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You are going to be doubted – Quincy Jones

April 19, 2022 In Insight 10 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Focusing too much on what others have to say about you will lead you down a path to defeat before you’ve even had a chance to act. You can either entertain their skepticism or remove the chains from your creativity by allowing yourself to rise to the occasion

In his very insightful book, 12 Notes: On Life and Creativity, 80-time Grammy nominee and 8-time Grammy award winner Quincy Jones share a great anecdote about being underestimated, believing in yourself, and ignoring the naysayers. Quincy Jones had earlier pitched Micheal Jackson on producing his solo albums but the record executives at epic records were not enthusiastic about Quincy producing the records.

12-notes-on-life-and-creativity-quincy-jones

The executives said:

No way. Quincy’s too jazzy. He’s only done The Brothers Johnson. He’s a jazz arranger and composer.

But in spite of the doubters, naysayers, and the non-cooperation, the collaboration between Quincy Jones and Micheal Jackson led to the following:

Off the Wall, sold tens of millions of copies. It became the biggest-selling Black record in history. It also became the first album to generate four American Top 10 hits.
Thriller Album is the bestselling album of all time. Thriller became Jackson’s first number one album on the US Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart, where it spent a record 37 non-consecutive weeks at number one, from February 26, 1983, to April 14, 1984.
Bad Album – Bad debuted at number one on the Billboard Top Pop Albums chart, selling over 2.25 million copies in its first week in the US, and stayed atop for six consecutive weeks. It also reached number one in 24 other countries, including the UK, where it sold 500,000 copies in its first five days and became the country’s best-selling album of 1987.

Quincy writes:

There are numerous instances in which I’ve found power in being underestimated, but one of the most ironic memories is from when I began working with Michael Jackson as the producer of his top three albums, Off the Wall, Thriller, and Bad. Music history might look a bit different if I allowed negative opinions to stand in the way of what I knew I was capable of. But as I said, prematurely boasting only sets you up to look like a fool, so I’ll let you decide what you want to take from the following anecdote.

By the late ’60s, I was getting completely burned out from doing movie scores. I had done thirty-five of them and had both hits and flops. Most composers do one or two a year, but I never did fewer than that. I once did eight! I was moving at an unsustainable pace. I remember often sleeping only three hours a day and running cold water over my wrists to stay awake.

I also had three more kids after Jolie at this point, including Rachel, Tina, and Quincy Jones III, so there weren’t many hours to work with in the day. Simultaneously, film scorers (especially Black film scorers) were at the bottom of the Hollywood food chain, and easily replaceable. It felt as though my value in the industry was constantly hanging by a thread. At the drop of a dime, I could be cut loose. Most important, I wanted to get away from the rigidity of having to write music to pictures.

I longed to get back into the record business and wanted to make albums under my own name, produce for other artists, and facilitate a more free-flowing creative process. I didn’t want to think about any deadlines. I simply wanted to create what gave me goosebumps. In 1969, I signed a deal with Creed Taylor’s Impulse! Records, which was distributed by A&M, and did a good number of albums through the ’70s, including Walking in Space, one of the first jazz-fusion records, Gula Matari, Body Heat, a whole host of projects with The Brothers Johnson, and many more. Toward the end of the ’70s, I was recruited back to film after Sidney Lumet asked me to be the music producer and supervisor for his new movie, The Wiz. I didn’t want to do it, but since Sidney helped me get my first scoring assignment, on The Pawnbroker back in 1964, I couldn’t say no.

Micheal Jackson

I had previously met Michael Jackson when he was only twelve years old, but The Wiz brought us together for our first official collaboration, since he was cast in the role of Scarecrow. When we began rehearsals, Michael was getting ready to do his own album on Epic Records and he asked me to help him find a producer. My plate was pretty full trying to get pre-production for The Wiz going, so I couldn’t even think about it at the time. But over the course of our rehearsals, I came to see that, on top of his otherworldly talents, Michael had a work ethic like I’d never seen before. No matter what, he was always prepared. He ensured that every dance step, line, and lyric was perfected to a T, and even memorized the lines of his co-stars.

In one scene, he was instructed to pull little pieces of paper out of his straw chest. They were filled with proverbs from famous philosophers and he kept mispronouncing Socrates. After three days of mispronouncing his name as “Sow-cray-tees,” and receiving no correction, I pulled him aside during a break and whispered, “Michael, before it becomes a habit, I think you should know that the name is pronounced ‘Sock-ra-tees.’” With the utmost humility, he said, “Really?”

