Hardest personal lesson learned?

[P.J.]

That I'm not the best suited one for my job on my team anymore, and that's okay.

For the past 5 years I've been the head of our strategy team, and this year one of my alums came back as my junior mentor/mentor in training on the strategy team. Watching him work, I realized that he's better at this than me. This was a very difficult pill to swallow at first, as I felt that this meant that I was failing as a mentor. It's hard to admit that this strategy team that I built from nothing to what it is today has outgrown me, that there is a "new mentor on the block" that is better suited to lead the team into the future.

However over a long period of time (much longer than it should have taken) I have now realized that it's okay to hand off the torch to someone better suited for a job. It's part of life. I'm incredibly proud of him, and having watched him grow from his freshman year of high school to now has been absolutely amazing. I love him like a little brother, and I'll be honored to defer to his judgment in the years to come.