Who saw you before you saw yourself?

Last week, I had the honor of judging the state-level Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge here in Kansas.

It’s always inspiring to see the creativity and courage of young entrepreneurs, but what surprised me most wasn’t a pitch or a business idea.

It was a man named Clifton Taulbert.

At 80 years old, Clifton stood before a room of high school students and shared how he grew up in the segregated South during the 1950s—where his future seemed set in stone: cotton fields and hard labor.

But his uncle Cleve saw something else.

At just 12 years old, Clifton was invited to work in his uncle’s Ice House—a small business that served both Black and white customers at a time when that was almost unthinkable.

Uncle Cleve didn’t just teach him about work.

He taught him about vision.

About ownership.

About believing in something more.

Years later, Clifton would write a book called Who Owns the Ice House?, honoring the lessons that helped him break free from what the world told him he was destined to be.

At that reception, Clifton said something that stuck with me:

“My uncle saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself.”

And I felt a lump in my throat—because I know that feeling.

I thought about my parents.

My grandparents.

The people who believed in me when I doubted myself.

The ones who saw potential when all I saw were limitations.

I didn’t get here alone.

And I’m willing to bet you didn’t either.

God has blessed me with people who were willing to speak life over me until I could walk in it for myself.