Without even taking a second to think about it, I replied with, “I’d like to take a shot at producing your new record.” His ability to take critique, on top of his work ethic and talent, indicated that he was exactly the kind of artist I would want to work with. He agreed.

No way. Quincy’s too jazzy. He’s only done The Brothers Johnson. He’s a jazz arranger and composer.

Later, when Michael approached his label, Epic Records, about having me produce the album, his A&R reps told him, “No way. Quincy’s too jazzy. He’s only done The Brothers Johnson. He’s a jazz arranger and composer.” It was the same type of response that I’d heard repeatedly over the years. They didn’t know about the extent of my musical background, and they told Michael that Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff should do it. He eventually marched back to Epic with his managers, Freddy DeMann and Ron Weisner, and demanded that I produce his record.

Prove them Wrong

Much to his label’s dismay, they agreed, but didn’t expect much from me. And although they agreed, there wasn’t a whole lot of cooperation. At that point it didn’t matter though, because the ball was left in my court. I knew that I could either meet their low expectations or exceed them. In addition to their doubts about the level of my competency, many also wondered if Michael could make it as a solo artist in his adult years without the support of his brothers.

I knew that I could either meet their low expectations or exceed them. In addition to their doubts about the level of my competency, many also wondered if Michael could make it as a solo artist in his adult years without the support of his brothers.

I had of course known about his Jackson 5 days, but I was interested in helping him break out of that former persona he was locked into. I wanted to push him beyond just dance music and see how far he could stretch his musicality. I had recently seen him at the Oscars singing “Ben,” a song about a rat (for the film, Ben), which I knew wasn’t going to cut it.

More than anything, I wanted to help him with his artistic development and get him to dig deeper, with no limitations on how far he could go musically. He had all the talent and drive. He did his homework. He just needed some guidance. I tested his creativity from every angle and applied everything I’d learned over the years to help him with his artistic growth, like dropping keys a minor third to give him flexibility and a more mature range in his upper and lower registers. I played around with tempo changes. I wanted to make a pop album that blended elements of R&B, disco rhythms, top-of-the-line arrangements, and, of course, his vocals.

The Dream Team

I gathered what I called my “Killer Q Posse,” which consisted of Rod Temperton, one of the best songwriters to have ever lived on this planet; Bruce Swedien, the engineer of all engineers; Greg Phillinganes, a virtuosic keyboardist; Jerry Hey, a monster trumpeter and arranger; Louis Johnson, the youngest of The Brothers Johnson; John “J. R.” Robinson, a fellow Berklee alum and the drummer for Rufus; Paulinho Da Costa from Brazil on percussion; and many other great musical talents. Although it was impossible to predict the record’s chances of success, we collectively poured 110 percent into every track and nuance of the album.

In an attempt to steer Michael toward songs with more depth and emotion than he had ever sung before, I got Stevie Wonder’s “I Can’t Help It,” Paul McCartney’s “Girlfriend,” Tom Bahler’s “She’s Out of My Life” (a track that I was initially going to give to Frank Sinatra!), Rod Temperton’s “Rock With You,” and, of course, “Don’t Stop ’Til You Get Enough.”

Off the Wall Album

Michael did most of his vocals live, with no overdubs. The resulting record, Off the Wall, sold tens of millions of copies. It became the biggest-selling Black record in history. How’s that for being too “jazzy”? Ironically, Epic was about to do a round of layoffs, but Off the Wall saved the jobs of many of the doubters who previously claimed that “Quincy is the wrong guy.” It also became the first album to generate four American Top 10 hits.

Due to the success of Off the Wall, Michael and I went on to record Thriller (which is, as of this writing, still the bestselling album of all time) and Bad.

Lesson Learned from the Experience

The entire experience reinforced the fact that people are always going to have opinions about your qualifications. What really matters is what you do with them. Focusing too much on what others have to say about you will lead you down a path to defeat before you’ve even had a chance to act. You can either entertain their skepticism or remove the chains from your creativity by allowing yourself to rise to the occasion.

I still have to remind myself of this lesson because my being underestimated didn’t stop after Off the Wall, or Thriller, or Bad. In fact, the more ears that heard those albums, the more opinions I had coming at me.

