View from the Summit

Many years ago I would work tirelessly around the house helping Robin with various tasks and I was relentless with to-do list. Quite honestly, all for the wrong reason. Don't get me wrong, I wanted to help but I wanted to be noticed more.

When all my efforts went unnoticed or unappreciated, I sulked. I wanted those words of affirmation or recognition that I felt was due and payable. I wanted to be viewed as a great husband by Robin and I wanted to feel as though my dues were being paid. 

This has always been the $64.00 question. Is a leader born or developed? I have been asked countless times this question and I don’t feel with absolute certainty than anyone is emphatically qualified to answer beyond a shadow of a doubt. I will offer my thoughts and opinion on the topic though.

I have been an entrepreneur my entire adult life. I have not received a paycheck for almost 4 decades. If I did not go out and drag something home, we did not eat.

I personally think it takes leadership to do that. If I sat in the wings and waited, I may have starved. Has it been easy? Absolutely not.

I was talking to one of my advisors and I shared with him that I didn’t always feel up to speed. I didn’t wake up every day just a bundle of joy.

Even questioned some days my long-term commitments. Thinking I was a phony or even an imposture left me dizzy with questions: Was I real? What if others found me out? Was I a liar? Was my integrity in question?

As I unpacked all these bags it was clear that everyone from time to time has doubts. When you’re alone or lying down in bed at night you began to relive that day's happenings, you question your motives and wonder if the truth was embellished.