The Lunacy of Leadership
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
By: Rick Abbott
When Rudi Giuliani was elected as mayor of New York City, he made some incredible changes to the way government agencies in the city worked with each other. He developed a command center where the heads of these agencies would come together in a time of crisis. They practiced various scenarios, just in case. A lot of people probably saw this as a waste of time and money, but on September 11, 2001 the world saw the brilliance of this level of leadership. When the command center was hit as a part of the terrorist acts of that terrible day it was little more than a bump, because they had a plan for that too.
Chesley B. Sullenberger, an airline pilot, studied the psychology of how people react in crisis and as a pilot how he could maintain control. When US Air Flight 1549 hit a flock of birds he reacted calmly to bring the jet into the Hudson river and safely evacuate the plane. As it was sinking he walked the aisles of the plane twice, just to make sure everyone got off. All 155 passengers were saved, Sullenberger was called a hero.
Sometimes positions of leadership cause us to look at the worst case scenarios and act upon them. Often positions of leadership aren’t necessarily as clear as someone who is elected to a position, or even hired.
- It is a man who is a lawyer on a train and decides to fight racial injustice – Ghandi.
- It is a woman who cries at the poverty of the people she serves and decides to make a change – Mother Teresa.
- It is a person who sees the coming economic crisis and decides to make some changes to provide for their family – you.
We stand on the edge of a very difficult and historic time. Economically we are sliding down a very slippery slope and our government’s solution in the United States is to spend more and more, instead of saving, paying off debt, preparing for the next unforeseen need.
We can’t do a thing to stop the coming global crisis. We can’t do a thing to help our nation, state, county/parish, or even city. Each one of us has been called to a position of leadership for our individual families. They may see us as fanatical lunatics who see the end of the world as we know it, but the truth is – if you are reading this – you have some idea that things are going to get bad, and get bad fast.
The key to success in these times is not to survive but to thrive. You thrive because you are the only one doing the things necessary RIGHT NOW to prepare for hardship in the future. The great thing is that if we are all wrong and this massive spending scheme defies logic and pulls out economy out of its death spiral, the only thing that you have done is to do things that you should have done already.
But that’s for another time.
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I agree that we are facing difficult times, but I don’t agree that there is little we can do. Yes, we all need to take steps to secure our families financially, but there is much more we can do. I think that if we have the knowledge and the tools to help ourselves, we have an obligation to at least share what we know. You are doing that right now and I applaud you for it.