Leadership is glorified in our society because it is associated with the "rewards."
As in the winner reaps the rewards.
The prom king gets the girl.
The early bird catches the worm.
The most competitive individual becomes the champion.
Survival of the fittest and all that jazz.
But what they fail to tell you about leadership and it sounds so obvious.
LEADERSHIP requires followers.
And these followers carry with them an unprecedented weight.
The weight which a leader must bear as a payment to "reap the rewards of a champion."
That means you stay up at night worrying about you being responsible for them as well as yourself.
Sometimes even at the expense of yourself.
What "they" (humor me as defining 'they' as the outside world) don't tell you is: The higher you climb the more you move to the front lines of the battlefield.
That there is no playbook at the front lines.
You are the playbook. You look at the horizon and navigate accordingly.
You decide.
Yes, you have the power. But yes you must also carry the lion's share of the burden.
Because after all, whatever you decide holds as the rule.
At the frontlines of being a parent, an executive or a lover you realize how ephemeral the world is around you.
The wispy uncertainty, laden air dancing around you like a white-smoky fog. You wadding through waiting for the next action lurking around the corner.
Staying up at night, thinking about your followers.
Your employees, interns, and children thinking of "what will happen if something goes wrong?"
Thinking about all the diaster scenarios, while you slowly begin to feel the pit forming in your stomach.
Yet while the cool pit of hopelessness starts to form, you are enticed by a warmth this is equally powerful and dangerous.
Embracing the sultry seduction of teetering with death.
The adrenaline high of your company, your life, or your creative endeavour being on the edge.
Of falling into the abyss of broken dreams or leaping into the ascending heavens of successful endeavors.
Whether it be teetering on the edge of your company going under or losing your cool with your child when you are at your "wit's end". Then all of a sudden... seeing the glimmer of success of in the horizon.
All to feel yourself, pull back the entity that you've worked so hard to create, your baby, from the edge.
Leading can be like a game of Russian Roulette.
Know where you are going wisely.
Understand the power with which you are playing with.
A primal force that entices humans.
Craft a plan and persuade using that plan and you breathe life into the world of your followers.
What a power. Yet what a secret to not say about leadership.