You are on a great adventure. This is very a pioneering effort and it does go back into the 90s, but when this was -- when Steve had this sort of vision, in his head it was a dream. That is what leaders do, they have dreams, and they conceive of something that other people cannot quite see, and then they help to encourage, cajole, persuade others to build something, and that is what is happened here with Capella, and you built it marvelously well.
It is interesting to me that you have chosen not to call this a public service school but a public service leadership school, that you have included that idea, you have woven that idea into this new effort within Capella. This seems to me exactly the right time to have a public service leadership school. In any situation, such as Capella or Harvard or wherever it may be, when we are talking about leadership, we, those of us, who are privileged to count ourselves as faculty, can only go so far in the journey with you.
We can help point the way. We can help you understand what other leaders have done, why some have succeeded and why some have failed, and there are many lessons in failure. We can help you begin to understand the principles of leadership, the theories of leadership, so that you could begin to get your head around it and begin to understand the vocabulary and begin to appreciate the demands of leadership, how hard it is, because it can be very hard.
My friend, Ron Heifetz, has written very well about what it takes to go through adversity, as a leader, as a colleague. But the journey itself ultimately has to be your journey. We cannot teach character. We cannot behavior. We cannot teach you to be curious. There has got to be something in you that has got that fire inside, that you not only want to make a mark on your own, but you want to take your organization and lift it up, because with that you can make an enormous impact in the lives of others. It is not simply turning out memos and having decisions around a table. The real issue is, what difference are you making in the lives of others who need your help and they deserve to be treated with respect, with dignity, and with a compassion, coming from public service. That is only a journey that you can take yourself. We can inspire you, we can encourage you, but it is really your journey.