Thousands of Doors Taught Me What Leadership Actually Means 

Leadership is not the thing people think it is. It’s not giving speeches. It’s not going viral. It’s not having the smartest policy memo or the sharpest line.

 

Leadership is three things I didn’t fully understand until I knocked thousands of doors across Indianapolis.

 

1. Leadership is listening without defending.
   You don’t get to argue with someone about their lived experience. You don’t get to rebut their fear. You don’t get to fact-check someone’s grief. You get to listen. And if you listen long enough, they’ll tell you what the city really needs.
    

2. Leadership is showing up where you don’t control the room.
   At food pantries. At union halls. At apartment complexes people say aren’t “worth your time.” At meetings where people distrust you before you open your mouth. Anyone can lead when the room is built for them. Real leadership is walking into rooms you don’t own and earning trust anyway.
    

3. Leadership is carrying the weight without making it about you.
   Every story people have shared with me—about eviction, hunger, violence, grief, loneliness, hope—they stay with me. But leadership isn’t about performing empathy. It’s about remembering that every door you knock is someone’s entire world and treating it with respect. Thousands of doors didn’t just make me a better candidate They made me a better leader, a better neighbor, and a more grounded human being.

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