Scott Monty | Timeless and Timely

If Only

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/437956" target="_blank">Kitchen Scene</a></em><span style="text-align: left;"> by Peter Wtewael, 1620s (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art)</span></span></td></tr>
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<em><strong><em><strong><br />"A multitude of small delights constitute happiness."</strong> </em></strong></em></div>
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<em><em>— Charles Baudelaire, 1897<br /></em></em></div>
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If only I had a better salary, I'd feel secure. If only I had a bigger house, I'd be content. If only I got that promotion, I'd be happier.<br />
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If only… If only…<br />
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We seem to predicate how we feel and how we live our lives based on tangibles and outcomes. As if there were some end goal, some final state of being that we could attain if we possessed something or passed a level—an IRL version of "<a href="https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Achievement%20unlocked">Achievement unlocked!</a>"<br />
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Humans are a strange species. Our brains trick us all the time, and in the strangest ways. Here's a quick example: <b><i>if a baseball bat and a baseball together cost $1.10 and the bat costs a dollar more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?</i></b><br />
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I'll bet your intuition told you that the ball was ten cents, right?<br />
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If that was your answer, your brain tricked you. The correct answer is five cents.<br />
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Yet our brains tell us that if only we got what we wanted, we'd be happy. That a change in circumstances would make us satisfied.<br />
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Think about that for a moment. If you had desires—more money, a different house, a different job, a vacation, an ice cream cone, a single malt whisky—does that keep you happy and satisfied? Likely not. Your circumstances change briefly, but then you find you're back to saying "if only…" again. <br />
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According to Professor Laurie Santos of Yale University, in her course Psychology and the Good Life, "<em><strong>a primary takeaway is that happiness is a mind-set to be cultivated, not a condition to be imposed</strong></em>." (<a href="https://www.thecut.com/2018/05/how-to-be-happy.html#_ga=2.99131222.973464786.1594220952-1797213638.1591757462">New York Magazine</a>, May 2018) <br />
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A mind-set to be cultivated. In other words, it's not about external forces, the stuff you own, or the way society judges you to be successful; it's about the habits you undertake that lead to sustained satisfaction. What are some of these habits?<br />
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You could put more effort into relationships with family and friends. You could <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2019/11/gratitude-is-virtue-not-transaction.html">practice gratitude</a> (recall that G.K. Chesterton wrote "<em><strong>Gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder</strong></em>."). You can live in the present, taking the time to observe the world around you and appreciate the things that make you smile.<br />
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It's the little things that matter.<br />
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<em><strong><em><strong>"If you can honestly say that you get along well with your family without worrying too much about them, that you get satisfaction from your work from day to day, and that you ‘feel good’ most of the time, you already possess the main elements in happiness."</strong> </em></strong></em></div>
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<em><em>— </em>Ladies’ Home Journal<em>, 1946</em></em></div>
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We're surrounded by little things every day—things that may escape our notice. And yet, when we practice <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html">a little reflection</a>, we can get so much more out of these little things than we first imagined.<br />
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<div class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html","text":"How To Make Reflection a Daily Habit","class":null}" style="text-align: center;">
<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">Related: <a href="https://www.scottmonty.com/2020/01/how-to-make-reflection-part-of-your.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">How to Make Reflection a Daily Habit</a></span></i></b></div>
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A couple of years ago, I posted something that later made me reframe how I look at things. I asked my friends to share a fond memory of us<span style="text-align: right;">—</span>a simple request: "<a href="https://www.facebook.com/scottmonty/posts/10154993649231625">If you're reading this, even if we barely talk, comment with a fond memory of us</a>."</div>
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Much to my surprise, it got nearly 300 comments, including from some friends from long ago. But more than that, it was he caliber of responses that stuck with me.<br />
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Again and again, I came across little moments—moments that in some cases, I don't even recall—that stood out in people's minds. Perhaps it was a note I sent, a remark I made, or a laugh we shared.<br />
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Things that frankly, didn't seem like a big deal to me at the time. But they mattered to my friends. So much so that these memories were sparked these many years later. Like George Bailey in <em>It’s a Wonderful Life</em>, I was greeted with a multitude of small interactions that added up to a great deal ("<b><i>You've been given a great gift, George.</i></b>")<br />
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It's the little things.<br />
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The true power of leadership isn't how many people you can fire, how profitable or successful you make a company, or the number of hours you spend working. True leadership is found in everyday words and actions—the way you treat every person you meet.<br />
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Speeches and official communications will fade from memory. But your small gestures of kindness and inspiration will remain with people forever.<br />
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<em><em><b>"They may forget what you said — but they will never forget how you made them feel." </b></em></em></div>
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<em><em>— Carl W. Buehner, 1971<br /></em></em></div>
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A Little Gesture from a Big Guy</h3>
One last story for you.<br />
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One of my fondest memories of working at Ford was on Take Your Child to Work Day in 2013, when I brought my two sons, Will and Drew with me for the day.<br />
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One of the events was a presentation in a large auditorium filled with Ford employees and their kids, where Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford at the time, gave a presentation. When he finished, he asked for questions from the audience, and Will's hand shot up, but there wasn’t time to take his question.<br />
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Back at World Headquarters, after the boys finished their hot dogs and tater tots (a requested favorite!), as we were leaving the cafeteria, my phone rang. It was Amy, Alan’s executive assistant.<br />
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“Scott, where are you?”<br />
<br />“I’m downstairs, just outside the cafeteria.”<br />
<br />“Can you come up to Alan’s office, please?”<br />
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As much as I visited the 12th floor, just two floors above my office, and regularly interacted with Alan, I didn't really know what to expect. <br />
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When we arrived there, Alan was waiting in the doorway with a big smile on his face. He invited us into his office and chatted with Will and Drew for a bit. He asked them about school, he inquired about their day so far, and he asked their mom’s name.<br />
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Then, he sat down and wrote a note to my wife on Ford letterhead, telling her what fine boys she had and how proud she must be. Then he drew his signature heart around "Ford + Monty Family" at the bottom.<br />
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He asked if we’d like a picture, and invited us behind his desk. Then he motioned to Amy, who brought in two bags of Ford goodies—Hot Wheels, pens, keychains, notepads, and other Ford tchotchkes—and sent the boys on their way.<br />
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This was one of the finest examples of servant leadership I’ve ever witnessed. Alan took note of us in the audience, and even though he couldn’t answer Will’s question, he followed up with this meaningful and personal experience.<br />
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Were there other executives whose kids’ questions didn’t get answered that day? Probably. Did they get an invitation up to Alan’s office? Possibly. But the thing is, even if they did, I guarantee Alan made them feel just as special as he made us feel.<br />
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Because that’s the kind of leader he is.<br />
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And I hope that’s the kind of leader my kids grow up to be.<br />
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Meanwhile, I'm spending as much time with them as I can before they're grown.<br />
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If only we could stay like this forever.<br />
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If only.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QYsECURlNZI/XwX1g9fS0jI/AAAAAAABN3o/QpSLdZfSeusHbEubW8H9Tg9Re4inmcdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Take%2BYour%2BChild%2Bto%2BWork%2B2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Monty boys with Alan Mulally" border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="426" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QYsECURlNZI/XwX1g9fS0jI/AAAAAAABN3o/QpSLdZfSeusHbEubW8H9Tg9Re4inmcdzwCLcBGAsYHQ/w640-h426/Take%2BYour%2BChild%2Bto%2BWork%2B2013.jpg" title="Alan Mulally with the Montys on Take Your Child to Work Day" width="640" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">This originally appeared in the July 8 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/if-only" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif;">. </span></div>
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If Only

Kitchen Scene by Peter Wtewael, 1620s (public domain - Metropolitan Museum of Art) "A multitude of small delights constitute h...

