What is a leadership anvil? It’s anything that happens in your life that helps shape you and brings about change. It’s not easy, and it doesn’t always feel good, but what you do with your anvils determines your ultimate success.

Nelson Mandela was arrested in 1956 in South Africa for protesting apartheid. He had a four year trial and in 1960 was found not guilt. The white judge was angry about this, so he sentenced him to five years in prison for being a protestor and causing problems for the government.

Mandela’s five year sentence ended up lasting twenty seven years. in 1990 he was released from prison at the age of seventy one.

Upon his release he gave a speech in which he said these words:

If I had not been in prison, I would not have been able to achieve the most difficult task in life, and that is changing yourself.

He was in prison not because he did something wrong. He was in prison for trying to right a wrong. Did he create a meaningful experience from this injustice? Yes. He went on the transform the world in the process.

What is a meaningful experience that you can use as an anvil in your life to help shape you?