The Right Leader
Mar 31While watching The Last Samurai again, I realized some interesting things. Although Tom Cruise is fairly crazy as of late, this was definitely a good movie. In this viewing anyways, I thought that it was insightful to see a leader who was willing to join in on the fight. Contrast this with the leadership style of being perfectly willing to direct form the rear.
In that final scene where Katsumoto (loosely based on Saigo Takamori) and Nathan Algren (played by Tom Cruise) lead the final charge against the Imperial Army, you see the contrasting styles where Katsumoto and Algren ride their horses through the enemy while Omura (played by Masato Harada) stands on the hill helplessly trying to yell out orders for the gunmen to shoot their weapons. If not for the superior (albeit seemingly cheating) technology that the Imperial Army had, all of the honor rode with the samurai.
Life has its share of similar incidents. There are those people who are willing to get down and dirty versus those who love to direct others. It’s the basic difference in thinking between those that want something done and those that will just go do it. Now this is probably a slightly unfair description of the situation because I think that I tend to be of the latter variety most of the time. And obviously I must think that I am right about it. But objectively, those of the other mindset will think that people like me rush into things too quickly and act too impulsively sometimes. This is all true, but I digress. (Read this entry to learn more about what I think)
Now what does this mean?
If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself
That’s definitely an often heard phrase, but that doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Lead by example, not by dictation. Try it and you will find a spirit of self-reliance that you didn’t think possible. And that is a good thing.
On another note: after a nice reprieve from the world as I know it, I’m back rested and with a little tan. :)