But now, instead of being underestimated for my capabilities, I’m underestimated for my age. People often ask me when I’m going to retire, but my only response is, “I’m just starting. Retired? You take the ‘re’ off of that and it’s ‘tired.’ I’m not tired yet.” If you never leave, you never have to make a comeback, and that’s exactly what I plan on doing. There’s nothing wrong with retiring, especially after you’ve put in decades of hard work, but it’s just not for me. I’m not interested in letting my age dictate my competency.

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

It is going to get tough.

April 14, 2022 In Insight 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

As Sir Roger Bannister, the first man to run a mile in less than four minutes once quipped: “The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful is the man who will win.” Bannister held the record for 46 days before John Landy broke the sub-four-minute mile with a time of 3 minutes 57.9 seconds. The sub-four-minute mile has since been run by 1663 athletes as of April 13, 2021) by runners worldwide.

“The world mile record now stands at 3 minutes 43.13 seconds, set by Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco in 1999. ”

Henry Ford on Schooling, Education, and Knowledge.

April 12, 2022 In Insight 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

The object of education is not to fill a man’s mind with facts; it is to teach him how to use his mind in thinking. And it often happens that a man can think better if he is not hampered by the knowledge of the past.

The founder of Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford is considered one of the most influential and successful entrepreneurs in the 20th century. He developed the assembly line mass production system and introduced the Model T in 1908 as the first affordable automobile for the masses.

In his autobiography: My Life and Work, he made some salient points about schooling, knowledge and Education. He also writes about his suspicion for so-called experts and not hiring them. He writes:

Wildly Important Goals.

April 7, 2022 In Insight 5 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it. – Hebert Simon

Your priority determines what you pay attention to and give the utmost importance to. American author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins often say “Energy flows where attention goes.” The difference between successful people and non-successful is how they spend their time and what they prioritize. Priority is derived from the old french word Priorite, from the latin Prioritas. Morphologically it contains the word: Prior + ity. It means the importance placed on an activity, item, event, person, or situation. A priority is something you do first, you do it prior to doing any other thing. It is of utmost importance, it affects your bottom line, it affects your well-being, and it affects your choices and decisions.

The reason most goals are not achieved is that we spend our time doing second things first.- Robert J. McKain

In the book, The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals, authors Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling define Wildly Important Goals (WIG) as the goals you must achieve with total excellence beyond the circling priorities of your day-to-day. To succeed, you must be willing to make the hard choices that separate what is wildly important from all the many other merely important goals on your radar. Then, you must approach that WIG with focus and diligence until it is delivered as promised, with excellence.

Human beings are genetically hardwired to do one thing at a time with excellence.

Focusing on the wildly important means narrowing the number of goals you are attempting to accomplish beyond the day-to-day demands of your whirlwind.

A wildly Important Goal is the goal that matters most. Failure to achieve it will make every other accomplishment seem secondary, or possibly even inconsequential.

The concept of wildly important goals has been very important in my quest to achieve my goals. Our time here is limited and the need to have a sense of urgency has never been these urgent. In our instant everything, shortcut driven world, setting your intentions and reviewing your goals daily is a great skill set to master. To re-order my priorities daily, I use the Thankfulness, Insight, Meditation, and Exercise (TIME) framework as taught by English author and former Hindu monk, Jay Shetty in his book, Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day.

Thankfulness: I start my day by filling out the gratitude journal.
Insight: I listen to audiobooks, watch documentaries, and read books, magazines, and reports to stay sharp and informed.
Meditation: I meditate for 30 minutes in the morning before I start the day. Starting the day with meditation gets me centered and in equanimity with what matters.
Exercise: I engage in a five-minute guided stretch in the morning and work out for 2 hours in the gym after work.

I have been experimenting with the TIME framework since October 2021 and it has allowed me to stay centered, and focus on my wildly important goals daily.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much. – Jim Rohn

Review your goals constantly to remind you of your most important goals

In his book, Your Best Year Ever: A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals, NYT Bestselling Author and Speaker Michael Hyatt describe the concept of daily threes and weekly big 3. He advocates constantly reviewing your goals as this reminds you of your most important goals. Hyatt writes:

Reviewing your goals and motivations will keep you ideating, self-checking, and analyzing. And that will up your resolve and stimulate creative problem-solving. He breaks goal reviews into three separate reviews: daily, weekly, and quarterly.

Daily Review

One of the main challenges we face with reaching our goals is losing track of them. We get distracted and sidetracked by life, and they slip out of focus. We can lose months of the year before we realize we’re not making progress. A regular goal review process can fix that problem.

