The weakest muscle in my system of choice is a humungous bright red button that reads, “Today you shall lead.”
But! I was having fun just being me! How conceited is that? President Reagan couldn’t have been more correct about the up and comers of the 1980’s, the birth place of the Me Generation.
The only problem is…we’ve grown up and the only shoes available to wear carry the sweat and grind of our parents with a sweet tingle of the figures that landed on this rock in the chapters before them.
Like it or not…it’s time to ride the horse!
Best selling author Seth Godin spells it out like this: There’s a vast shortage of leaders. We need you. For the first time since the birth of the rock shaved into a circle that rolls, everybody on the coworker squad is required to push beyond their personal expectations and lead.
I love filling the long hand painted halls at home and at work with extremely loud shouts, “The cream is rising to the top!”
We’ve never been blessed with so much opportunity; positions of decision making are opening and those who were blessed with the proper drive, dedication and determination are mending the holes in the floor while recasting the molds that shape the foundations we call everyday.
If you’re in the market to feel the force from a true Luke Skywalker, get an intern. Their fired up, vision set on tomorrow attitude adds height to value and purpose. No day passes that you don’t experience something that will never be found in a college handbook. By stepping into the game you’re giving permission to that long ago lost feeling that somehow convinced you to stop trying so hard. By teaching your craft you are reigniting your storm.
Your diced up spliced down mixed around barely getting by concept of the American dream left you in the dust because somewhere along the dusty trails someone said, “Avoid being a leader.”
I remember spending endless hours spinning 45’s and 8-tracks in my Montana made teenage bedroom plastered with posters and album sleeves pretending to be everything to radio’s future. Every class in high school was designed to serve as a stepping stone to making broadcasting not only my career but way of life. Like Eric Clapton, I picked up my musical instrument way too early in life and damn if anyone was going to spoil the end result.
Then I ran into me, myself and I running down the rickety old wooden staircase, tripping on the deeply aged and torn carpet the moment these ten toes touched the living room floor, “So Dude, um, man, don’t you think you should be like your cousins and let fate be the coach of your game? They like, have more records than you, drive faster cars, catch the latest movies while spending late night Friday’s at the Dairy Queen. I’d say trying too hard is making you a loser.”
Seth Godin writes, “Leadership isn’t difficult—the best thing is that you don’t need to wait until you’ve got exactly the right job to build a successful organization.”
Leadership is “not” management. Managers manage a process they’ve seen before.
Leadership creates change that you believe in. Movements have leaders and movements make things happen.
Managers have employees. Leaders invite change. People hate change. Leader’s don’t enforce change they swing open the door and smile, “You aren’t going to believe what I just came across…I honestly believe you have something that would bring to the surface an object of unforgettable proportion.”
Leaders are everywhere…sadly, like the next great novel; movie or unbelievable piece of music, what shall move the masses is hidden away in a box because we’ve elected to avoid our reasons for electing to lead.
Leaders don’t sit behind computer screens and critique. Tall wooden ships made to sail across the Atlantic weren’t sealed together by hopes and wishes but rather leadership with a vision. Even if there was a new world waiting to be discovered, where there are no taxes, religion is still a freedom and police officers don’t sit behind trees and billboards patiently waiting for speeders…truth is, we’d look at the clock, see when America’s Got Talent is on, fudge around with the Wii game system, download a Netflix then nab an already opened bag of week old potato chips and sit on the couch.
And I can’t find the strength to argue with that because if you’re damn good at it that means you are the leader of the booty on the sofa patrol and every great chair needs a 200 pound frame to make those legs worth the purpose of using that particular tree when carving out a piece of furniture that sits up off the floor where the dogs pee nearly 24/7.
So…whatcha wanna talk about now? The mere mention of life being a state of relaxation took the tips of your ambition and shot them toward Wal-Mart, Macy’s, Home Depot and Best Buy…avoiding leadership is so much easier to digest when other people’s products buy you well deserved happiness.
The American dream has nothing to do with buying a 3 bedroom house in a nifty cool friendly neighborhood. If the ATM card is workin…we’re cookin! Somebody pop on some Jimmy Buffett!
How old do you think you’ll be when your dreams come knocking a final time? Paint for me the portrait of the leader that doesn’t look like a manager. It’s a wonder Nintendo or Microsoft haven’t developed automatic toosh wipers that come to you at the toosh push of a button.
It’s the only thing missing!
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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