What It Takes to Start a Movement

<br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VUIaTc2lISk/Xvuub3ksocI/AAAAAAABNlc/K9fI8KX0s8UzrRuvQ9vvMgMso_iJqzWMgCK4BGAsYHg/s1280/Francois%2BPerrier%2B-%2BMoses%2Bdraws%2Bwater%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="824" data-original-width="1280" height="412" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VUIaTc2lISk/Xvuub3ksocI/AAAAAAABNlc/K9fI8KX0s8UzrRuvQ9vvMgMso_iJqzWMgCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h412/Francois%2BPerrier%2B-%2BMoses%2Bdraws%2Bwater%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BRock.jpg" title="Moses Draws Water from the Rock - painting by Francois Perrier" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francois_Perrier_-_Moses_draws_water_from_the_Rock_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg">Moses Draws Water from the Rock</a></i> by Francois Perrier, 1642 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)</font></td></tr></tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><h6 data-pm-context="[]"></h6><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks." </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Sun Tzu, 5th century BC</em></div></em><p></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>Moving people to action is more difficult than it seems.</p><p>Selling something tangible — a product, a widget, a thing — is fairly straightforward. People can see it in action, feel in their hands, and observe the difference it makes. You can craft a story around that and play a bit of show and tell.</p><p>But when you have to sell an idea or a vision? That takes more than getting people to pay attention. You need to make them <em>believe</em>.</p><p>Belief is a powerful thing. If you can get someone to put faith in what you're saying, such that they'll turn away from what I'll call <em>a pre-existing cognition</em>, you'll have won them over.</p><p>It's what was required in the American Revolution, the French Revolution, and so many other uprisings when failure could have easily been proscribed. Instead, leaders marshalled their people behind them by going first, creating hope, and focusing on their people.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Everyone's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— W.C. Fields</em></p><p><em><br /></em></p><div><hr /></div><p>Imagine if you were a person with a speech impediment and questionable self-esteem, and you were tasked with leading half a million people to their freedom. Do you think you'd be up to the task?</p><p>Moses certainly didn't at first. And yet, in the book of Exodus, he was called upon to lead his people out of Egypt. What did he do? He had quiet, reflective time and took notes. He shared this notes (on stone tablets) with his people, he showed them the way.</p><p>Eventually, Moses delegated authority and shared this vision with his chiefs. But he always demonstrated leadership by being out front and participating, just as he was asking everyone else to do. Leaders go first.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders are prepared to do whatever they ask their people to do.</em></h3><p>It's the classic difference between a boss and a leader: the boss says, "Go," while the leader says, "Let's go."</p><p>Simon Sinek's book <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2VAw6WR" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Leaders Eat Last</a></strong></em> may seem to offer countervailing advice, but its title comes from how leaders wait to take care of themselves, giving their people priority. The converse is true when it comes to doing the work. </p><p>When you're trying to escape a tyrant or facing various plagues, you need hope. Moses inspired his people, again and again, such as instructing them to mark lamb's blood over their doors to protect their firstborn. When leading his people through the desert, he told stories about the Promised Land and what awaited them at the end of their journey.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders provide hope by focusing positive energy on encouragement, inspiration, and enthusiasm</em>.</h3><p>Consider another fundamental difference between a boss and a leader: a boss is a subject matter expert while a leader is an expert in managing people. So often, we see subject-matter experts and bureaucrats promoted to leadership positions, when they could benefit from more people skills. (More on this in in next week's update).<br /><br /></p><p class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"%%checkout_url%%","text":"Subscribe now","class":null}" style="text-align: center;"><a class="button primary" href="%%checkout_url%%">Subscribe now</a><br /><br /></p><p>Moses saw his people defy the first commandment and worship a golden calf. An angry God was ready to exact vengeance on them, but Moses didn't hew to the technicalities at hand; he stood up for his people — reminding God their were His people too — and sought forgiveness. Moses ended up taking responsibility for their actions.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><em>Leaders put their focus on their people</em>.</h3><p>When you've demonstrated to your people that you're in it with them, have given them hope, and put them first, they'll move mountains for you.</p><p>Look at where we are with mask wearing during the pandemic, for example. We've seen countless examples of people in public places who throw tantrums because places of business are requiring them to wear masks. They don't want to have to listen to authority and they claim their Constitutional rights are being violated.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h4>[<strong>Aside</strong>: <em>I thought <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/individualism-has-no-place-in-a-pandemic-915" target="_blank">we covered this in March</a>. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness are enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, which predates the Constitution. Life comes first. Not Liberty. Not Happiness. Life. And when your Liberty impacts my Life, you need to rethink things. Please, wear a mask.</em>]</h4><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>But maybe we've been going about this insistence on mask wearing the wrong way. Maybe we need to adhere to those three precepts of leadership:</p><p>There's no consistency in leaders <strong>going first</strong> by wearing masks. The simple gesture of wearing a mask would send a powerful message to the public.</p><p>Leaders in some states with spiking cases and hospitalizations haven't been providing <strong>hope</strong>. They've been ignoring the reality of the disease and selling false hope of reopening as if nothing has happened. This is difficult, because it's hard to make a case for hope out of what <em>didn't</em> happen. Perhaps we need to rely on something like this report from Goldman Sachs that says <a href="http://on.forbes.com/6013GPYcS" target="_blank">a national mask mandate could save the U.S. economy $1 trillion</a>. That's hopeful.</p><p>Naïvely, I thought we were <strong>putting people first</strong> when the message was that masks protect <em>other people</em>. Sadly, we may need to flip that, to align with how people are acting more selfishly, and tell them that masks protect <em>them</em>. It's a sorry state of affairs when you can't rely on empathy and compassion to convince people to do the right thing.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p>One final example on movements and believing: in fact, it's the very story that caused me to consider this topic.</p><p>The president held a rally in Tulsa the weekend before last, and his campaign chief was seen on social media in the days leading up to the event, bragging about 1,000,000 tickets that the public had reserved for the event. You know how the story ended: with an anemic turnout.</p><p>Aside from the entire population of Tulsa being 400,000 people, people were scratching their heads about how the calculation could have been so far off. It turns out <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytimes" target="_blank">Tik Tok fans and K-pop stans took credit for reserving tens of thousands of tickets</a>, effectively sticking their finger in the eye of the establishment.</p><p>Such was the example of a grassroots-led movement that was popular enough and gained enough traction in a short period of time to make a difference.</p><p>Whether a movement is sparked by a leader, a group, or an idea, it's the vision for what's possible and the associated emotions that help drive success.</p><p>Without those, it's inertia.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><em><br />Credit for the three truths of leadership goes to </em><a href="https://amzn.to/2Y83wyA" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Greats on Leadership: Classic Wisdom for Modern Managers</a><em> by Jocelyn Davis<br /><br /></em></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><hr /></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">This originally appeared in the July 1 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/what-it-takes-to-start-a-movement" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;">. </span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><span style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;"></span><br style="font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif;" /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div>

What It Takes to Start a Movement

Moses Draws Water from the Rock by Francois Perrier, 1642 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) "He will win whose army is animated by t...

