After the Texas Rangers won the 2023 World Series, Manager Bruce Bochy told the media, “This group of determined men were so resilient all year.” The team battled through injuries to star players, never wavered when it caught a historically bad losing bug in the middle of the regular season, and erased a 3-2 deficit to its rival Houston Astros to make into the Fall Classic. “They inspire me with how resilient they’ve been,” Bochy continued.
So, in the name of resilience, we asked Dallas C-suiters to talk about challenges they’ve had to overcome in their careers. Here’s what they shared:
David McLean
Partner, McGuireWoods
“When McGuireWoods’ Dallas office opened, I was desperately trying to build a client base and was told many times, ‘We would love to hire you, but the best way to do that is to find something to work on together.’ It was just a fancy way to say, ‘We’ll hire you, if you bring us an opportunity.’ So that’s what we did. We found proprietary investment opportunities to bring to investors with whom we wanted to take as clients.”
Florencia Velasco Fortner
President and CEO, The Concilio
“Part of my challenge has been people putting me into boxes because of my education, my background, or being a Hispanic woman. I had a conversation with another leader about our similar fundraising challenges, and he was holding me to lower expectations because of my background. This fueled my desire to defy the stereotypes and work together with my teams in our fundraising efforts to benefit the communities we serve.”
Deeg Snyder
Co-managing Director and Principal, Gensler
“Many of our challenges come when we must admit we disappointed a client. It often comes with admitting fault, apologizing on behalf of our team, and making a personal commitment to do better. It’s rare that people say they are sorry, admit failure, and work to correct the situation. You must own mistakes, and that’s not something people run toward quickly enough as problems arise.”
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