Page 10 - How We Lead Matters

Foreword

“Do not go where the path may lead,” urged Ralph Waldo Emerson. “Go
instead where there is no path . . . and leave a trail.” Few have lived up to
that message with more passion for a life of leadership than the woman who
has given us these thoughtful and charming reflections on life.
Who better than Marilyn Carlson Nelson to be offered an invitation
from the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds to become the first “female CEO” to
fly in an F-16 jet? There she went, blazing yet another trail. It was a memo-
rable beginning to her decade-long tenure as CEO of Carlson—a decade now
being celebrated as “The Super Decade.”
Who else but Marilyn would show up for her first annual company
meeting as CEO on rollerblades, with the entrance line, “Here we go, go, go,
go!” There has never been anything presumptuous about her even as she is
showered with honors and accolades for the way she has built Carlson into
one of the largest travel, hospitality, and marketing companies in the world.
Who else but Marilyn could inspire us all by sharing the tragic story of
her family’s loss? Just days after dropping her daughter Juliet off at Smith
College to begin her undergraduate studies, the call came that Juliet had
been killed in an auto accident. During a prolonged period of grieving,
Marilyn found solace in a speech that her daughter had given to her senior
class just months before. She shares passages from that speech here as Juliet
reminds her classmates (and us) that, “Life is always fragile . . . each one of
us is given only one journey.” Her mother took those thoughts to heart and
has lived each day since to its fullest.
And finally, who else but Marilyn would have the persistence to follow
her career dreams even in the face of naysayers? She tells the story of how
one employer asked her to sign her reports with her initials, “M.C. Nelson”
because he didn’t believe anyone would take financial advice from a woman.
Yet she persevered.
One of two daughters born to the ultra-entrepreneur, Curtis L. Carlson,
Marilyn has often said that there weren’t many silver spoons around in those

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