Leadership is about getting people to do things they already have a passion for. Maybe they didn't have the specific dream or specific passion, but the foundation was there. For example, as Seth Godin notes in Tribes with the story of The X Prize ($10,000,000 reward for launching a rocket 100 kilometers into space twice in two weeks) that he appropriately equates to Orteig Prize ($25,000 reward for flying nonstop from New York to Paris that Charles Lindbergh won). So, was cash prize the reason for success? Probably not, but it served as a catalyst to further a field where people already had a passion. Is the pizza party prize of a job well done the reason for success? Probably not, but it can serve as a catalyst for students to produce a fantastic project about a topic they already have passion for. You can’t create passion, that is up to the individual. Anyone (Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Mother Teresa, George Washington, and the like) will tell you that. So what can we leaders, and to bring it to schools what can we educators, do if we can’t teach passion? We can employ and encourage students with passions to produce and create things (likely using technologies) that fun, innovative, and change the world just like Seth Godin discusses throughout the whole book. BUT, before we do any of that let us not forget to ask the most important question of all… Why? Why do things that are fun, why innovate, why change? After all, many college students say binge drinking and sex are fun. Is fun enough of a why? Innovation in the automotive world makes cars that connect us to our phones while we drive. Why? And in the Academy Award winning film Anna and the King of Siam the King reads a quote “Men choose to accept as progress what is only change… True progress must bear some relation to man's character. It must have its roots in his heart.” Why change? These are the vital questions that I will ask students.
The way I see it, the goal is ultimately what matters. Fun is fleeting, innovation lasts second before the next innovation, and change is simply different. So Seth Godin and anyone else (including all of my future and current students), I have a question for you. If this book is all about tribes (people and a leader) I seem to see what your goal is, but that is not enough. Why is your ultimate goal? Not what, but why? Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Okay, but why should anyone follow? Why?
The way I see it, the goal is ultimately what matters. Fun is fleeting, innovation lasts second before the next innovation, and change is simply different. So Seth Godin and anyone else (including all of my future and current students), I have a question for you. If this book is all about tribes (people and a leader) I seem to see what your goal is, but that is not enough. Why is your ultimate goal? Not what, but why? Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Okay, but why should anyone follow? Why?