[August 5, 2016] That’s what my mother always told me and I still believe today that anyone can make a difference, as long as they try. I’m sure mothers across the world tell their children the same thing and it’s a good thing to have it repeated. Leaders also need to be part of this and therefore it’s not uncommon to see leaders acting as coaches, teachers, and mentors to younger folks.
My personal effort came in sports during my school years from first grade through college. My dad was very involved trying to improve my skills, especially in baseball. I was never that good at sports but I tried and I think it helped me be a better leader. My favorite sport was track and field; long jump, 100 yard dash, 220 yard dash, etc.; these were my events.
Jesse Owens was much better than I was. On this date, August 5th in 1936 he won the long jump at the Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. It was the second of four gold medals he won in Berlin and witnessed in person by German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler.1 Owens was ridiculed openly by Nazi officials prior to his arrival in Berlin and some called him and other Black athletes “non-humans.”
Jesse Owens made a difference. He put a dent into the notion of the Aryan master race and into Hitler’s dreams of racial purity. Hitler’s plans for post-war Germany and the world were classic socialism; expansion of strict gun control, eliminating religion, ending the lives of “useless eaters,” converting the economy into a socialist state-controlled entity, etc. (see more at this link here).
The world is far from perfect but anyone with the desire to do good things can achieve almost anything. But … they must put significant effort into making it so. Many junior leaders that I’ve mentored tell me they want to skip the “hard part” of learning the intricacies of leader development and jump right into making changes to make things better. My wife tells me they just want something for nothing.
Leadership is not easily gained – real leadership – because it’s hard and takes time. Positions and titles do not a leader make. Fortunately, Hitler’s Third Reich empire was destroyed along with Mussolini’s Fascist Italy, and the Empire of Japan. In World War II the enemy was named, targeted, and destroyed. Today we can’t even name our enemy. The world is looking for a real leader who will make a difference.
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