flooded basement study, working away with his feet up on bricks.”
ACTION
TODAY & FUTURE: Go hug your loved ones and tell them how much they mean to you!
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