Weekly Review

Next is the weekly review. It goes a bit deeper and takes a bit longer about twenty minutes. A weekly review keeps those key motivations present in our minds. When we’re in the thick of it, it can be hard to recall. But when we’re reviewing our rationale week in and week out, the reasons become so internalized, we know what’s at stake.

Quarterly Review

Quarterly goal setting naturally leads to a deeper review every three months. In the quarterly review process, at least five options are possible:

Rejoice
Recommit
Revise
Remove
Replace

look at the four quarterly review options as a decision tree:

▶ REJOICE if you’ve reached your goal/milestone. If you’re not there yet,

▶ Then RECOMMIT to achieve it. If you can’t recommit,

▶ Then REVISE the goal so you can achieve it. If you can’t revise,

▶ Then REMOVE the goal from your list. If you remove a goal,

▶ Then REPLACE it with another you want to achieve.

If you do not set your priorities daily, you would fall into other people’s plans and expectations. If you don’t have your goals and aspirations, others would use you to get their goals achieved. By setting a widely important goal daily, you would re-order your priorities, be reminded of what really matters, and be in a better position to achieve your dreams.

Set your intentions and goals daily, review them daily, restrategize, recalibrate and most importantly “Start with Why”. Achieving any worthwhile goal is challenging and tough but with hard work, dedication and discipline, you can achieve anything you set your sight on. As author Naopleon Hill once observed: “What the mind of a man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.”

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

You are your Routine.

March 24, 2022 In Insight 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

A routine is a habitual or mechanical performance of an established procedure. In computer parlance, a routine is a sequence of computer instructions for performing a particular task. ¹ The word routine is etymologically derived from two words route + one from the french routine “usual course of action, beaten path”, from route “way, path, course” + noun suffix -ine. ² It is the customary course of action, more or less mechanical performance of certain acts or duties.

Show me your routine and I would show you who you are. How you do anything is how you do everything. As ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle once said “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Your routine grounds and routes you. One of the major hallmarks of highly successful people is their daily routine. They show up daily, do first things first, they work in accordance with their priorities, value, and mission.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. – Aristotle

Thankfulness, Insight, Meditation and Exercise (TIME).

March 17, 2022 In Insight 5 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

In his book, Think Like a Monk: Train Your Mind for Peace and Purpose Every Day, English author and former Hindu monk, Jay Shetty writes about the power of routine. He noted “Location has energy, Time has memory”. Jay describes how waking up early and mastering a morning routine can go a long way in making the best use of our time. He noted:

“Sleep researchers say 85 percent of us need an alarm clock to wake up for work. When we wake up before our bodies are ready, the hormone melatonin, which helps to regulate sleep, is usually still at work, which is one of the reasons we grope for the snooze button”

Tara Brach on Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion.

March 3, 2022 In Insight 6 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Tara Brach is an American psychologist, author, and proponent of Buddhist meditation. She is a guiding teacher and founder of the Insight Meditation Community of Washington, D.C. USA. Tara Brach is one of my favourite meditation teachers, I found her books: Radical Acceptance: Awakening the Love that Heals Fear and Shame and Radical Compassion: Learning to Love Yourself and Your World with the Practice of RAIN; to be very helpful and insightful.

In her work, Brach expands on concepts and ideas such as RAIN, Buddhist meditation, Radical Acceptance and Radical Compassion, Loving Kindness, living in trace, Self-Care, Self-Compassion, Self-healing, Self-nurturing, among other life changing topics.

On Deep Work and getting things done.

February 24, 2022 In Insight 7 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Deep Work is a concept described by the author and professor Cal Newport in his 2016 book: Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World.

What is Deep Work?

Newport describes Deep Work as the ability to focus without distraction on a cognitively demanding task. It’s a skill that allows you to quickly master complicated information and produce better results in less time. Deep work will make you better at what you do and provide the sense of true fulfillment that comes from craftsmanship. In short, deep work is like a superpower in our increasingly competitive twenty-first-century economy. And yet, most people have lost the ability to go deep—spending their days instead in a frantic blur of e-mail and social media, not even realizing there’s a better way.

On New Years Resolution.

January 4, 2022 In Insight 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

It is that time of the year again when we set New Years Resolutions. We resolve to change for the better, change or improve bad habits, achieve personal goals and make strides throughout the year. Like the snake, we strive to shed our old skin, like the caterpillar, we transform to become a butterfly. We set these goals yearly with great enthusiasm and pump at the start of the year but most of us begin to falter as the year goes by. We set goals such as losing weight, saving more money, become financially independent, maintain an healthy diet, exercise more, read more book, etc.

