Category: Tips for Non-Profits,

The Courage to Begin Again, and the Art of Finishing What We Start

Paul Wagenaar

What happens when something you once found easy suddenly feels impossibly difficult?

When the goal still matters, but the road to getting there is frustrating, tedious, and sometimes downright discouraging?

Inspired by Roald Amundsen’s 20-Mile March, this is a reflection on perseverance, the burden of past success, and finding a way forward when motivation isn’t enough.
Sometimes the secret to reaching a difficult goal isn’t doing something extraordinary. It’s finding a way to keep doing the ordinary, even when you’d rather be doing almost anything else.

Different Doesn’t Mean Wrong

Paul Wagenaar

I’ve hesitated to write about resumes for a long time.

Not because I don’t have opinions, but because my opinions challenge almost everything we’ve traditionally been taught.

Were told to fit our lives into rigid templates, keep it to one page, and strictly follow chronological order.

But what if your path wasnt perfectly linear? Your resume shouldnt just be a passive record of where youve been.

It should be a precision tool, carefully tailored to show an employer how your skills, strengths and experience can address their needs and solve their problems.

But heres something we often overlook. Before your resume can help an employer recognize your value, sometimes it needs to help you recognize that value yourself. The goal isnt to become the person you think an employer wants.

Its to understand what that employer needs and demonstrate, with confidence and evidence, how the person you already are can make a meaningful contribution.

Nobody Tells You This Stuff – The Things That Matter Most Aren’t Always the Things We Chase.

Paul Wagenaar

Some of life’s most important lessons aren’t taught in classrooms or found in leadership books.

They’re learned through mistakes, missed opportunities, difficult conversations, and the people who change how we see the world.

Looking back, I’ve realized that success isn’t simply about what we achieve. It’s about who we become along the way and the difference we make in other people’s lives.

Here are some lessons I wish I’d understood sooner. Perhaps a few will resonate with you.

Creating Clarity, Removing Barriers, and Finding the Right People – Rethinking Job Descriptions

Paul Wagenaar

What if some of the biggest barriers in hiring are created before anyone even applies?

“Must thrive in a fast-paced environment.” “Must be a people person.” “We’re looking for a rock star.”

What do these phrases actually mean?

A good job description should create clarity, not confusion. It should describe the work, what success looks like, what someone genuinely needs to know on day one, and what we are prepared to teach.

Maybe the goal isn’t to find the perfect applicant. Maybe it’s to give the right people an opportunity to show us what they can bring.

It’s Not About Agreeing. It’s About Deciding for Yourself.

Paul Wagenaar

We spend a lot of our lives being told what we should do.

Parents, teachers, friends, partners, bosses, mentors, advisors, their experience and opinions can be valuable. But listening isn’t the same as surrendering our decision.
Sometimes the most important question isn’t “What should I do?” but “What am I actually deciding?”

Pause. Question. Reframe. Consider the consequences. Then decide.

Not because nobody else has anything valuable to say, but because their voice shouldn’t replace yours.

Choosing a Different Way

Paul Wagenaar

We move at the speed of trust.

I may be one of the few career advisors who regularly encourage job seekers to break the rules.

Not because I don’t understand them.

Because sometimes what we call conventional wisdom is simply something we’ve repeated so often that we stopped questioning it.

I tell people to stand out: Contact employers before jobs are posted. Build relationships. Challenge assumptions. Stop making their résumé look like everyone else’s.

But there’s a catch: You can’t ask someone to take an unconventional path without first giving them a reason to trust you.

Resistance isn’t always stubbornness. Sometimes it’s fear, self-protection, or the weight of years of rejection and being told what they should do.

My job isn’t to convince people that I’m right.
It’s to help them become confident enough to question advice, including mine.

Because the goal isn’t to create followers. It’s to help people trust themselves enough to find their own way forward.

And that’s why: We move at the speed of trust.

Does AI make hiring better or just faster? – What are we missing?

Paul Wagenaar

AI can make hiring faster. But faster doesn’t necessarily mean better.

As employers and job seekers increasingly use AI to navigate the hiring process, we may be creating an unintended arms race, one where both sides become better at optimizing for the system rather than discovering genuine compatibility.

The real opportunity isn’t to use AI to replace human thinking. It is to use it to challenge our assumptions, expose our blind spots, and help us recognize people the traditional hiring system might overlook.

The question isn’t whether we will use AI in hiring. We already are. How do we use it better.

When your fear is greater than your desire to succeed

Paul Wagenaar

Nothing moves forward when fear outweighs what we stand to gain. We stall, we overthink, we wait; but waiting never builds a future.

Change begins the moment your desire becomes stronger than your fear, even through the fear is still there.

Shouldering too much – Needing to be needed

Paul Wagenaar

I spent years believing that being needed meant I was valuable. I carried more, fixed more, gave more, and convinced myself that was leadership.

But eventually I had to confront an uncomfortable truth: being needed is not the same as being seen. And being seen is not the same as being valued.

Sometimes the very thing that makes us successful can become the thing that keeps us from being recognized. Leadership is not about disappearing into the work. It is about understanding your impact, owning it, and creating space for others to rise with you.

The Silence Told Me Everything I Needed to Know – What happens when honesty disappears inside an organization

Paul Wagenaar

Everyone in the room knew the truth. I had heard it in conversations, one-on-one, behind closed doors. But when it was time to say it out loud, to stand behind it, there was nothing. No questions. No pushback.

Just silence. That’s when it hit me: culture isn’t defined by what people say in private. It’s defined by what they’re willing to risk saying when it actually matters.