Obama and the Leadership of You
As our young, relatively inexperienced, African-American President assumes the responsibility of leading a nation in trouble, isn’t it time you stepped up to the responsibility of leading your life?
You are the protagonist of your own destiny and while we’re often buffeted by unknown and inexplicable forces such as disease and the economy, much of our destiny is in our own hands. Just as only your saliva will break down a stain made of your blood, there are some things that only you can do – and charting your path is the most important.
Watching someone as improbable as Barack Obama mount the stage before the world emphasizes the power of personal commitment to leading one’s life. Obama has great talent, it’s true. But he also has four other traits that you can develop: Realism, discipline, pragmatism and a devotion to preparation.
Realism: This is the most important trait of the highly successful. Titans in every walk of life have better and more efficient ‘reality recognition’. They’re more willing to see the bad and the ugly as well as the good. Practically speaking, they’re better information gatherers. They shut up and listen. Warren Buffett says Obama is “a listener”. He listens to critics and adversaries as well as supporters; to conservative columnists such as George Will and even to his rival Senator John McCain. Realistic leaders think like pollsters by looking for patterns in information and get this -- they “live more in the real world of nature” according to the great 20th Century psychologist, Abraham Maslow. Meaning they don’t confuse what’s real with the current zeitgeist or get sucked in to media and marketing pitches which are thrown at us from dawn ‘til dusk.
Discipline: We’ve recently learned that despite his long days campaigning, Barack Obama would get 60-90 minutes of exercise every day. (If he can find the time, you can find the time!) Shailagh Murray who covered Obama for eighteen months as a correspondent for the Washington Post says that Obama, “is almost monkish” in his discipline and habits. On his campaign plane,
Pragmatic: In a briefing for
Preparation: No less a success than Charlie Munger, the Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway says that, “More important than the will to win is the will to prepare.” This quote hit me like a ton of bricks! Look what careful planning has done for Obama. He and his team beat the most powerful Democratic machine in forty years. In eighteen months, the man “who’d never run anything” raised more money than all of his competitors, built a national professional services firm with hundreds of thousands of volunteers and a creative approach to winning. They rewrote the book on the
Barack Obama – the 44th President and a realistic, disciplined pragmatist who prepares for his own success. Now you can too.
Cheers,
Donald
Donald Van de Mark is a speaker and writer
donaldvandemark@gmail.com
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