It's Not About You

Cooking up some pasta this afternoon, I listened with one ear to Micah Halpern on C-Span flogging his book, "Thugs" (link), aka political leadership. He had some wonderful stories, although I'm not sure it is a must-read. He seemed bemused that when Muammar Khaddafi took power in Lybia he assigned himself the title of "Colonel," rather than "General"--why not go for the top? I think I have an answer for that: the point is that in those days, it was the colonels who were the aggressive, dynamic, enterprising young bloods (hello, Colonel Nasser!)--"generals" were just old coots. He also declared that King Farouk of Egypt had the world's largest collection of pornography (wonder how he knows that?)--and that, when Farouk died, a needy Egyptian government put it up for auction. On second thought, maybe it is worth the read.

But he had one line that stuck in my ear. I didn't get the exact words, but he was talking about leadership in general, and he mentioned, in passing: "It Isn't About You."

Boy, is that ever right. It ought to be the first lesson on the first day of dictator school, or CEO school of any sort: it's not about you, it's about what you can do. You are an instrument. You are a fiduciary. You have a task, and a responsibility. It's not about you.

Trouble is, when you think of the sort of narcissism you need to make it to that level--and the rewards available to naked greed, it's a miracle if any leader catches any part of that lesson at all.