LESSON: Leaders overcoming adversity should make it a habit to regularly read the Wall Street Journal obituary section and note two consistent themes: ordinary people with humble beginnings create fascinating lives with accomplishments never imagined, and most every life story has a hardship, a tragedy, which undoubtedly provided the character and strength to enable this great person to lead this enviable life.
The below lesson is an excerpt from my recently released Amazon #1 Best Seller, When Not If: A CEO's Guide to Overcoming Adversity, Forbes Books, 2024.
I’ve always believed great leaders study the world and learn from others’ mistakes instead of having to learn from all their own experiences, so I believe my final mission is to help so many others study my failures. Here is a subset a very long list:
• While building the successful company and reputation, I could have put in place so many protections and safety nets to, later, survive multiple black swans.
• I should have kept my powder dry to absorb bad decisions, bad economies, and significant shifts in the regulatory environment.
• I should have replaced our private shareholders to protect them from my poor decisions.
• I should have replaced all my family’s personal guarantees once the company had grown to its independent station.
• I should have protected the different companies and services from each other in order to stop a domino effect from my mistakes.
• I should not have allowed individuals to invest such a high percentage of their futures in the success of MICG, both clients and employees.
• Based on the experiences of my own life, I should have understood success is not a continuous, straight-line slope.
• I should have taken some chips off the table and put them away for a rainy day.
• I should not have let the rewards of success make me softer and less focused.
• After twenty years of outworking everyone, I should have handed the reins to someone else and enjoyed the rewards without jeopardizing the success of so many.
• I should have stayed the captain and not the coach, providing daily leadership-by-example, not telling others to overachieve on their own.
• I should not have handed the Ferrari keys to the valet in front of the small-town theater just so I felt important.
• At some point, I should have reasoned with the chip-on-the-shoulder 5’9” D1 point guard inside my mind and taught him to compromise, accept a few losses, and live for another day, for everyone’s sake.
Have a great week!
Order Amazon #1 Best Seller When Not If (Hardback, Kindle, Audio): https://www.amazon.com/When-Not-If-Overcoming-Adversity/dp/B0CKWTYSFF/r and on Audible https://www.audible.com/pd/B0D2LQ6QNC and Chirp When Not If by John Kador & Jeff Martinovich - Audiobook (chirpbooks.com).
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