On Creativity

December 28, 2021 In Insight 13 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Creativity is the use of the imagination or original ideas, especially in the production of an artistic work. Creativity comes from the Latin term creare, “to create, make”. Creativity occurs when you take an idea from one state and you transform it into another form either by adding, subtracting, remixing, editing, or re-imagining it. We all have the potential to be creative if we develop our innate talent. It is in all of us, we all have ideas but the difference between does we call creative(s) and the consumer(s) is what they do with the idea. As American author, Leonardo Buscaglia once noted “Your talent is God’s gift to you. What you do with it is your gift back to God.”

On Narcissism.

December 21, 2021 In Insight 8 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

Narcissism is a self-centered personality style characterized as having an excessive interest in one’s physical appearance and an excessive preoccupation with one’s own needs, often at the expense of others. ¹ A narcissist is an individual showing symptoms of or affected by narcissism such as an extremely self-centered person who has an exaggerated sense of self-importance. A Narcissist has a bloated self-image/ego, ignores the needs of those around them.² A bit of narcissism is not bad as it is sometimes needed for self-confidence. Although, too much obsession with oneself can lead to malignant or grandiose narcissism.

On Information Overload.

December 7, 2021 In Insight 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

We are producing data at a very fast speed than we can consume it. We are bombarded daily by a deluge of notifications, news, feeds, pings, instant messaging, tweets, shares, stories, advertising etc. According to Domo’s Data Never Sleeps 5.0 infographic: “Data is on overdrive. It’s being generated at break-neck pace, flooding out of the dozens of connected devices we use every day, and it shows no signs of slowing down.” 90% of all data today was created in the last two years – that’s 2.5 quintillion byte of data per day.

90% of all data today was created in the last two years – that’s 2.5 quintillion byte of data per day.

One of the overarching benefit of dealing with information overload that we all seem to face is the ability to fully concentrate on what really matters and not been distracted by all the sound bites on social media, instant messaging and the like. Various authors have written beautifully on the subject of concentration, use of social and becoming indistractable. Here are some insights shared by my favourite authors on the these subject Matter.

The Lake Wobegon Effect.

November 30, 2021 In Insight 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

The best lack all conviction, while the worst. Are full of passionate intensity. – W.B.Yeats, The Second Coming

The Lake Wobegon Effect is the human tendency to over estimate one’s abilities or capabilities such as intelligence, sense of humour, driving skills, listening skills and other similar traits. The Lake Wagon Effect was introduced by American Physician and anti-smoking activist John Jacob Cannell, M.D. in a 1988 Educational Measurement (EM) summer issue. Cannell observed that most American states schools were scoring above average on nationally normed scoring achievement tests.

The Lake Wobegon reference is based on a fictional town created by American writer Garrison Keillor whose radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” had a segment called “News from Lake Wobegon”. In his Novel Lake Wobegon Day (1985), Keillor describes a fictional town called Lake Wobegon : A place where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.

The Lake Wobegon Effect is similar to the Dunning–Kruger effect, which is a cognitive bias in which people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Both are cognitive bias of illusory superiority and comes from the inability of people to recognize their lack of ability.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts. – Bertrand Russell

In her book Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself, Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin Kristin Neff, Ph.D. writes about this human tendency to Feel Better Than Others. She writes:

Garrison Keillor famously describes the fictional town of Lake Wobegon as a place where “all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” For this reason, psychologists sometimes use the phrase “Lake Wobegon effect” to describe the common tendency to think of oneself as superior to others on a long list of desirable personality traits. ”

“Research has shown that fully 85 percent of students think that they’re above average in terms of getting along with others, for instance. Ninety-four percent of college faculty members think they’re better teachers than their colleagues, and 90 percent of drivers think they’re more skilled than their road mates. Even people who’ve recently caused a car accident think they’re superior drivers! ”

“Research shows that people tend to think they’re funnier, more logical, more popular, better looking, nicer, more trustworthy, wiser, and more intelligent than others. Ironically, most people also think they’re above average in the ability to view themselves objectively.

