You can always tell who believes in his vision and who
merely hopes it may take place one day by the nature of the risks the
individual is willing to take. It should be no shock to discover that
when Bill Gates (the founder of Microsoft and one of the wealthiest people in
the world) was a young boy, his favorite game was “Risk.” Whether it is
the risk of political stature and cachet in speaking the truth as you see it
(Churchill) or the financial risk of leaving your cushy, prestigious career as
a University professor, buying up a trunk load of your recently published book
(the one that the publisher told you would only sell a few thousand copies) and
going to scores of interviews in small town radio stations across the USA—and
at the end of the year having a best seller and making more money in one year
than you had in the previous thirty-six years (Wayne Dyer, Your Erroneous
Zones), the belief in the vision is verified by the risks you are willing
to take.
Visions are not realized by playing it safe. Camelot
would never have been built if Arthur was not willing to risk his life in
battle. Furthermore, he would never have engaged in those battles, if he
did not believe in himself and his vision.
Abraham would never have arrived in the Promised Land if he
had refused to leave his family and country for a far off destination, even
though he did not know, at first, where he was going. Without believing
in his vision and his ability to attain that vision, of course, he would never
have even considered the risks involved.
Joseph would never have become second-in-command of all
Egypt had he not risked “being wrong” regarding the interpretation of Pharaoh’s
dream. He took the risk because he had a vision years earlier that had
set him upon his quest. His faith in the God of that vision gave him the
courage to take the risk.
We not only see the legends’ beliefs born out in the leaps
of faith that they take in pursuing the fulfillment of their vision, we also
see it demonstrated in their laser-like focus on the vision. Everything
about their lives declares, This One Thing I Do.
Management guru Peter Drucker said, “Whenever anything is
being accomplished, it is being done, I have learned, by a monomaniac with a
mission.” A monomaniac is someone with a single idea. In
this context, the single idea is your vision. Of course, this does not
mean that you won’t have a multiplicity of concerns and avenues for fulfilling
your vision, only that there is a unifying principle at the heart of most all
of what you are doing.
You won’t find Legendary Leaders often reacting to
circumstances or being led around by some Focus Group. They also don’t
waste a lot of time and energy on fighting and arguing with those who disagree
with their vision. I am not saying that they do not seek to persuade
others, only that when they do, it is part of a proactive strategy rather than
a mere distraction.
Early on, one of the major errors I made as I went on my
quest was to spend so much time seeking to show others how “wrong” their quests
were. As I look back on this, it all looks so silly and childish. Part of
this was youthful arrogance and another part of it was insecurity, as I
foolishly believed that for my quest to be True, everyone else needed to agree
with and adopt the path I had chosen. What a huge distraction and waste of
energy that was, and it was all caused by the weakness of my belief in my
vision and myself.
The vision consumes the legend-in-the-making. Living
on the razor’s edge between disaster and miracle—which is where most
visionaries reside--the visionary cannot afford to take his eyes off of the
moment in which he is living. Believing as he does provides him with
blinders to anything and anyone who would distract from his quest.
An
excerpt from my book, Legendary Leadership
Copyright,
Monte E Wilson, 2009
