To Lean In or to Lean Back?

A few years ago, a super accomplished woman wrote a book called “Lean In.” I did not read this book because for most of my life, I adhered to more of a “Lean Back” attitude. The experiences I had in show business, a cut-throat world to say the least, left me cold. When I had the opportunity to escape, to go home and to raise my babies, letting my husband deal with the outside world, I jumped at it. (Of course, I did live to doubt my decision around the time my husband felt he’d also had enough, and the money stopped pouring in, but that’s another story).

For the most part, when the going gets rough, I tend to flee. And for the most part, that tendency has kept me safe and sane all my life.

I’ve begun to challenge myself at this late date. Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time. This week, I did battle with my nemesis Dropbox. When I heard from a client for the third time about a lame link, I wanted to give up. Why not use email to send pages back and forth? But I diligently scoured the Dropbox Community Forums and Googled my question. No dice. I got multiple solutions that didn’t help. At long last I found a Twitter account for Dropbox. I posted my question. I got the right answer.

When I sent the virile link to my client, I did brag a bit about not giving up. Here’s what he sent back:

“My wife and I are reading the six volume set of books on World War II written by Winston Churchill. I’m sure you know this quote, but your email reminded me of it:

Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never–in nothing, great or small, large or petty–never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

“In this case the enemy was Dropbox, but still…”

So here’s to tackling the world a new way in 2021 and beyond.