Lesson Five; Initiative and Leadership

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This brings us to the next step in our description of the exact procedure that you must follow in developing initiative and leadership.

 

You must understand that the only way to get happiness is by giving it away, to others

The same applies to the development of initiative. You can best develop this essential quality in yourself by making it your business to interest those around you in doing the same.

 

It is a well known fact that a man learns best that which he endeavors to teach others

 

If a man embraces a certain creed or religious faith, the first thing he does is to go out and try to "sell" it to others. And in exact proportion to the extent to which he impresses others does he impress himself.

 

In the field of salesmanship it is a well known fact that no salesman is successful in selling others until he has first made a good job of selling himself. Stated conversely, no salesman can do his best to sell others without sooner or later selling himself that which he is trying to sell to others.

 

Any statement that a person repeats over and over again for the purpose of inducing others to believe it, he, also, will come to believe, and this holds good whether the statement is false or true.

 

You can now see the advantage of making it your business to talk initiative, think initiative, eat initiative, sleep initiative and practice initiative. By so doing you are becoming a person of initiative and leadership, for it is a well known fact that people will readily, willingly and voluntarily follow the person who shows by his actions that he is a person of initiative.

 

In the place where you work or the community in which you live you come in contact with other people. Make it your business to interest every one of them who will listen to you, in the development of initiative.

 

It will not be necessary for you to give your reasons for doing this, nor will it be necessary for you to announce the fact that you are doing it.

 

Just go ahead and do it.

 

In your own mind you will understand, of course, that you are doing it because this practice will help you and will, at least, do those whom you influence in the same practice no harm.

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If you wish to try an experiment that will prove both interesting and profitable to you, pick out some person of your acquaintance whom you know to be a person who never does anything that he is not expected to do, and begin selling him your idea of initiative.

 

Do not stop by merely discussing the subject once; keep it up every time you have a convenient opportunity.

 

Approach the subject from a different angle each time.

 

If you go at this experiment in a tactful and forceful manner you will soon observe a change in the person on whom you are trying the experiment.

 

And, you will observe something else of more importance still: You will observe a change in yourself!

 

Do not fail to try this experiment. You cannot talk initiative to others without developing a desire to practice it yourself.

 

Through the operation of the principle of Auto-suggestion every statement that you make to others leaves its imprint on your own subconscious mind, and this holds good whether your statements are false or true.

 

You have often heard the saying:

"He who lives by the sword will die by the sword."

 

Properly interpreted, this simply means that we are constantly attracting to ourselves and weaving into our own characters and personalities those qualities which our influence is helping to create in others.

 

If we help others develop the habit of initiative, we, in turn, develop this same habit

 

But, if we sow the seeds of hatred and envy and discouragement in others, we, in turn, develop these qualities in ourselves.

 

This principle through which a man comes to resemble in his own nature those whom he most admires is fully brought out in Hawthorne's story, The Great Stone Face, a story that every parent should have his offspring read.

 

We come, now, to the next step in our description of the exact procedure that you must follow in developing initiative and leadership.

 

Before we go further let it be understood what is meant by the term "Leadership," as it is used in connection with this Course on the Laws of Success.

 

There are two brands of leadership, and one of them is as deadly and destructive
as the other is helpful and constructive.

 

The deadly brand, which leads not to success, but to absolute failure, is the brand adopted by pseudo-leaders who force their leadership on unwilling followers.

 

It will not be necessary here to describe this brand or to point out the fields of endeavor in which it is practiced, with the exception of the field of war, and in this field we will mention but one notable example, that of Napoleon.

 

Napoleon was a leader; there can be no doubt about this, but he led his followers and himself to destruction.

 

The details are recorded in the history of France and the French people, where you may study them if you choose.

 

It is not Napoleon's brand of leadership that is recommended in this course, although I will admit that Napoleon possessed all the necessary fundamentals for great leadership, excepting one - he lacked the spirit of helpfulness to others as an objective.

 

His desire for the power that comes through leadership was based solely upon self-aggrandizement. His desire for leadership was built upon personal ambition and not upon the desire to lift the French people to a higher and nobler station in the affairs of nations.

 

The brand of leadership that is recommended through this course of instruction is the brand which leads to;

• self-determination & freedom

• and self-development & enlightenment

• and justice.

 

This is the brand of Leadership that endures.

 

For example, and as a contrast with the brand of leadership through which Napoleon raised himself into prominence, consider our own American commoner, Lincoln.

 

The object of his leadership was to bring truth and justice and understanding to the people of the United States.

 

Even though he died a martyr to his belief in this brand of leadership, his name has been engraved upon the heart of the world in terms of loving kindliness that will never bring aught but good to the world.

 

Both Lincoln and Napoleon led armies in warfare, but the objects of their leadership were as different as night is different from day.

