Someday--when all the dust has settled from the current financial crisis, the stories have been written, the lessons have been learned, and the historians have analyzed--I believe that people will look back and honor many of the decisions that were made for the greater good, sometimes at personal expense. On Monday of this week I heard Anna Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren speak at a Women’s High Tech Coalition meeting. One of the audience questions was, “What was your decision process to vote for the bailout?”

In her answer, Eshoo told of another congressman who confided to her, “If I vote for this, I won’t get re-elected. But it’s the right thing to do for the country, so I’m voting for it.” She added that 50% of her constituents here in California were opposed to the bill and the other 50% were violently opposed to it. But after listening to the arguments and hearing the Secretary of Treasury describe the potential consequences she voted with her conscience.

That started me thinking of times when conscience and the human spirit have overcome hardship and I pulled out an old Times article I had clipped, coincidentally, from this same date one year ago. It was the story of a child of a bohemian poet from the U.S. living in the Italian Alps just as the WWII broke out. When the boy was four years old his mother was taken away to Dachau, forcing him to live on the streets with other abandoned children, stealing food, and living a nearly feral lifestyle. Eventually his little gang landed in a hospital where conditions were only slightly better. To ensure the boys didn’t run away, they were not given any clothing. Five years later, released from Dachau, his mother searched for him extensively and brought him back to the United States. Sixty years later, Mario Capecchi--who spoke no English, was illiterate at nine years old, and had never been to school--won the Nobel Prize for Medicine.

What gives us this ability to overcome even the most extreme hardships and achieve greatness? At the moment, many of us around the world are worried as we watch our investments shrink, our companies struggle as key customers disappear, and face the potential of our own jobs being affected. As I’ve told my team, it’s easy to be a leader when things are going great. When things aren’t going well, but you know what to expect, then it’s easier to see a brighter future and lead a team toward that future. But when there’s so much unknown--and only fools would predict the future at this moment--then the stamina of a leader is fully called into action.

How will we help those who work with us get through this period? We each have a choice to make--whether we formally lead others or we lead informally--since we are all leaders. Do we want to be remembered as someone who authentically inspired during uncertain times, without crossing into banal optimism? Can we provide genuine hope, transparency, and resolution of ambiguity while facing personal uncertainty?

I know that others are sacrificing now, as in the case of the congressman who knows he will not be re-elected. And others have suffered in the past, like Capecchi. We each have a choice to make as we deal with our own emotions and fears during this economic crisis. We can be leaders and be remembered as leaders. Or we can let circumstances overcome us. Because I am inspired by those who have chosen to rise above their circumstances, both inside and outside of Sun, I hope and aim toward that myself. Now. Because now is the time that really matters.