24 October 2009

misplaced ambition

We recently experienced the 46th anniversary of an event that rocked America. On November 22nd, 1963 John F. Kennedy was assassinated as his motorcade passed through the heavily populated city streets of Dallas, Texas.
Moments after the three shots rang out that took the President's life authorities arrested 24 year old Lee Harvey Oswald and charged him with the murder of President Kennedy. Oswald would never see the courtroom thanks to a bullet from the nose of Jack Ruby's 38 special.
In 24 hours the nation was rocked. The leader of the country lay slain, the victim of an assassin's malice. The guilty party lay slain the victim of another assassin's burning anger.
4 bullets and 2 men rewrote the history books and changed the course of American politics forever.
We can learn a lot from Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby.
Both were men who changed the world, albiet in a drastically negative way, but their actions had an immediate impact on "life as usual."
History tells us that as a young man in the United States Marine Corps that Lee Harvey Oswald was a very ambitious man. He wanted to change the world. He had a true desire that his life was meaningful and that he would be remembered forever. Oswald often felt as if he were a lone eagle soaring above the mediocrity of his peers. He was ambitious. He was carismatic. He was hungry for change. He was a leader.
He was a leader.
Lee spent several years in the Soviet Union working with and for Communist regimes in hopes of fulfilling his aspirations of greatness. While Lee did find love in Russia (he met and married his wife Marina Prusakova) he fell far short of the ambitions of his heart countless times. Wherever Lee searched to find his destiny it seemed to be the wrong place or the wrong time.
Misplaced ambition will destroy us.
Eventually Oswald and his wife and children moved to Dallas, Texas where Lee would finally find a place to manifest his desires for greatness. His misplaced ambition found a voice in the murder of President John F. Kennedy.
Oswald couldn't find the proper outlet for his ambitions of greatness. He tried, and tried, and tried, and tried only to find no respite for his soul's craving for significance. He had a sense of destiny, but no outlet to release his potential.
The thing that strikes me the most about the story of Lee Harvey Oswald is that at the time of his assassination of JFK Oswald was only 24 years old. He was young. He was very young. He had the possibility of a great future ahead of him and his family. He was bright-eyed and ambitious, yet he could not handle the pressure of failure so instead of finding the proper channel to place his ambitions he took matters into his own hands and destroyed the course of the nation.
Where are your ambitions placed? Are you that young Lee Harvey Oswald, full of potential with no place to experiment? Will you learn to let your gifts and talents develop instead of jumping ahead of your time?
These are questions that all leaders must come to terms with. We are all young Lee Harvey Oswalds in the sense that we have a desire for destiny and significance. We must allow our ambitions to be placed in the stream that carries them away from the rocky crags of assassination and toward the flowing falls of justice, peace and redemption.
That's what leadership is all about. Administering justice. Creating peace. Facilitating redemption.
Evaluate your leadership to see if you are allowing your frustrations to control your actions. Frustrated leaders produce frustrated people. We must realize that if we are truly going to be leaders that frustrating circumstances come along with the territory! We cannot completely eliminate bad situations. A friend of mine once said to me, "Great leaders are not known for the great situations they walk into, but rather the great situations they create."
Leadership is about creating great situations out of bad situations. Learn to manage your frustrations properly and process your disappointments. Oswald was disappointed at an early age. I wonder what history would look like if he had only taken the time to realize that he had plenty of great years ahead of him and he had no need to "make something happen."
One of the greatest sins of any leader is to try to make something happen.
Lee Harvey Oswald made something happen...
At 12:30 pm November 22nd, 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald made something happen. He entered the Texas School Book Depository building where he was an employee and made his way to the 6th floor. In a few moments the President would be dead at his hands.
I say again misplaced ambitions are dangerous.
Oswald had a choice that November morning. He didn't have to enter the building. He didn't have to ascend to the 6th floor. He didn't have to shoot the President.
But he did.
We as leaders must refuse to let our misplaced ambitions destroy us or those around us. We have got to make the right choice and refuse to enter the building. When frustration, disappointment, doubt, anger, fear and the like come creeping into our hearts trying to derail us from the vision we have for our lives we must say "NO!" to the Texas School Book Depository. We must refuse to go in. We must refuse to be led by our misplaced ambitions, but rather find proper avenues of leadership and service that will allow us to truly live the fulfilled life that we have all been destined to live.
Lee Harvey Oswald didn't do this. We must learn from his example.
Oswald did make history. In fact he was on the front page of every newspaper in the country. He fulfilled a temporary high only to pay a permanent wage.
Jack Ruby shot and killed Oswald less than 24 hours after Oswald shot the President.
His time in the spotlight was short lived.
So will ours be if we continue to have misplaced ambitions.
Let us move forward with bold faith and properly cultivated ambitions. Let us learn from Lee and move away from frustration and into fulfillment. Let us process our pain and heal the hurting places in our lives.
Let us lead.
Let us live.

10 October 2009

Just Name It

     Sir Isaac Newton changed the world around him with one small, seemingly insignificant act. He gave a name to something that was already present around him. The name "gravity" was coined by Newton as he noticed that what goes up must come down. He didn't invent gravity...he named it. Science remembers Newton for a number of things, but none are more significant than his articulation of gravity.

     I wonder what the world will remember us by? Often as I watch leaders scurry about the hallways of their organizations I wonder if they are making the most of what is around them, like good ole Isaac. I think that many times they are covering up their lack of creativity with their busyness while other times they are simply waiting for that perfect idea to fall into their lap.

     A good friend once told me, "Great leaders are remembered not by the perfect situations they walk into, but by the perfect situations they create."

     What perfect situation will you create in your organization?

     The same is true for you that was true for Isaac Newton. You don't have to spend time and energy reinventing the wheel. Gravity is all around us...will you be the one to name it? Learn to recognize what everyone else is thinking and feeling and then don't be afraid to give it a name.

     As leaders we need to be able to "pull the trigger" and fire on a great idea. So I ask you, what great idea is in your sights that you have been waiting on the right time to fire? Wait no longer. Pull the trigger.
     
     Ghandi pulled the trigger on non-violence and changed the world. Mother Theresa pulled the trigger on love for the un-loveable and changed the world. Martin Luther King Jr. pulled the trigger on racial equality and changed the world.  Jesus Christ pulled the trigger on salvation and changed the world.  Pull the trigger!!! Gravity is all around you and it is waiting on you to pull the trigger.

     The people all around you are waiting on you to pull the trigger. Will you be the one to do what needs to be done? If you say yes to that question you will change the world around you forever.