 

If it would give you a better understanding of the principles upon which this Course is based, you could easily be cited to leadership of today which resembles both the brand that Napoleon employed and that which Lincoln made the foundation of his life-work, but this is not essential; your own ability to look around and analyze men who take the leading parts in all lines of endeavor is sufficient to enable you to pick out the Lincoln as well as the Napoleon types.

 

Your own judgment will help you decide which type you prefer to emulate.

 

There can be no doubt in your mind as to the brand of leadership that is recommended in this website, and there should be no question in your mind as to which of the two brands described you will adopt as your brand.

 

We make no recommendations on this subject, however, for the reason that this Course has been prepared as a means of laying before its students the fundamental principles upon which power is developed, and not as a preachment on ethical conduct.

 

We present both the constructive and the destructive possibilities of the principles outlined in this course, that you may become familiar with both, but we leave entirely to your own discretion the choice and application of these principles, believing that your own intelligence will guide you to make a wise selection.

 

THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP

 

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity.

 

Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work.

 

In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishments fierce denial and detraction.

 

When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.

 

If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone - if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting.

 

*(With the compliments of the Cadillac Motor Car Co.) Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing or build, no one will strive to surpass or slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of a genius.

 

Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done.

 

Mean voices were raised against the author of the Law of Success before the ink was dry on the first textbooks. Poisoned pens were released against both the author and the philosophy the moment the first edition of the course was printed.

 

Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after much of the big world acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius.

 

Multitudes flocked to Beyreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all.

 

The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while much of the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by.

 

Small, narrow voices cried out that Henry Ford would not last another year, but above and beyond the din of their childish prattle Ford went silently about his business and made himself the richest and most powerful man on earth.

 

The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of his leadership.

 

Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but only confirms the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.

 

There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions

- envy, fear, greed, ambition and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing.

 

If the leader truly leads, he remains the LEADER!

 

Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.

 

A real leader cannot be slandered or damaged by lies of the envious, because all such attempts serve only to turn the spot-light on his ability, and real ability always finds a generous following.

 

Attempts to destroy real Leadership is love's labor lost, because that which deserves to live, lives!

 

We come back, now, to the discussion of the third step of the procedure that you must follow in developing initiative and leadership. This third step takes us back for a review of the principle of organized effort, as described in the preceding lessons of this course.

 

You have already learned that no man can accomplish enduring results of a far reaching nature without the aid and co-operation of others.

You have already learned that when two or more persons ally themselves in any undertaking, in a spirit of harmony and understanding, each person in the alliance thereby multiplies his own powers of achievement.

 

Nowhere is this principle more evidenced than it is in an industry or business in which there is perfect team-work between the employer and the employees. Wherever you find this teamwork you find prosperity and goodwill on both sides.

 

Co-operation is said to be the most important word in the English language. It plays an important part in the affairs of the home, in the relationship of man and wife, parents and children.

 

It plays an important part in the affairs of state. So important is this principle of co-operation that no leader can become powerful or last long who does not understand and apply it in his leadership.

 

Lack of Co-operation has destroyed more business enterprises than have all other causes combined.

 

In my twenty-five years of active business experience and observation I have witnessed the destruction of all manner of business enterprises because of dissension and lack of application of this principle of Co-operation.

 

In the practice of law, I have observed the destruction of homes and divorce cases without end as a result of the lack of Cooperation between man and wife.

 

In the study of the histories of nations it becomes alarmingly obvious that lack of Co-operative effort has been a curse to the human race all back down the ages.

 

Turn back the pages of these histories and study them and you will learn a lesson in Co-operation, that will impress itself indelibly upon your mind.

 

You are paying, and your children and your children's children will continue to pay, for the cost of the most expensive and destructive wars the world has ever known, because nations have not yet learned that a part of the world cannot suffer without damage and suffering to the whole world. 

 

This same rule applies, with telling effect, in the conduct of modern business and industry.

 

When an industry becomes disorganized and torn asunder by strikes and other forms of disagreement, both the employers and employees suffer irreparable loss.

 

But, the damage does not stop here; this loss becomes a burden to the public and takes on the form of higher prices and scarcity of the necessities of life.

 

The people of the United States who rent their homes are feeling the burden, at this very moment, of lack of co-operation between contractors and builders and the workers. So uncertain has the relationship between the contractors and their employees become that the contractors will not undertake a building without adding to the cost an arbitrary sum sufficient to protect them in the event of labor troubles.

 

This additional cost increases rents and places unnecessary burdens upon the backs of millions of people. In this instance the lack of co-operation between a few men places heavy and almost unbearable burdens upon millions of people.

 

These facts are cited without effort or desire to place the responsibility for this lack of co-operation, since the object of this Course is to help its students get at facts.

