The Ambassador You Didn't Know You Were

While editing an episode of Leader Generation, I heard something that stopped me mid-cut. The guest — Mariano Bosaz, VP of Global Consumer Strategy at Coca-Cola and author of The Digital Mindset — had dreamed of becoming an ambassador for a country. Official title, formal post, the works. It didn't happen. (Turns out without a family diplomat connection, they just send you somewhere terrible when you're old to make photocopies.) But what did happen? Eighteen years at Coca-Cola, three continents, 92 countries, building bridges between people, technology, and culture. He became an ambassador. Just not the one he'd imagined. That got me thinking about my own story. My son Austin asked me what I wanted to be when I was young — like, little-kid young. I told him the truth: a teacher and a children's author. Neither happened the way I'd pictured it at 12, 15, or 22. But I taught volunteer art literacy at my kids' elementary school for 12 years. I teach clients every day how to show up authentically and stop hiding behind corporate-speak. I host workshops. I've been in teacher mode longer than most credentialed teachers I know. And my book, Dino Manners, came out in 2009. I've finished others. There's a binder of short stories written for our kids sitting in our house right now. I did both things. I just didn't recognize them because they didn't arrive in the packaging I expected. In this short episode, I want to push back on the idea that unrealized dreams are failed dreams. They're rarely that literal. They're pointing at something — a drive, a value, a way of moving through the world. Those don't expire. Give it a listen. Then maybe pass it along to someone who needs to look at their dreams from a different angle — at any age. Links mentioned in this episode: https://marianobosaz.com/ https://tenloradio.com/e/ep161-digital-mindset-the-bridge-leaders-need-for-the-ai-era/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/marianobosaz/ https://binkypatrol.org https://dinomanners.com