Authority and Leadership

From the very beginning of his career Albert Einstein challenged authority. At the beginning of his career he said that "blind respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth." Well said, Albert Einstein!

When Winston Churchill was 22 years old he was a Lieutenant in the British military. To make additional money and to introduce his "personality to the electorate" he would write newspaper articles. In these articles he would criticize the leadership of the British military. He would condemn the failure to cover retreating soldiers with continuous fire, the system of recruitment, the lack of rations on long marches, and so forth. Obviously this didn't go well with the generals, and even his fellow soldiers. Churchill always struggled with authority. As a student he was always insubordinate, as a backbencher in Parliament he defied authority, throughout the 1930's he continuously challenged those in power. The list goes on.

Obedience to authority is ingrained in our culture. Obviously obedience is a very good thing in most cases. If God tells you to do something, you should do it. If you are a private in the military and you are given orders, you should probably carry out those orders. However, it seems that the greatest and most influential leaders rarely submit to authority. What's the difference?

My observations have been that those who lead in their field or in society have difficulty with authority. I think they have so much difficulty because they want to lead. I've heard it quoted that great leaders are also great followers. I'm beginning to wonder if people say that to get us to blindly follow them. Following great leaders is a must. Great Britian would have done well to follow Churchill in the 1930's, but instead they blindly followed the current government, eventually causing millions of lives to be lost.

Perhaps we could do better at two things: first figuring out if someone is worth following before we actually follow them (don't be blind). The second is to become leaders ourselves. Learn to lead yourself. If we are willing to do that, we may become the next Einstein in our field, or perhaps the next Winston Churchill to the world. Without great leaders we would eventually be forced to follow poor leaders like Adolf Hitler.

The Passing of Time

Wow, March 5th was the last time I posted. Two days later John was born. Although March was only six months ago, it seems like John has been with us forever. In the last six months I have learned so much, below is a very small sample.

Over the last six months I have learned on a completely new level just how wonderful my wife is. She does the majority of the work when it comes to taking care of John. She feeds him, prepares his food (he's eating solids now), changes his diapers, gets up to take care of him in the night, plays with him all day, takes him on walks, and the list goes on and on. In addition to taking care of John she takes care of me. Other than the normal things that you would think of, she makes sure that my mind is thinking properly when it comes to how I act at work, how I interact with others, how I do in my church calling, and again, the list goes on and on. I find it amazing how adding an additional member to my family opened my eyes to how incredible my wife is.

Also, since my last post I've read 26 books. Now some of you may not think that's very much, but I'm talking about books like The Last Lion, Volumes 1 & 2, The Origin of Species, Atlas Shrugged, etc. I highly recommend reading these types of books; you can learn so much.

For example, The Last Lion series covers Winston Churchill's life from birth to 1940 (William Manchester passed away before completing the third volume, which would have covered World War II and beyond). I just completed the second volume last week. Winston Churchill was certainly not perfect, but he utilized his gifts and talents to the max to arguably become the means of saving western civilization from the Nazis. While in political exile throughout the 1930's, he persevered. He went through the refiners fire and emerged stronger then ever, becoming the leader who took on Adolf Hitler alone, even beginning with a country that had not only avoided preparing for war, but worked hard to disarm. I learned that those who persevere, fighting through the most difficult times in life, are those who reach their potential.

Last but not least, I've learned how fun babies are. Particularly John. He's sitting on his own now. He'll stand if he has something to hold onto. When taking a bath he kicks and squeals with joy watching the water splash everywhere. I've heard from so many people that babies are really hard, and I don't dispute that. But I rarely hear how fun they are. John is ridiculously fun, and I love being his dad.

The last six months have been fascinating, and I'm looking forward to both the near and long-term future.