 

It may be truthfully stated that the high cost of living that everywhere manifests itself today has grown out of lack of application of the principle of co-operative leadership.

 

Those who wish to decry present systems of government and industrial management may do so, but in the final analysis it becomes obvious to all except those who are not seeking the truth that the evils of government and of industry have grown out of lack of co-operation.

 

Nor can it be truthfully said that all the evils of the world are confined to the affairs of state and industry. Take a look at the churches and you will observe the damaging effects of lack of co-operation. No particular church is cited, but analyze any church or group of churches where lack of co-ordination of effort prevails and you will see evidence of disintegration that limits the service those churches could render.

 

For example, take the average town or small city where rivalry has sprung up between the churches and notice what has happened; especially those towns in which the number of churches is far out of proportion to the population.

 

Through harmonized effort and through cooperation, the churches of the world could wield sufficient influence to render war an impossibility.

 

Through this same principle of co-operative effort the churches and the leaders of business and industry could eliminate rascality, unethical and sharp practices, and all this could be brought about speedily.

 

These possibilities are not mentioned in a spirit of criticism, but only as a means of illustrating the power of co-operation, and to emphasize my belief in the potential power of the churches of the world.

 

So there will be no possibility of misinterpretation of my meaning in the reference that I have here made to the churches. I will repeat that which I have so often said in person; namely, that had it not been for the influence of the churches no man would be safe in walking down the street. Men would be at each other's throat like wolves and civilization would still be in the pre-historic age.

 

My complaint is not against the work that the churches have done, but the work that they could have done through leadership that was based upon the principle of co-ordinated, co-operative effort which would have carried civilization at least a thousand years ahead of where it is today.

 

It is not yet too late for such leadership

 

That you may more fully grasp the fundamental principle of co-operative effort you are urged to go to the public library and read The Science of Power, by Benjamin Kidd.

 

Out of scores of volumes by some of the soundest thinkers of the world that I have read during the past years, no single volume has given me such a full understanding of the possibilities of co-operative effort as has this book.

 

In recommending that you read this book it is not my purpose to endorse the book in its entirety, for it offers some theories with which I am not in accord. If you read it, do so with an open mind and take from it only that which you feel you can use to advantage in achieving the object of your definite chief aim.

 

This book will stimulate thought, which is the greatest service that any book can render

 

As a matter of fact the chief object of this Course is to stimulate deliberate thought: particularly that brand of thought that is free from bias and prejudice and is seeking truth no matter where or how or when it may be found.

 

During World War, I was fortunate enough to listen to a great soldier's analysis of how to be a leader.

 

This analysis was given to the student-officers of the Second Training Camp at Fort Sheridan, by Major C. A. Bach, a quiet, unassuming army officer acting as an instructor.

 

I have preserved a copy of this address because I believe it to be one of the finest lessons on leadership ever recorded.

 

The wisdom of Major Bach's address is so vital to the business man aspiring to leadership, or to the section boss, or to the stenographer, or to the foreman of the shop, or to the president of the works, that I have preserved it as a part of this Course.

 

It is my earnest hope that through the agency of this course this remarkable dissertation on leadership will find its way into the hands of every employer and every worker and every ambitious person who aspires to leadership in any walk of life. T

 

he principles upon which the address is based are as applicable to leadership in business and industry and finance as they are in the successful conduct of warfare.

 

Major Bach spoke as follows:

In a short time each of you men will control the lives of a certain number of other men.

 

You will have in your charge loyal but untrained citizens, who look to you for instruction and guidance. Your word will be their law. Your most casual remark will be remembered. Your mannerisms will be aped. Your clothing, your carriage, your vocabulary, your manner of command will be imitated.

 

When you join your organization you will find there a willing body of men who ask from you nothing more than the qualities that will command their respect, their loyalty and their obedience.

 

They are perfectly ready and eager to follow you so long as you can convince them that you have these qualities. When the time comes that they are satisfied you do not possess them you might as well kiss yourself good-bye. Your usefulness in that organization is at an end.

 

[How remarkably true this is in all manner of leadership.] From the standpoint of society, the world may be divided into leaders and followers. The professions have their leaders, the financial world has its leaders. In all this leadership it is difficult, if not impossible, to separate from the element of pure leadership that selfish element of personal gain or advantage to the individual, without which any leadership would lose its value.

 

It is in military service only, where men freely sacrifice their lives for a faith, where men are willing to suffer and die for the right or the prevention of a wrong, that we can hope to realize leadership in its most exalted and disinterested sense. Therefore, when I say leadership, I mean military leadership.

 

In a few days the great mass of you men will receive commissions as officers. These commissions will not make you leaders; they will merely make you officers. They will place you in a position where you can become leaders if you possess the proper attributes. But you must make good, not so much with the men over you as with the men under you. 

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Lesson Five; Initiative and Leadership

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