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Poker

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0bmdcrc4DU/XvL4cMoVkuI/AAAAAAABNeM/NUSVyglRTj0w5wx8gM33NG_5EpKWrgSKQCK4BGAsYHg/s1200/Caravaggio%2B%2528Michelangelo%2BMerisi%2529%2B-%2BThe%2BCardsharps%2B-%2BGoogle%2BArt%2BProject.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Painting of men cheating at cards" border="0" data-original-height="864" data-original-width="1200" height="460" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D0bmdcrc4DU/XvL4cMoVkuI/AAAAAAABNeM/NUSVyglRTj0w5wx8gM33NG_5EpKWrgSKQCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h460/Caravaggio%2B%2528Michelangelo%2BMerisi%2529%2B-%2BThe%2BCardsharps%2B-%2BGoogle%2BArt%2BProject.jpg" title="Caravaggio's The Card Sharps" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cardsharps#/media/File:Caravaggio_(Michelangelo_Merisi)_-_The_Cardsharps_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" target="_blank">The Card Sharps</a></i> by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), c. 1595 (public domain - Google Art Project)</font></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />“But for its costliness and dangers, no better education for life among men could be devised than the gambling table—especially the poker table.”</strong> </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br /></strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Clemens France, 1902<br /><br /></em></div></em><div><hr /></div><p><br />I can't remember when I first became aware of Maria Konnikova.</p><p>Most likely, it's from her then-regular "<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/maria-konnikova/">Literally Psyched</a>" column in <em>Scientific American</em> in the early 2010's, where she wrote a number of entries on lessons from Sherlock Holmes. Her undergraduate degree in psychology and creative writing, followed by her Ph.D. in psychology provided the ideal preparation for this work.</p><p>More vividly, I remember meeting Maria at the annual dinner of <a href="https://smonty.co/3es4hra">the Baker Street Irregulars</a>, the Sherlock Holmes literary society, of which I am a member. She was an invited guest and seemed a little unsure of herself in the crowd of lawyers, doctors, authors, business people, teachers, exterminators, Hollywood directors, booksellers, and various other individuals who represented a microcosm of society.</p><p>But her curiosity and affability quickly dispelled any notion of insecurity, as she joined in the welcoming and witty repartee that is the hallmark of the BSI. She was a quick study, reading the large room in record time amid cocktails, hors d'oeuvres, and loud chatter, before settling in to a comfortable gaggle that included Michael Dirda, Nicholas Meyer, and Otto Penzler.</p><p>That ability—to remain silent and make keen observations before jumping in—is an indicator of good leadership. It's all too tempting to want to hold court on a topic (especially one which you know so much about) or to give a rambling soliloquy to qualify yourself to a new crowd.</p><p>A good leader knows <a href="https://smonty.co/2YtsWGg">when to remain silent</a>.</p><div><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />"Silence is one of the great arts of conversation." </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Cicero<br /><br /></em></div></em><div><hr /></div><p><br />But the real test for Maria would lay ahead. This well-published, well-educated author and speaker took a leave of her job at <em>The New Yorker</em> and decided to become a professional poker player. But not as a dilettante; her goal was to become a poker champion within a year.</p><p>While there were many questions that Maria would have over the course of the following few years, she learned quite a bit by quietly observing. And we're the beneficiaries of her diligence.</p><p>Konnikova's latest book is <em><strong><a href="https://amzn.to/2zWmWMC" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win</a></strong></em>, and although the subject is nominally different than her previous books (<em><a href="https://amzn.to/3dvkgmO" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes</a></em> and <em><a href="https://amzn.to/3hOQayd" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Confidence Game: Why We Fall For It Every Time</a></em>), follows a theme: that the human mind is simultaneously complex and predictable, and there are patterns and cues available for our consumption.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://amzn.to/2zWmWMC" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Maria Konnikova's The Biggest Bluff" border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="1684" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hHA2oF-u6Mg/XvL5DtOigpI/AAAAAAABNeg/Dym479QxgycJCLhqh7Jcj25DcO3FZ23eQCK4BGAsYHg/w210-h320/Bluff.jpg" title="The Biggest Bluff by Maria Konnikova" width="210" /></a></p><p>The attributes of Maria that I mentioned above—affability and curiosity—are central to <em>The Biggest Bluff</em>. They're what allow her to befriend Erik Siedel, one of the top professional poker players in the world. And to absorb the game, its quirks, and its specialized vocabulary.</p><p>But more than that, she grapples with the idea of luck, superstition, and seeing poker for what it is: a very human game of chance. A game that, unlike chess or Go, is driven by rationality rather than by algorithms.</p><div><hr /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><br />“It is so difficult not to become vain about one’s own good luck.” </strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Simone De Beauvoir, 1963<br /><br /></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>Many of us—particularly those of us who have risen through executive ranks—consider our success a matter of our contributions, as if we are in control of our lives and our status is a result of our talent and accomplishments. It's a comforting thought; input yields an expected output. Sounds rational, right?</p><p>At the end of the book (spoiler alert!), Konnikova reveals "the biggest bluff of them all: That skill can <em>ever</em> be enough."</p><p>In fact, we have less control than we think. Swirling around each of us are innumerable variables, each independent of the other, and intersecting with our lives when we least expect it. These variables contribute to our failures and our successes, but we're not in a position to control them.</p><p>Call them luck, call them fortune, call them chance or superstition, it's all the same: circumstances that we can't control. But if we put ourselves in the proper mindset, we can tilt ourselves one way or another, as a sail catches wind.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />Emotional intelligence and poker intelligence</strong></h2><p>Throughout the book, Konnikova introduces us to a cast of characters from both the worlds of poker and psychology. The nuggets of wisdom, lessons, and observations she picks up along the way resonated with me, in a way that applied to leadership.</p><p>Particularly with respect to some elements of emotional intelligence, or EQ. According to <em>A Dictionary of Psychology</em> (3rd edition), emotional intelligence is:</p><blockquote><p><em>"the ability to recognize one's own and other people's emotions, to discriminate between different feelings and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior."</em></p></blockquote><p>I can't think of a better description of the skills necessary to succeed at poker.