If someone achieves a good outcome through manipulative or unethical means, is the outcome still good?
If that same person makes a great decision based on sound information and principles, but it leads to a bad result, was the effort still “good” in a moral sense?
All other virtues depend on courage in their execution.
To some extent, all worthwhile endeavors require going against the status quo or doing something difficult. This requires bravery.
Being a courageous politician sometimes means opposing a tyrannical leader, even if that figure has mass appeal. But doing the right thing requires courage in this case.
Acting justly (i.e., doing the right thing) is often unpopular. (How depressing!)
Persisting in the face of opposition requires courage.
Doing the right thing often requires someone “going first,’ also known as leading! You must be courageous to lead, as you must be willing to fail.
The MLB is investing in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, a long-overdue organization for the United States’ outstanding softball players.
I’m sharing this article here, not because the MLB is investing in it, but for a different reason entirely.
As I read this, all I could think was, “A group of impresarios made this happen.”
Impresario: someone who organizes something, who brings the right people together to connect and make things happen that need to happen.
A group of people (mostly strong, driven women) said, “Why isn’t there a professional softball league? Why aren’t softball players making a career of this after dominating in college like all the men in MLB get to do?”
So what did they do? They made it happen themselves. Eventually, other groups, such as ESPN and MLB, took notice and decided to invest. But that isn’t the impressive part.
What’s impressive is that a small group of people decided that something that didn’t exist should exist. And they made it happen, without permission, by bringing the best and the brightest softballers together to build something great.
This is the work of an impresario.
This is leadership.
Someone asked Dr. Karl Menninger what he would recommend if someone told him they felt a nervous breakdown coming. He replied:
“Lock up your house, go across the railroad tracks, find someone in need, and do something to help that person.”
It’s a good reminder for me when I need to get out of my head.
One person. Just help one person with whatever skill you have, whatever problem she has.
This one act doesn’t have to dictate the entire course of your life, business, career, or whatever else you’re worried about.
Nor do you have to plan everything perfectly from the start. No need to create a business plan, figure out all the courses and certifications you need to take, or get an accountant on retainer. At least not right now.
The important thing is to start. Help this one person in front of you.
If it goes well, then you can decide whether to help another in the same way. Or not.
One decision doesn’t have to dictate every other decision that follows.
There’s a line on the History Major page at the US Naval Academy:
Effective leadership is applied history.
Leadership, more than anything, is decision-making—specifically decision-making that affects other people, not only you.
By studying history, you can examine the minds of other leaders and understand their actions and the resulting outcomes (good and bad).
You can learn lessons from other people’s experiences rather than from your own failures and setbacks. This will not only save you time, money, and emotional labor—in some cases, it might save lives.
“If you haven’t read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren’t broad enough to sustain you.”
Learn lessons from others by studying history. Don’t repeat their mistakes when you can simply read a book.
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, it sent all the children home for an extended period of virtual schooling. This showed parents what it was like to deal with lots of kids all day long.
Not just “deal” with them either, but also hopefully have them learn something.
Multiply parents’ experience with their handful of children by 10, and that was what the average schoolteacher dealt with on a daily basis for years before 2020.
What fascinates me about this, however, is that the experience didn’t lead to an outpouring of support. It didn’t lead to calls for higher pay, better working conditions, and more classroom assistance for teachers.
Instead, COVID-19 made schooling much, much worse for teachers as, inexplicably, it led to a focus on culture war issues and concerns over what was being taught in the classrooms.
What do you value? And how do you structure your life so that the things you value are apparent?
If you say you value thinking, how do you engage with that value on a daily basis?
If you say you value your health, how does that show up in your day?
Values are developed through action. They requires practice to become part of who you are.
At the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (spoiler alert), Harry stands near the lake waiting for his father to appear and ward off the dementors attacking Sirius’s, Hermione’s, and his past selves.
After waiting for an agonizing amount of time, he realizes that he was the person who conjured the Patronus and drove the creatures away, not his father. He was the person he’d been waiting for all along.
Even without time travel, this is a relevant lesson to us. We often sit around waiting for someone to swoop in and save the day. We wait for someone else to act.
The problem is that everyone else is doing the same thing—they are all waiting around for someone else to rescue them from whatever the problem may be.
At some point, you must wake up and realize you are the hero of your story. You are the person everyone else is waiting for to act.
Someone eventually has to take a stand, so it might need to be you.
You don’t get time—to read, eat well, love your spouse, exercise, or whatever.
You have to make time. This applies to anything important to you. If it matters, you must carve out time in your day to ensure it happens.
Otherwise, life will ensure it doesn’t.