Logically speaking, of course, if our self-perceptions were accurate, only half of all people would say they’re above average on any particular trait, the other half admitting they were below average. But this almost never happens. It’s unacceptable to be average in our society, so pretty much everyone wears a pair of rose-colored glasses, at least when they’re looking in the mirror. How else can we explain all those American Idol contestants with marginal talent who seem so genuinely shocked when they’re booted off the show?

It’s unacceptable to be average in our society, so pretty much everyone wears a pair of rose-colored glasses, at least when they’re looking in the mirror.

Former president of the University of Southern California, Steven B. Sample commented in his book The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership:

The average person suffers from three delusions: that he/she is a good driver, that he/she has a good sense of humor, and that he/she is a good listener.

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

Are you a tour guide or a travel agent?

November 27, 2021 In Insight 4 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

We live in a fake it until you make it, a world where perception is everything. A world full of talkers than doers, we confuse motion for movement, a world where an entrepreneurial coach does not have or have never started a business, a lifeguard who has never swam, a Netflix-binging father imploring his son to read. Leadership is a verb, not a noun; leaders are doers. They say, “Do as I do, not do as I say.” They lead from the front; they are at the forefront of the battles, challenges and tribulations; they make the tough decisions and show courage during trials. They get their hands dirtied and noses bloodied.

One of my favourite lessons learned from listening to and reading books by author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell is the analogy of being a tour guide instead of a travel agent. He writes about the concept in a couple of his books.

“Nothing is more confusing than people who give good advice but set a bad example.” – Norman Vincent Peale

In The 21 Irrefutable laws of leadership, John Maxwell observed:

“ Too many leaders are like bad travel agents. They send people places they have never been. Instead, they should be more like tour guides, taking people places they have gone and sharing the wisdom of their own experiences.”

In his book Good Leaders Ask Great Questions: Your Foundation for Successful Leadership, author John C. Maxwell noted that leaders lead from the front. He writes:

“Leaders, by definition, are out front. They take new territory and others follow them. Great leaders don’t merely send others out. They lead the charge. They’re more like tour guides than travel agents. They see opportunities, prepare to move forward, and then say, “Follow me.” When you see someone who is able to see opportunities and is willing to take good risks, pay attention. You may be looking at a leader.”

In Leadership Gold: Lessons I’ve Learned from a Lifetime of Leading, John Maxwell writes

“There are a lot of people in the world who are willing to give advice on things they’ve never experienced. They are like bad travel agents: they sell you an expensive ticket and say, “I hope you enjoy the trip.” Then you never see them again. In contrast, good leaders are like tour guides. They know the territory because they’ve made the trip before, and they do what they can to make the trip enjoyable and successful for everybody.”

A leader’s credibility begins with personal success. It ends with helping others achieve personal success. To gain credibility, you must consistently demonstrate three things:

Initiative: You have to get up to go up.
Sacrifice: You have to give up to go up.
Maturity: You have to grow up to go up.

“If you show the way, people will want to follow you. The higher you go, the greater the number of people who will be willing to travel with you.”

Leadership is a Verb

Leaders are dealers in hope, they lead from the front, they believe in showing not telling.

Leadership builds up, not down.
It is active, not passive,
Leadership brings a smile, not a frown.

Leadership gives credit, not blame.
It casts vision, not doubt,
Leadership drives change, not same.

Leadership adds value, not clutter.
It sees causes, not symptoms,
Leadership ignites passion, not a sputter.

Leadership helps you swim, not drown.
It is inspiring, not expiring,
Leadership is a verb, not a noun.

“A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” – Lao Tzu

All the Best in your quest to get Better. Don’t Settle: Live with Passion.

On Personal Growth.

November 23, 2021 In Insight 9 Mins Read By Lanre Dahunsi

As long as you’re green, you’re growing. As soon as you’re ripe, you start to rot. – Ray Kroc

For most of us, our education stops the moment we finish formal schooling. From age 2 to probably 25, we attend various citadels of learning such as elementary, primary, secondary, higher institution, graduate school, vocational training school, etc. We get indoctrinated, instructed, programmed, our worldview gets shaped, we form lifelong relationships, even meet our future life partners or business partners in these institutions. But sadly for a lot of us, our learning atrophies because we confuse schooling with education.

Education is supposed to be lifelong, from cradle to death. The word “education” is derived from the Latin words ēducō, educate, educere and educatum. It means to bring forth, to draw out, to nourish. education is supposed to draw out our hidden talent which is latent in us. As American writer Mark Twain noted, “Don’t let your boy’s schooling interfere with his education.”