</p><p>Some of the aspects of emotional intelligence that stood out to me as relevant to poker include: </p><ol><li><p><strong>Self-management</strong> (keeping those emotions in check, not getting irrational)</p></li><li><p><strong>Social awareness</strong> (being observant of your surroundings and competition) </p></li><li><p><strong>Relationship management</strong> (the spoken and unspoken exchanges between you and other players)</p></li><li><p><strong>Self-awareness</strong> (the ability to reflect and make an honest assessment of your performance)</p></li></ol><p>That last one is the most important aspect in leadership and poker. Being honest with yourself means making hard decisions about when to end a venture. As the Kenny Rogers song goes, "You gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em…"</p><p>Leadership isn't about mastering skills, or even mastering others. <em><strong>To be a good leader, first you need to master yourself</strong></em>.</p><p>Or, as Konnikova writes:</p><blockquote><p><em>"One of the most important lessons of poker strategy, intimately connected to self-assessment, is this: sometimes, it’s the hands you don’t play that win you the title. We remember the hero calls. What about the hero folds? What you don’t do rather than what you do—that can be greatness. The art of letting go can be the truly strong one. Acknowledging when you’re behind rather than continuing to put good money after bad. Acknowledging when the landscape has shifted and you need to make a shift yourself as a result."</em></p></blockquote><p>Just as I wrote last week (in "<a href="https://smonty.co/2BxGtDx">Honor and Duty</a>") regarding how we can see results from actions <em>not</em> taken as well as from actions taken.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />Leadership strategy and poker strategy</strong></h2><p>In addition to principles of emotional intelligence, other strategic leadership activities stuck out to me. Here are a few.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Position is king</strong>.</h3><p>If you're last to bet, you have the benefit of all of the other moves before yours. You have the power. If you wait to listen to everyone in the room or for other competitors to make a first move, you have the advantage of more information.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Mindful vs. mindless activity</strong>.</h3><p>There are always possibilities and choices. Making a decision based on informed choices is mindful; making decisions on a whim or because you feel you have to is mindless.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Your strategy should be flexible</strong>.</h3><p>Values and vision are set, but strategies change. Strategies consist of a system or a process that is informed by experience  and need to be updated with real-time feedback.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Area of expertise matters</strong>.</h3><p>It pays to specialize sometimes. An analogy comes from the most effective hunter in the animal world. It's not the cheetah, lion or wolf; it's the dragonfly. Why? Because the dragonfly has evolved a sense of vision where it can detect the slightest variation in movement by its prey. It gives the dragonfly a 95% effective kill rate. If you spend time to develop a skill in a particular area, it can make the difference between victory and defeat.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Experience is required</strong>.</h3><p>You don't rise to the top by just showing up and relying on luck and intuition. You need to put in the hours. To practice—sometimes for what feels like an eternity—before you're ready.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Pick your spots</strong>.</h3><p>Know when to be aggressive and how to be aggressive. Always-on aggression isn't effective—particularly if your opponent expects it.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Focus on the process, not the results</strong>.</h3><p>Don’t get hung up on failures, successes, or luck. The way we frame something affects our mindset and emotions, which in turn affects decisions we make. By saying or thinking that things happen <em>to</em> us, we avoid taking responsibility for our actions. "<em>These are the seeds of resilience, of being able to overcome the bad beats that you can’t avoid and mentally position yourself to be prepared for the next time.</em>"</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>You need to pay attention</strong>.</h3><p>Many things are happening around us, and we're tempted to chalk a few up to luck or market conditions. We can't control any of those things. What can we control? Our own behavior. Our reaction to things, as the Stoics teach us. "<em>We can’t control the variance. We can’t control what happens. But we can control our attention and how we choose to deploy it</em>."</p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><strong>Don't forget the </strong><em>why</em>.</h3><p>It's important to construct a narrative about your opponents (“<em>In the game of poker, you’re a detective and a storyteller</em>,” a mentor told Konnikova) while creating your own story at the same time. What's the story and why is someone doing it? Why are they making a move? Always ask yourself why someone is behaving a certain way.<br /><br /></p><div><hr /></div><h2><strong><br />The object of leadership</strong></h2><p>Mike Caro, professional poker player and author, asks his audiences, "What is the object of poker?" He may just as well ask "What is the object of life?" as poker, particularly in Konnikova's powerful storytelling style, is analogous to life. It's also analogous to leadership.</p><p>After many members of his audience make guesses related to money, Caro lays the truth on them: "<em><strong>The object of poker is making good decisions</strong></em>."</p><p>Anyone can make decisions; indeed, it's what we expect from leaders. Faced with choices—buy or sell, hire or fire, action or inaction—leaders make choices based on information at hand. More than the outcome, it's the <em>process</em> that matters. Leaders need to know—and in many cases need to justify—the reasoning behind their decisions. </p><div><hr /></div><p><em><strong><br /></strong></em></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong><em><strong>“In every tablet there are as many grains of luck as of any other drug. Even intelligence is rather an accident of Nature, and to say that an intelligent man deserves his rewards in life is to say that he is entitled to be lucky.”</strong> </em></strong></em></div><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— E.B. White, 1943</em></div><em><br /></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p>It's sheer joy to follow Maria's journey, to be invited into her inner thoughts and insights that she shares en route, and to drink in the references from literature, philosophy, and psychology that she liberally and effortlessly incorporates.</p><p>The wonderful surprise is that even though she realizes that fortune is a fickle thing, gossamer-like in nature, she still manages to bend it ever so slightly (for that's all that's required in poker) to her advantage.</p><p>All it requires is patience, fortitude, the ability to observe our environment and ask why, and the willingness to do the hard work and spend time reflecting.</p><p>For it's reflection that gives us the ability to hit pause or reset. And it's reflection that allows us to achieve self-awareness.</p><p>For that is where our potential lies.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the June 24 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/p/leadership-emotional-intelligence" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>

Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Poker

The Card Sharps by Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi), c. 1595 (public domain - Google Art Project) “But for its costliness and dangers, no b...

Honor and Duty

<h6 data-pm-context="[]"></h6><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_gqQwQBOQus/XupLREBLu8I/AAAAAAABNa0/DCtwdyqRduQMT2khjJ6jhMQPyuDSidcwwCK4BGAsYHg/s1539/Jacques-Louis_David%252C_Le_Serment_des_Horaces.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David, 1784" border="0" data-original-height="1218" data-original-width="1539" height="506" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_gqQwQBOQus/XupLREBLu8I/AAAAAAABNa0/DCtwdyqRduQMT2khjJ6jhMQPyuDSidcwwCK4BGAsYHg/w640-h506/Jacques-Louis_David%252C_Le_Serment_des_Horaces.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><font size="2"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_the_Horatii" target="_blank">The Oath of the Horatii</a></i> by Jacques Louis David, 1784 (public domain - Wikipedia)</font><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /></div><div><br /><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Waste no more time in arguing what a good man should be. Be one."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Marcus Aurelius, 161</em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Years ago, in one of my first professional jobs, I had a colleague who made an observation that has stayed with me to this day.</p><p>I don't remember the exact situation that brought it about, but he said to me, "You know what impresses me about you, Monty? I see so many people complaining about things, but you don't sit around complaining. You take action."</p><p>I've considered that remark over the years, and it's at the core of my sense of integrity: if a person is aware that something wrong and  has the power to make a change, I respect them for taking action <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujBjn1qeCLs">rather than whining</a> about the situation.</p><p>Leaders serve by virtue of the power that they're given. And, as the phrase goes that can trace its roots to the Bible, with great power comes great responsibility.</p><div><hr /></div><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Criticism is necessary and useful; it is often indispensable; but it can never take the place of action, or be even a poor substitute for it."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Theodore Roosevelt, 1894</em></p><div><hr /></div><p>That means when a leader is aware of a situation over which he or she has control, they are in a position to do something about it. In fact, they are duty-bound to react.</p><p>One reaction is simply to do nothing. Just wait it out, see what the public outcry is, and either take the heat or eventually capitulate with some feeble response.</p><p>The alternative is to take action. Given that leaders are aware of their resources, of the impact their decisions make, and of the morale that they inspire by doing the right thing, their actions speak volumes about what they prioritize. They indicate a code of honor.</p><p>We don't hear the words duty and honor being used much any more, do we? Not outside of the military, anyway. The U.S. Department of Defense has <a href="https://smonty.co/2USO5Ho">core values</a> that it expects out of its personnel: "duty, integrity, ethics, honor, courage, and loyalty."</p><p>These are values that make up what we recognize as character. We expect our leaders to have character and to act in ways that create trust.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"I am no longer good through deliberate intent, but by long habit have reached a point where I am not only able to do right, but am unable to do anything but what is right."</strong> </em></div><em><div style="text-align: right;"><em><br /></em></div><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Seneca, 65</em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Honor. Duty. Trust. These precepts should be lodestars—guiding principles for how we act in our private lives and in our careers. And yet…</p><p>Recently we learned that John Bolton's forthcoming memoir <em><a href="https://amzn.to/2UOneMM">The Room Where It Happened</a></em> indicates that the former National Security Advisor witnessed multiple instances of misconduct by the president. And yet, given the opportunity to testify during the impeachment hearings, Bolton chose to remain silent.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet tw-align-center"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">If only there had been some sort of congressional investigation into the president’s behavior at which John Bolton could have testified.<br /><br />If only. <a href="https://t.co/hYbVjYOLvg">https://t.co/hYbVjYOLvg</a></p>— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinMKruse/status/1271432854375989249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p></p><p><br /></p><p>Facebook has been no stranger to criticism and has continually done things to erode trust rather than to build it. Most recently, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan (majority shareholders, with Zuckerberg impervious from discipline or termination) said they were "<a href="https://smonty.co/3fvAWvW">disgusted by President Trump's divisive and incendiary rhetoric</a>" during the protests.</p><p>And yet Zuckerberg continues to allow him to post divisive and even untrue content on Facebook. If only he was in a position to be able to do something about it. But it seems to be part of the brand at Facebook to simply turn away from unpleasant truths and embrace that which profits the company.</p><p><br /></p><div><hr /></div><p></p><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"It little profits that an idle king,</strong></em></div><em><div style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>By this still hearth, among these barren crags,</strong></em></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole</strong></em></div><div style="font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><em><strong>Unequal laws unto a savage race"</strong> </em></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><em style="text-align: right;"><div style="text-align: right;"><em>— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, 1842</em></div></em></div></em><p></p><div><hr /></div><p><br /></p><p>Facebook's own internal research in 2018 stated “our algorithms exploit the human brain’s attraction to divisiveness. If left unchecked,” Facebook would feed users “more and more divisive content in an effort to gain user attention & increase time on the platform.”</p><p>What did Facebook do? <a href="https://smonty.co/2AC4YQ5">It shut down efforts to make the site less divisive</a>.</p><p>Honor and duty. What honor is there at Facebook? What duty do they have to anyone other than their shareholders?</p><p>We have every right to expect accountability out of our leaders. </p><p>President Harry Truman famously had "<b><i>The buck stops here</i></b>" displayed on his desk. </p><p>Dwight D. Eisenhower, when he was Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, prepared for a possible failure in Operation Overlord at Normandy, penning a note that he hoped he would never have to send: "<b><i>If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt, it is mine alone.</i></b>"</p><p>That willingness to accept responsibility is the very definition of integrity. </p><p><br /></p><p>With recent protests over racial inequality, we're finding ourselves at a major inflection point for society, and that includes brands as well. </p><p>Earlier this year, <a href="https://smonty.co/3hF1VqE">Land O' Lakes dropped their logo</a> that depicted a Native American woman. Now <a href="https://smonty.co/3hBPdce">Quaker Oats is eliminating Aunt Jemima</a>, a brand that was established in 1889 featuring a black woman who was originally dressed as a minstrel character. </p><p>In the 1970s, the American chain restaurant <a href="https://smonty.co/2UVuFC1">Sambo's</a> (which was an amalgamation of the names of its founders, Sam Batttistone and Newell Bohnett) faced backlash, as its name was reminiscent of the very dated book <em>The Story of Little Black Sambo</em> by Helen Bannerman (1899). They reluctantly began to move away from it, but the damage was done and its more than 1,100 locations in 47 states began to close. As of this month, the last remaining restaurant—the original location, now owned by Battistone's grandson—<a href="https://smonty.co/30XqHN7">is changing its name</a>.</p><p>Whether it's renaming a restaurant, rebranding a racially-insensitive product, or removing monuments to Confederate leaders from public spaces, we're seeing leaders who recognize their responsibility and are taking action that is within their power.</p><p>There is a contingent of the population who see this as capitulating to political correctness, or "giving in" to the demands of a vocal minority. They fight for the status quo, ignoring the negative impact that these racial stereotyped representations may have to portions of our society. The underlying assumption is that social reform isn't possible, because human nature is inherently limited.</p><p>As much as I like to point out how human nature is constant, there comes a time when we must recognize the need for change. Nor are we fixed in a certain morality; we've seen society update its expectations over the centuries, from the Emancipation Proclamation and the 14th Amendment to the Civil Rights Act, and more.</p><p>Each of us has a moral code, and that's what defines our integrity. But society operates with a sense of group morality, which involves judgement, shame and exclusion as well as kindness. We may think we're limited in our ability to evolve our morality, but the speed at which we're seeing cultural change backed by a desire for ethics and integrity is astonishing.</p><p><a href="https://smonty.co/3fEwsU1">According to Allen Buchanan</a>, Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Law at Duke University, "<em>Humans have possessed moral capacities for many millennia, possibly even hundreds of thousands of years, and yet inclusivist morality has emerged only in the most recent eye-blink of human history.</em>"</p><p>Which brings us back to leadership.</p><p>Those in power—those with the ability to make a change—have a responsibility to take action when they can. To ignore it is to invite scorn and distrust.</p><p>To embrace the opportunities and seek a better, brighter option for all stakeholders is what separates the courageous from the cowardly.</p><p>Honor and duty. The backbone of character.<br /></p><p><br /></p><hr /><p style="text-align: center;"><em><strong>"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as be seen as a people with such responsibilities."</strong> </em></p><p style="text-align: right;"><em>— Theodore Roosevelt, 1905</em></p><div><hr /><br /></div><div><i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the June 17 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/honor-and-duty" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;">Don't miss a single issue:</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="320" scrolling="no" src="https://scottmonty.substack.com/embed" style="max-height: 450px; max-width: 100%;" width="480"></iframe></div></div><h2></h2>

Honor and Duty

The Oath of the Horatii by Jacques Louis David, 1784 (public domain - Wikipedia) "Waste no more time in arguing what a good man should...

