What a neat privilege to interview Kim B. Clark. If you don’t know about this man, he has been a major force in changing education around the globe—all the way from the lofty executives at Harvard, to young children in 3rd world countries.

 

As a young adult, Kim served an LDS mission, before taking a year to study BYU. It was there he met incredible professors who sparked him with a passion for teaching higher education. He then went to Harvard, where he forefrunted incredible studies on innovation in the marketplace.  After his education and some years, he then became the dean of Harvard Business School. 

 

After a long and successful career at HBS, he then received a special invitation from Gordon B. Hinckley, then acting President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to serve as President of BYU Idaho. Although his peers thought he was out of his mind to switch schools, he accepted the role with enthusiasm.

 

It was during his time at BYUI that Kim played a major role in the development of BYU Pathway Worldwide, an online worldwide education network that now services more than 70,000 people a year, bring education to even the poorest of countries throughout the world.

 

Kim has impacted millions of lives throughout the globe, including my own. Although I attended HBS many years after he left, the legacy and change for good he created helped shaped my own character and career for the better. 

 

My personal takeaway from Kim’s story is that in order to make big impact, you must decide where you wish to end up, and then you must accept the path it takes to get there. 

 

You’ll be tempted to stray or give up, but once you demonstrate that you’re not going anywhere, 

life opens up to you. Kim’s life looks nothing like he thought it would today, but he was fearless in taking those opportunities when they presented themselves. That faith and discipline has allowed him to accomplish in one lifetime what would normally take 10.