It Can Be Done

In 1997, pregnant with my second child, I was invited to serve as the director of development for Yale University’s Catholic Chapel and Center.

Let me be clear: I was neither qualified nor eager for this role. The timing was terrible and my ill-informed impressions of fundraising were shameful. In fact, I viscerally blanched at the thought of the responsibility. The Catholic chaplain at Yale assured me it would be low-stress, part-time, entail very little travel and have a modest goal of only $5 million. None of which of course ended up being the case. He was persuasive, kind and inexplicably certain that I was the right person for the role. I hated the thought of the proposition but civility and manners prevented me from cutting him off in mid-sentence. He entreated me to pray about it for five days and said that whatever I concluded in prayer, he would accept and honor. I readily agreed, convinced that after prayerful reflection my “No” would be uncommonly articulate.

Imagine, then, my astonishment the following Tuesday evening when I called him and told him I would accept the invitation.

At which point the goal doubled to $10 million.

Three months into our work together, fueled by a passionate commitment to bring a Catholic intellectual and spiritual center of consequence to fruition, overwhelmed by the magnitude of work our aspirations would entail, sleep-deprived with a newborn at my constant ready, the chaplain-my prime collaborator-gave me a present. It was an elegant plaque that said, simply, IT CAN BE DONE.

It sat on my desk, a daily reminder of a truth to which we were both committed. Failure was not an option, for the beneficiaries of our effort were not ourselves, but generations of students not even yet born. We were going to do this and do this right the first time. We shared a sense of urgency. And as long as we were dedicating all of our energies to this pursuit, we were determined to aim for the highest levels of quality, creativity and excellence in every aspect of our vision. Terrifying. But it can be done.

Unwavering conviction that it can be done is essential to success in any endeavor but is especially true for those aspirations deemed impossible.

I have cherished this first of many gifts from my extraordinary colleague and now lifelong friend. IT CAN BE DONE became our touchstone when all the odds seemed stacked against us, when the work became increasingly demanding, when obstacles appeared out of nowhere, erratic, unpredictable and sometimes shocking. Knowing it can be done mitigates against the temptation to surrender or downgrade one’s vision, to acquiesce to what others will insist are more realistic expectations.

Of course, knowing it can be done is not, in and of itself, enough. There is also the necessity of hard work, the willingness to live by the maxim that much can be accomplished when no one cares who gets the credit, an indefatigable tenacity, and a genuine fidelity to purpose.

But there is one other essential quality, often overlooked or disregarded.

This time it was my turn to offer him a gift. For Christmas I wrapped and presented an equally elegant, equally instructive plaque which said, IT CAN BE FUN.

Anything worth accomplishing, is worth accomplishing well. The bigger the vision, the more demanding the task. Bringing potential to fruition is not for the feint of heart. But right in the midst of the arduous demands of the task is the chance, indeed the requirement, to bring joy to the endeavor. We learned to celebrate often. We celebrated small steps, triumphant accomplishments, mistakes along the way, and the sheer privilege of lending our lives to something larger than ourselves. We looked for reasons to be glad. We focused on the present and what we could do now that would bring future beneficence to others. We shared a superb sense of humor. We lived out of conscious gratitude. We took delight in people we met, adventures we had, and ideas that surfaced, regarding all as essential pieces of the mosaic being wrought through diligent labor.

Confidence and joyful passion are an irresistible combination. It can be done and it can be fun.