Pioneering Spirit

One of the best speeches I ever heard was by former President Bill Clinton. It was years ago. I remember it was a speech on leadership. Bill had his usual charm and distinctive voice and it was very easy to listen to him.

Listening.

That is the part I took most away from his speech. Bill Clinton said that the number one best skill he had as leader of the United States was to listen to others. He said as a child, his parents had lots of friends from all walks of life and all sorts of career paths that would be invited to their house for dinner. Bill learned from an early age to break bread with folks at the dinner table because food was a great uniter. He also learned that just by listening to everyone at the dinner table, he could learn so much and that each person had something new to teach him if he only listened. He said when he became President, he would often invite people of all walks of life and all career paths to the White House to do these same dinners where they listened to each other and learned from each other. He said that was the best skill he learned from his parents in his youth in Arkansas and that is what he felt most proud of being able to accomplish in his Presidency. He was an inclusive person that never stopped learning. He also said that working on the Human Genome Project, he learned that 99.3% of all humans are essentially the same in DNA. It is only this small percentage, less than 1% that causes our variations and differences. That also was interesting to learn in the speech from him.

I was watching the leadership guru, John Maxwell, give a really funny and entertaining speech on Jamie Kern Lima’s Unstoppable Conference on motivation. There were a few small things he said, that I just had learned through listening and actually found to be quite profound.

One thing he said is “be like a river, not a reservoir,” meaning that as he said, “God gives us what he wants to flow through us.” I thought about this for a moment. They often refer to Creator source as living water meaning water that is moveable and not stagnant. Stagnant water, we are taught in science, can be quite bad for our health and the health of others around us. So I write these few items to share a flow of ideas that are quite fascinating and helpful.

John’s speech was about being the first “outta the people pile” to try something new. He said that sometimes it is not the most skilled that wins a race but rather the one to jump to the front first and gets a headstart. When you think of the California Gold Rush, it is the people that got there first that had the greatest success. When you see a high school classroom, it is the ones in the front or second row that tend to do a little better in school.

I have had the fortune of experiencing this in my own life. When I was young, I was at the back of the people pile when any event occurred in school because my name started with the letter P. But when I got married, I became an Anderson and my name changed to the very first person in every group to be called. It was both an honor and a bonus to start out at the front of the pack as an Anderson but it also meant that I needed to step up my leadership skills because others would follow my lead and do what I did by example. I had to pay attention more. I had to listen more. I had to be motivated and really learn the instructions ahead of time because as the first one to be called, I could also be the first to screw things up publically and be quite embarrassed.

But, all in all, I began to realize that being the first was better than being in the pile of others.

John said something else. He said the word “pioneer.”

“Be a pioneer.”

This instantly made me think of the Old Stone House that I live 5 miles away from here in Northern Vermont. The man that lived there was a pioneer and you can visit his beautiful homestead here today. But more than that, Alexander Twilight knew the great importance of being the first. Alexander Twilight was a pioneer in more than one way. He became the first African-American to go to college, the first to attain a teaching degree, the first to become a teacher, the first to run for political office, the first to become a US House of Representatives member, and the first to become a US Congressman.

He understood the importance of being a pioneer, to be the first to step out. There’s something about the drive in this pioneering spirit that our country needs to bring back. The idea of manifest destiny with Lewis and Clark and all the settlers, the Daniel Boones and so forth, to boldly step forth into the “wilderness of life” and be the first. I think that is something that our United States has been missing for a while but shows in immigration and also in our recent moves towards AI and space technology and robotics.

John Maxwell said, “they will think you are crazy but only because you are the first.” That is true.

What did they think of Alexander Graham Bell?

What did they think of Thomas Edison?

What did they think of George Washington Carver?

What did they think of the Wright Brothers?

What do folks always think of these inventors? As Steve Jobs said, “Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.”

I remember watching Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a kid and how everyone thought the dad was kind of nuts but then his invention worked and suddenly they had the flying car. Or consider how someone like Elon Musk with all his companies and grand ideas and inventions have really changed the way folks think about the future and space and vehicles that drive themselves. A few decades ago, Tesla was not even well known.

John said, “there is an until moment.”

You are crazy…until you succeed.

You are just the guy next door……until you develop that patent.

You are just ordinary with maybe some off the wall ideas…….until one day, your ideas can actually help others’ lives and help the world be a better place.

You are not crazy. You are just the first to think these ideas or do these great things.

People thought Abraham Lincoln was kinda crazy. He tried and tried and tried again to succeed in politics. He failed over and over and over again to get elected for anything. But then….he did. He won and he not only won but he changed the future for America and perhaps for the whole world.

I was listening to Dean Digrassi talk about George Washington too. George Washington had only 4,000 some soldiers in the Continental Army verses 30,000 some soldiers including fierce Hessians in the British Army. There were Revolutionary supporters in the colonies but many thought George was a little nuts and they stayed Loyalist. Then, George crossed the Delaware and surprised the Hessians in a sneak attack and he turned the tide of the war.

He read this from Thomas Paine’s, The Crisis, outloud to the soldiers as they crossed:

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.”

The last thing that I learned from John Maxwell is that the key to turning the tide is to be consistent and persistent. Practice makes perfect. Keep trying.

Michael Jordan is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time and his signature move which he kinda invented too or made popular, was the slam dunk. But what made Michael Jordan so great was all the shots he took in practice over and over and over again and all the shots he took in games over and over and over again with some failing and some succeeding but never giving up and always trying to be one of the first on the court to shoot his shot.

Michael said,

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

I don’t know.

I just found John Maxwell’s speech very thought provoking tonight. He’s a great leadership instructor and worth looking into his mentor program. I just think these are important take aways that I have learned from these folks that might help you moving forward and me too.

To remind us that failure is not an end but just a setup opportunity to succeed if we continue with consistency and persistency and don’t worry what folks say cause some day that idea you or I have, it might just change the world.

Never give up learning.

Never give up listening.

Never give up.