Pearls in Progress-Using Grit for Good | Kathryn Spitznagle | TEDxCarrollwood
Kathryn Spitznagle shares how life's irritants, like the grit that creates pearls, can become something beautiful and purposeful. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she discovered a global network of cancer survivors who mentor others, leading her to mentor over 100 women using pink pearls of hope as symbols of support.
Summary
Kathryn Spitznagle uses the metaphor of pearl formation to illustrate how life's irritants can transform into something valuable and beautiful. She begins by explaining how pearls form from grit in oysters, drawing parallels to human experiences. Early in her career at a grocery products company with a strong mentoring culture, she learned the importance of developing others. When she moved to a manufacturing company without a mentoring program, her failed attempt to start a global program became an irritant that redirected her focus to mentoring individual women one-on-one. The speaker's purpose deepened when she was diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer that had spread to her lymph nodes. Through her treatment journey, she discovered a quiet global network of cancer survivors who mentor newly diagnosed patients. A survivor from Singapore called her after every chemotherapy session, and another from Beijing gave her pink pearls of hope, explaining they bring hope from the women who make them to those who wear them. This began Spitznagle's 10-year journey of mentoring cancer patients, during which she never ran out of pearls or women to support. Remarkably, people worldwide began sending her pearls, and she discovered that supporters were visiting a shop in Beijing coincidentally named 'Catherine's Pearls.' As a 19-year breast cancer survivor still in treatment, she believes her experience began as a medical irritant but evolved into a beautiful purpose of helping others through their cancer journeys.
Key Insights
- Spitznagle's mentor told her that her training wasn't to start programs but to develop people for life, advising her to 'bloom where you are planted'
- Doctors told Spitznagle that if she had skipped her routine mammogram, she wouldn't have lived to have another one due to the aggressive nature of her cancer
- A breast cancer survivor from Singapore called Spitznagle at 3 AM Singapore time after every chemotherapy session for four months to check on her
- For 10 years, Spitznagle never ran out of pearls to give to cancer patients or women to mentor, as people worldwide continuously sent her pearls
- The shop in Beijing where supporters were buying pearls was coincidentally named 'Catherine's Pearls', which Spitznagle discovered when asking for a business card to order directly
Topics
Transcript
[0:14] pearls. When you see a strand of pearls, what words come to mind? Maybe elegant, classic, beautiful. How about grit? How about irritant? How about mistake? You see, those words are all part of a pearl's story, too. In fact, they're the beginning. You see, a pearl begins as a [0:46] piece of grit in an oyster. Think of an oyster having a splinter, and it wants to protect itself. So it coats that splinter with substance over and over and over until it forms a pearl. Have you ever had that in your life? Something that began as an irritant or a mistake grew into something that was valuable and maybe even beautiful. [1:19] I have. Earlier in…
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