I'm just listening to your interview just now with @myndnow and what you said about cultivating leadership skills is something that freemasonry is doing for me. I'm not a natural leader by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm learning those skills in a safe environment. That's one of the things I meant in my response to @to7 below about personal development. Also my public speaking / performance skills are being cultivated in that arena. I'm regarded as a good ritualist, which really means that I'm willing and able to put the work into learning my lines and I'm able to deliver those lines in a calm and comprehensible way. Of course my heart is hammering in my chest, but much less so than it used to. And now I'm in the chair of the Royal Arch, meaning I'm the figurative head honcho and have to run the committee meetings and the regular meetings, organise events, visit other chapters around the country to represent my own, welcome visitors to my chapter, and give speech after speech after speech. None of that comes naturally to me, but it is getting easier and it's bringing rewards that affect my life outside of freemasonry. Oh, and DTube fireworks! Ha ha.