Today is the day we celebrate the life of one of my hero’s,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as we do on every 3rd Monday in
January. As I write this to you today,
I’m sitting outside at my home in Dallas on a beautiful January morning. The
sun is shining among the crisp cool air.
Normally my time to read, write and reflect would be done inside my home
office but like it is for so many others the house is a hustle and bustle of
children running and playing. You see in
the U.S. this holiday means no school!
Here in America, today has been a day of honoring the life and work of
Dr. King and what a life and work it was.
Ever since I was a child I’ve known the importance that MLK had on this
nation and on the lives of millions of others.
Those of you who know me or who have followed the prosperity diet blog
know that one of the things I am most passionate about is leadership and
studying the lives of the history’s great leaders. What you may not be aware is that Dr. King is
one of those men, a great hero in terms of leadership. He is one of my hero’s. Martin Luther King, Jr remains one of the
greatest, if not the greatest leader ever born in the history of this great
nation. That’s right! For
the last ten years, I have followed his life and studied everything I can find
as it relates to his leadership philosophy, style and lessons, hoping I could
grow to be a better leader as a result. The
lessons that I’ve learned are countless, the example he set is enormous…for any
leader of any kind. This week for the
prosperity diet and in honor of Dr. King, I will share just one small lesson I
learned from his leadership that has been a cornerstone in our success.
Never ask others to do something you’re not willing to do!
Dr King accomplished many great things and he understood
that anyone who desires greatness can never ask others to do something they
aren’t willing to do themselves. What
most people don’t think of though is that Dr. King’s natural tendencies were
not always to take action and put himself in the fight. For example, in late 1960 his hometown of
Atlanta was beginning to feel the impact of the spreading civil rights
movement. People were inspired by what
was going on around the south and were beginning to hold sit-ins and other
peaceful protests around Atlanta. Students
at local colleges planned a major initiative in October 1960 aimed at all the
downtown Atlanta department stores and central to this plan was to get Dr. King
to join them. Get this…they called Dr.
king at his home in Montgomery the day before the protests and asked him to
come to Atlanta and join them at the sit-ins and go to jail with them! Can you imagine getting that phone call the
day before?! You’re asked to drop what you’re doing, leave
your family and most likely end up in jail the next day for an unknown period
of time. Well, guess what? The next
morning right on schedule Dr. King joined them and was arrested at Rich’s
department store with 35 others. When
offered his release, Dr. King refused to pay the $500 bond and resolved to
“stay in jail for ten years if necessary.”
What most people don’t realize is that after receiving the
phone call, Dr. King told his Wife Coretta he didn’t really want to accept the invitation
of the students. First, he was in the
process of making other plans that would have to be cancelled if he went to
jail for any length of time and second, Dr. King didn’t like being locked up in
jail. His wife Coretta said, “Jail
wasn’t easy for him. He never liked to
be alone.” However, overriding his
natural resistance to being alone was something even more important. He knew
that he couldn’t ask others to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself.
This one innate, natural desire won out over any internal
conflicts he may have had. In other
words, he would rather try something-even if that meant landing in a jail
cell-than to do nothing. This reminds
me of what Nkrumah, the first prime minister of a free Ghana said, “I prefer
self-government with danger to servitude with tranquility.” WOW.
That’s powerful. You see,
leadership is scary, it’s dangerous.
Nothing great is achieved without facing that fear and without
sacrifice. The greater the sacrifice the
greater the reward.
My question to you as a leader today is, are you taking
action in spite of your fears and inconveniences? If we’re honest, this isn’t easy. Dr King said, “we will take direct action
against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act.” He believed in the philosophy of his mentor
Gandhi who said, “action is my domain.”
Is living in action your domain?
If you have a dream, a burning desire, a passion to achieve,
start by taking massive action and no matter what, NEVER ask others to do something
you’re not willing to do yourself!
To your success,
Steven
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