It is hard to tell whether inspiration has followed Dr. Liesl Riddle or the other way around. Her mother, her college professor, her best friends, the networks she had built through the Women’s Leadership Lab, her children, and even a cancer diagnosis… These are the dots connecting the inspiration circle in Liesl’s life.
Her story is a testament to how inspiration can spur people to action and provide the “power engine” to overcome extraordinary obstacles and reach for new heights. Much of it is attributed to the ‘I’ (the “Inspiration”) Factor.
“Passion for education, inspiring, learning – that’s what makes me tick,” Liesl says.
The Rise of the “Death Star”
Something of Liesl’s character and creativity can be gleaned from one of the exercises she was challenged to do as part of the Women’s Leadership Lab.
“A ball was given to us, and we were asked to do something out of it with our own hands. We were asked as follows: ‘Look, up until now you have been making these balls and they’ve been selling really well. Suddenly, the market doesn’t want balls at all. Now they want stars. What are you doing to do?’ Riddle recalls.
She remembers looking at what the Flow Director for the NASA Discovery Space Shuttle was doing next to her.“ She starts to make tons of little stars and figures out how to put them together at angles.”
Liesl decided she would play off the idea. Except that she wasn’t going to build little stars. Oh, no!
Passion for education, inspiring, learning – that’s what makes me tick.
Addicted to Imagination