Revolution or Reform

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sc3yarMeRHk/XuEReVmbsaI/AAAAAAABNRw/jOYGjz7JickbfPovsX3bARl2sOJfpt2XACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Thomas%2BCole%2B-%2BThe_Course_of_Empire%2B4%2B-%2BDestruction.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1200" height="396" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sc3yarMeRHk/XuEReVmbsaI/AAAAAAABNRw/jOYGjz7JickbfPovsX3bARl2sOJfpt2XACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Thomas%2BCole%2B-%2BThe_Course_of_Empire%2B4%2B-%2BDestruction.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Course_of_Empire_(paintings)" target="_blank">The Course of Empire IV: Destruction</a></i> by Thomas Cole, 1836 (public domain - Wikipedia)</td></tr>
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<em><strong>"To escape its wretched lot, the populace has three ways, two imaginary and one real. The first two are the rum shop and the church; the third is the social revolution." </strong></em></div>
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<em>— Mikhail Bakunin, 1871</em></div>
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His father was killed by British cannon fire when the boy was only two years old. The youngster grew up as an aristocrat, attempting to fit in as a courtier before finding that his independent nature was ill-suited to such a role.<br />
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So, two years after hearing about the American struggle for independence, he set sail for the young country. An idealist with a pure-heart and an enthusiastic spirit, he endeared him to many in his new country.<br />
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One of those was General George Washington, who grew so fond of the young man that he considered him almost a surrogate son. He confided in his protégé and gave him assignments to help turn the tide against the British.<br />
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The young man's name? Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier de La Fayette. Or, more succinctly: the Marquis de Lafayette<br />
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The namesake of Lafayette Square.<br />
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Last week's now-infamous <a href="https://smonty.co/3dLRFuu">Liberation of Lafayette Square</a> (click through to see the definitive timeline of action) stuck in my mind not only because of the spectacle itself, but because of the rich irony served up by the actions.<br />
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Lafayette Square is a public park — a symbol of freedom and openness — the kind of space that we typically consider appropriate for public gatherings and peaceful protests. It's currently behind fencing that surrounds the White House and associated grounds, stretching 2 linear miles.<br />
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<em><strong>"It is better to die on your feet than to live on your knees." </strong></em></div>
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<em>— Dolores Ibárruri, 1936</em></div>
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In an interesting twist of fate, the fencing meant to keep protesters at bay (in addition to the wrought-iron fence that's surrounded the White House grounds since the 1960s) has turned into something of a makeshift memorial:<br />
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The fence outside the White House has been converted to a crowd-sourced memorial wall — almost like an art gallery — to black men and women who lost their lives at the hands of police. <br /><br />Hundreds are strolling, looking, adding names and paintings and posters. <a href="https://t.co/mXlZpfMAeX">pic.twitter.com/mXlZpfMAeX</a></div>
— Hannah Natanson (@hannah_natanson) <a href="https://twitter.com/hannah_natanson/status/1269678326538534914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 7, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="tweet" data-attrs="{"url":"https://twitter.com/hannah_natanson/status/1269678326538534914?s=21","full_text":"The fence outside the White House has been converted to a crowd-sourced memorial wall — almost like an art gallery — to black men and women who lost their lives at the hands of police. \n\nHundreds are strolling, looking, adding names and paintings and posters. ","username":"hannah_natanson","name":"Hannah Natanson","date":"Sun Jun 07 17:11:17 +0000 2020","photos":[{"img_url":"https://cdn.substack.com/image/upload/w_728,c_limit/l_twitter_play_button_rvaygk,w_120/tbbnc90wtb5uxa8qzwkm","link_url":"https://t.co/mXlZpfMAeX"}],"quoted_tweet":{},"retweet_count":97437,"like_count":253713,"expanded_url":{}}">
<a href="https://twitter.com/hannah_natanson/status/1269678326538534914?s=21" target="_blank"></a></div>
<br />
The reason the caging in of the park strikes me as ironic is that Lafayette himself was caught up in the French Revolution, where he was captured and imprisoned for five years. This champion of justice and independence suffered by virtue of his station, and because of political sensitivities, Washington was unable to secure his freedom.<br />
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The fence around Lafayette Square <a href="https://smonty.co/2Yhjvs0">will begin to be dismantled today</a>.<br />
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In the two weeks following George Floyd's death, we've seen <a href="https://smonty.co/2Yj7jac">the volume of peaceful protests</a> against police brutality grow. And to be sure, there's been looting and vandalism amid this, but the vast majority of these events have been peaceful.<br />
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<em><strong>"Revolutions cannot, or rather can no longer, be accomplished by a minority. A revolutionary minority, no matter how intelligent and energetic, is not enough, in modern societies at least, to bring about a revolution. The cooperation and adhesion of a majority, and an immense majority, is needed."</strong>  </em></div>
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<em>— Jean Jaurès, 1901</em></div>
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In some ways, it feels like a revolution is happening.<br />
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Back in April, <a href="https://smonty.co/37iJmUr" target="_blank">I wrote about revolutions</a>, but from the perspective of the coronavirus crisis, when some of the public was revolting against shelter in place orders.<br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: large;">See: <a href="https://smonty.co/37iJmUr" target="_blank">The Revolution Will Be Televised</a></span></i></b></div>
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<div class="button-wrapper" data-attrs="{"url":"https://smonty.co/2XPBGGr","text":"The Revolution Will Not Be Televised","class":null}">
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The response to years of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement feels like a revolution of sorts, but is beginning to turn into more than that. If it's going to have any impact, it <em>must</em> be more than a revolution.<br />
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What we need is a <strong>reformation</strong>.<br />
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Consider the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century: it was a movement that grew out of frustration with corruption in the Catholic church. More than simply leading a revolt, the schism created a new branch of Christianity.<br />
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And that's what we're seeing today: governments are beginning to take action based on widely expressed dissatisfaction.<br />
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It's not too different to a what we see when customers revolt against brands. Usually because of some misstep, either in the company's evolution of the product (e.g. <a href="https://smonty.co/37hhksJ" target="_blank">New Coke</a>) or a tone-deaf approach to marketing (e.g. <a href="https://smonty.co/37hP8G0" target="_blank">Pepsi's Black Lives Matter ad with Kendall Jenner</a>), the offenders get called out.<br />
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To turn a revolt into a reformation, meaningful and tangible actions need to be taken by leaders. It's not enough to simply mouth the words ("thoughts and prayers," "we regret any inconvenience," "customer-centric").<br />
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Listening can pay off: Coca-Cola eliminated its plans for the new formulation. Pepsi admitted it missed the mark with its ad. Each recovered in time.<br />
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And now, we have local, state and federal government looking at laws and regulations currently on the books and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-democrats-unveil-bill-police-reform-bill-amid-nationwide-protests/" target="_blank">making plans to update them</a>.<br />
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<em><strong>"An unjust law is no law at all."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Saint Augustine, 395</em></div>
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<a href="https://smonty.co/2Yl3Aci">Solon</a> was the great lawmaker of Athens in the 6th century BC. His primary concern was the  political, economic and moral decline of the city-state. Plutarch described the events that led to Solon's leadership in <em>Parallel Lives</em>:<br />
<blockquote>
<em>"At this point too, the inequalities between rich and poor, had, as it were, come to a head. The city stood on the brink of revolution, and it seemed as if the only way to put a stop to its perpetual disorders and achieve stability was to set up a tyranny. All the common people were weighed down with the debts they owed to a few rich men. Many parents were even forced to sell their own children (for there was no law to prevent this), or to go into exile because of the harshness of their creditors. However, the majority, which included the men of most spirit, began to make common cause together and encourage one another not to resign themselves to these injustices, but to choose a man they could trust to lead them. Having done this, they proposed to set all enslaved debtors free, redistribute the land, and make a complete reform of the constitution."</em></blockquote>
Enter Solon. As a man of wealth, he was acceptable to the rich. As a man of principle, he was acceptable to the poor. Both sides thought he should consider establishing a tyranny. But Solon refused.<br />
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He understood the importance of maintaining arrangements that worked, and reforming those that were broken and only introducing changes were he thought he could achieve his ends through persuasion or enforce it with authority. With an deft hand, he "made force and justice work in harmony."<br />
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<em><strong>"All men recognize the right of revolution, that is, the right to refuse allegiance to, and to resist, the government, when its tyranny or its inefficiency are great and unendurable."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Henry David Thoreau, 1849</em></div>
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And isn't that what we need today? Leaders who can balance their response to competing demands from a variety of sources, whether it's the citizenry, shareholders, employees, customers, or others.<br />
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To be sure, leadership is a balancing act. Very rarely are decisions simple or black and white. Nuance abounds. If it were easier, everyone would be a leader.<br />
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And movements hit leaders with the momentum of a wall of water. They're externally generated, have a mass and volume that is unavoidable, generating momentum that carries with it an unstoppable force and all kinds of debris.<br />
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When a revolution begets a movement, as a leader, you can resist it, ignore it, or embrace it.<br />
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The choice is yours.<br />
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<em><strong><em><strong>"Revolutions never go backward." </strong></em></strong></em></div>
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<em>— Thomas Skidmore, 1829</em></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the June 10 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/revolution-or-reform" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
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Don't miss a single issue:</div>
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Revolution or Reform

