Where the Great Ones Are

The journey to the Hall of Fame is about more than achievement—it's about embracingchallenges, building relationships, and serving a greater purpose.

Listening to Jennifer Nessett’s voicemail “about the AAMD Hall of Fame” earlier this year, I assumed she was asking me to serve on the nominating committee. The idea sounded enticing. After all, I’ve made lifelong friends through AAMD committees, and joining the Hall of Fame nominating committee would be a tremendous honor for me.

Then I found out it wasn’t an invitation to join a committee, but rather to join the fellowship of industry leaders that I admire the most by being inducted into the AAMD Hall of Fame.

My first thought was total astonishment.

It feels like only yesterday that I started my journey with the AAMD. I remember being a new member, tentatively walking among giants of the industry or seeing them on stage. We started as strangers but, through our work on task forces, committees, and conferences, we became acquaintances, colleagues, and friends.

Indeed, I ended up with multiple AAMD tables at my wedding (which, admittedly, my bride had not quite planned for). But that is the magic of the AAMD. It weaves itself into the fabric of your life so completely that you stop thinking of it as an association and start thinking of it as home; its members become family.

Family celebrates joyous occasions together. Just as importantly, family supports us through difficult times. Anyone who has been around this organization long enough knows that truth. We have lived through market downturns, unexpected career pivots, health scares, and a global pandemic.

“There is no easy way from the earth to the stars,” Seneca said. Or, as the Latin phrase goes, per aspera ad astra: through hardship to the stars.

Our mission has never been more important and, in many ways, it’s never been more challenging. People and families are depending on housing providers like never before. It’s up to each of us to answer the call. To roll up our sleeves to work, to build, to overcome, to inspire. We are all part of a sacred movement.

During my last lecture each spring, as my students prepare to leave Harvard Yard and embark on their next voyage, I always share "The Call of the Open Sea," a poem which captures our industry, our work, and our journey through life:

“I’m tired of sailing my little boat

Far inside of the harbor bar;

I want to be out where the big ships float

Out on the deep where the Great Ones are

And should my frail craft prove too slight

For storms that sweep those wide seas o’er,

Better go down in the stirring fight

Than drowse to death by the sheltered shore.”

We were born to go where the great ones are. Not because it is safe. It is not. Not because success is certain. It never is. But because the work matters, the mission is real, and the people in this community are proof of what is possible when talent, passion, and purpose align in service of something larger than any one of us.

As we embark on another great year at the AAMD, let's celebrate what we have built and rededicate ourselves to what comes next. Let's sail outside that harbor bar together. And as we do, let's remember: no matter the height of the waves or the intensity of the storm, this is a voyage we make as one.

Per aspera ad astra.