The Course of Empire IV: Destruction by Thomas Cole, 1836 (public domain - Wikipedia) "To escape its wretched lot, the pop...

What We Look for From Leaders During a Crisis

What We Look for From Leaders During a Crisis

Hurricane, Bahamas by Winslow Homer, 1898 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons) “Anyone can steer the ship when the sea is calm.” ...

Aural Intimacy

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hw0w2kpckhM/Xs6DXqdp-aI/AAAAAAABNGE/Uq5zdOjonDMM7_s1z8imQLCQfqG0rjftwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Jean-Honor%25C3%25A9%2BFragonard%2B-%2BThe%2BLock%252C%2B1777.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1378" height="500" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hw0w2kpckhM/Xs6DXqdp-aI/AAAAAAABNGE/Uq5zdOjonDMM7_s1z8imQLCQfqG0rjftwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Jean-Honor%25C3%25A9%2BFragonard%2B-%2BThe%2BLock%252C%2B1777.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bolt_(Fragonard)#/media/File:Jean-Honor%C3%A9_Fragonard_009.jpg" target="_blank">The Lock</a></i> by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1777 (public domain - Wikipedia)</td></tr>
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<em><strong>"I like large parties. They're so intimate. At small parties there isn't any intimacy."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1925</em></div>
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"Daddy, tell me a story."<br />
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It's a refrain repeated in many languages all over the world—a timeless routine that signals the winding down of the bedtime routine. It happens in our house, even after our kids have been old enough to read on their own. <br />
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What's the first story you remember?<br />
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Odds are it's a fairy tale or a nursery rhyme, or perhaps a Dr. Seuss book.<br />
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Whatever personal reminiscence springs to the forefront of your brain ("mileage will vary," as we used to say in the auto business), I'll guarantee you one thing: it's a story you heard. That is, it's a story that someone once told you or read to you.<br />
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And it may not have been relegated to bedtime, either. Perhaps it was around a campfire, over a Sunday dinner, or at a family gathering, where the same yarns are repeated year after year.<br />
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The stories we tell define who we are. We develop a culture based on the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves, and our culture is formed via a certain collective memory.<br />
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The Thaayorre of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland, Australia are a historically oral people, passing down their traditions via the spoken language. And they believe intellect and memory reside in the ear.<br />
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So it makes perfect sense that our strongest memories of early stories are from what we <em>heard</em> rather than what we <em>read</em>.<br />
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The ancient poet Homer is believed to have been blind and unable to write even something as simple as his own name. Yet he composed the <em>Iliad</em> and the <em>Odyssey</em>, the foundational books of the Western canon. These two epic poems were first shared orally, suggesting that considerable portions of the 27,803 lines were memorized by rhapsodists who performed them regularly.<br />
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The main liturgical rite of the Catholic mass for centuries was sung in Gregorian chant. Before congregants were able to read widely, the religion assured its survival by sharing the oral tradition that is so intertwined with the image of Benedictine monks. Even today, post-Vatican II,  there are still some vestiges left of those chants.<br />
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<em><strong>"Language is the armory of the human mind and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests." </strong></em></div>
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<em>— Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1817</em></div>
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Beyond singing, though, how powerful the spoken word is. While the printing press gets credit for a revolution of religion, industry, and education, humans have thrived on language to carry our traditions along.<br />
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Historians might bristle at the notion of a historical record sustained solely <em>viva voce</em>, with something as loose and malleable as language, but the inescapable fact is we are an oral and  aural people.<br />
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This is bolstered by the latest trends and supporting technologies. When Steve Jobs debuted the iPod in 2001, he said you could have "1,000 songs in your pocket." This appealed to our love of music and all that is audio. <br />
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Fast forward to present day, when <a href="https://smonty.co/2XDqM5j">Edison Research's Infinite Dial 2020</a> tells us more than one out of three Americans listen to podcasts, 62 percent of us over the age of 12 use some sort of audio assistant, and podcasts reach over 100 million Americans every month.<br />
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Audio news such as <a href="https://smonty.co/2ZL5FR1">Joe Rogan's podcast going exclusive with Spotify for $100 million</a>, and <a href="https://smonty.co/3ergjjQ">Amazon pushing into the local podcast market</a> (where we rely on local news, sports, weather and advertising) are additional signs that audio is booming.<br />
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Whether it's asking Siri a question, telling Alexa to add something to a shopping list, or dictating a voice-to-text reply, we're using our voices to speak to our digital companions, not just each other.<br />
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The oral (and aural) tradition is alive and well.<br />
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<em><strong>"The gift of a common tongue is a priceless inheritance and it may well some day become the foundation of a common citizenship."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Winston Churchill, 1943</em></div>
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This wide open medium stands before us, easily conquered with microphones and hosting services that are affordable and accessible. It's like a modern-day Gold Rush, with prospectors storming the general stores for supplies and heading into the wilderness to mine a vein.<br />
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Like the California Gold Rush that burst into national consciousness in 1849 and peaked by 1852, we may stand on the edge of a podcasting rush. How long before we become oversaturated with audio content? <br />
<br />
With podcast familiarity at over 70 percent (again, according to Edison Research), it's the perfect opportunity for brands to create content for the medium. But how many brands are doing this well?<br />
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One group of brands that would be ideal candidates for podcast creation: <em><strong>automakers</strong></em>. They've got a captive audience, as their vehicles and their infotainment systems are literally audio systems on wheels. What's stopping them from producing great shows?<br />
<br />
It's been six years since I left Ford, where there never seemed to be an appetite for creating a brand podcast. Which is ironic, since car radios have been around for 90 years, first introduced by Motorola (a portmanteau of "motor" and "Victrola"). Ford even owned Philco, an early radio manufacturer.<br />
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While I was there, the extent of podcast involvement by the company was sponsorship of some major tech podcasts. This was in the long tradition of branded sponsorships like Ford Television Theater, General Electric Theater, and such. <br />
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You would think that we could have turned the corner in 70 years, but it can be difficult for brand managers, who are tasked with marketing and sales of products. Eager to share everything their brand is doing, they typically suffer from <a href="https://smonty.co/2XyLL9g">a certain kind of myopia identified by Pacific Content</a>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<em>"[I]f you make a show that is too directly about your brand, your business goals and your business strategy, very few people will listen to it. Why? Because it’s tough to build a loyal audience for an infomercial."</em></blockquote>
One exception is <a href="https://smonty.co/3epRBAB">GE's co-produced effort with Panoply</a> a few years ago. Together, they produced fictional podcasts "The Message" and "LifeAfter," in a nod to its origins in television entertainment, but updated as GE Podcast Theater.<br />
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Why did this approach work? Because it was crafted as a <em>story</em>, not as a brand narrative. <br />
Stories work because they affect us at a deeply personal level. And yes, we can craft words on a printed page to tell a story, but we run the risk of a speed reader or hyper-scroller who breezes past an important point we're trying to make.<br />
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But audio? With audio, we have a chance to arrest their attention. To say the same thing to everyone and to have everyone hear it the same. To form a common bond through the same language.<br />
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What has always struck me is how personal podcasts are. Whether we're listening at our desks, on a walk, while we're gardening, or while we commute, it's a medium in which someone is speaking directly into our ears.<br />
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This is a level of intimacy that isn't afforded by other media.<br />
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Podcasting content speaks directly to us, just as we do to our children when we tell them bedtime stories.<br />
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It's entirely possible that our future oral tradition will include the phrase, "Alexa, tell me a story."<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the May 27 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/aural-intimacy" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "verdana" , "geneva" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br />
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Aural Intimacy

The Lock by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, c. 1777 (public domain - Wikipedia) "I like large parties. They're so intimate. At s...

Monuments to Ourselves

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DgWfPeTyTJE/XsTfmEpxv6I/AAAAAAABNCY/u09cejt2gEYMYOYFFFHNwW327uJRoJTMACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Jean-Auguste-Dominique%2BIngres%2B-%2BApotheosis%2Bof%2BHomer%2B%2528Homer%2BDeified%2529%252C%2B1827.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="771" data-original-width="1024" height="480" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DgWfPeTyTJE/XsTfmEpxv6I/AAAAAAABNCY/u09cejt2gEYMYOYFFFHNwW327uJRoJTMACLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Jean-Auguste-Dominique%2BIngres%2B-%2BApotheosis%2Bof%2BHomer%2B%2528Homer%2BDeified%2529%252C%2B1827.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.8px;"><i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apotheosis_of_Homer_(Ingres)#/media/File:Jean_Auguste_Dominique_Ingres,_Apotheosis_of_Homer,_1827.jpg" target="_blank">Apotheosis of Homer</a></i> by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1827 (public domain - Wikipedia)</span></td></tr>
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<em><strong>"I would much rather have men ask why I have no monument than why I have one."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Cato the Elder, c. 184 BC</em></div>
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In the 1986 comedy <em>Back To School</em>, the oldest freshman, played by Rodney Dangerfield sat in English class, confident of his ability to pass the course because of his budding relationship with his professor. <br />
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The professor, Dr. Diane Turner, still expected mastery of the material when she called on him:<br />
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"Mr. Melon," she began. "How would you characterize <em>The Great Gatsby</em>?"</blockquote>
Clearly out of his element and caught unprepared, he replied: <br />
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"The Great Gatsby? He was…uh…great!"</blockquote>
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This scene stays with me not only because I was an impressionable teen when I first saw it (and repeated it to myself not long thereafter when I read <em>The Great Gatsby</em> for the first time), but because it raises a number of questions: What is greatness? What is fame? How do they differ? And how does reputation factor into this?<br />
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<em><strong>"Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— William Shakespeare, 1601</em></div>
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Who personifies greatness to you?<br />
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You may have a personal hero—someone close to you whom you admire who has achieved something or influenced you in some intimate way.<br />
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But most of us conjure up images of distant heroes from chapters of the past when we consider greatness. Leaders like Lincoln, Washington, Martin Luther King. Jr. Artisans such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael. Industrialists like Rockefeller, Edison, Ford.<br />
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If we go back a couple of millennia, we find leaders who were able to achieve greatness, slowly and gradually over time (greatness is not for those who crave instant gratification), and who had the means to leave monuments to themselves. Triumphal arches in Rome to various Caesars; the terracotta army buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China; pyramids in Egypt left as burial chambers for the pharaohs. <br />
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If a leader was respected and revered enough, he might even be deified. Some attempted to deify themselves in the process (in ancient Egypt, the pharaoh was considered part god), while others were treated as such after their passing. Consider the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial as examples approaching this.<br />
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And yet, aren't these temporary? They wear away with the sands of time. Nature takes a toll and topples them, like the Colossus at Rhodes (felled by an earthquake in 226 BC), or thieves raid the tombs of ancient kings.<br />
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Shelley wrote of this notion of fleeting greatness and the arrogance of leaders in his classic poem "Ozymandias" in 1818:<br />
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<em>I met a traveller from an antique land,<br />Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone<br />Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand,<br />Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,<br />And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,<br />Tell that its sculptor well those passions read<br />Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,<br />The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;<br />And on the pedestal, these words appear:<br />My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;<br />Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!<br />Nothing beside remains. Round the decay<br />Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare<br />The lone and level sands stretch far away.”</em></blockquote>
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But today? Today we don't have time for greatness. We need everything <em>now</em>.<br />
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<em><strong>"Two centuries ago when a great man appeared, people looked for God's purpose in him; today we look for his press agent."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>—</em><em> Daniel Boorstin, 1961</em></div>
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Boorstin wrote of the "Graphic Revolution" — newspapers, radio, television, and all associated media — that gave us the ability to manufacture fame. Mass media gave us the ability to share the same message, the same voice, and the same face across vast amounts of the population.<br />
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What does that get us, though? Not greatness, but fame.<br />
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He was clear that fame was different from greatness: "We can fabricate fame, we can at will (though usually at considerable expense) make a man or woman well-known; but we cannot make him great.<br />
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We can make a celebrity, but we can never make a hero." <br />
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Another 50 years beyond Boorstin's writing drops us square into the Digital Revolution (same concept, new technology). Now our monuments are likes, clicks, views, and follows as we build monuments to ourselves under the auspices of our "personal brand."<br />
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It's a race to online celebrity (perhaps weblebrity? or cewebrity?) as we take a shot at digital immortality. And yet, the meme mausoleum is littered with viral stars that have since gone supernova and have burned out.<br />
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Being an executive at Ford leading digital communications and social media during its rise to popularity thrust me into the spotlight. It was a byproduct of the work I did, not the goal. But I used my position to share what I learned working within a Fortune 10 company, building my expertise along the way.<br />
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And yet, I saw (and still see) the self-styled "gurus" online who are hustling their hearts out, attempting to convince you that they know how to run a global enterprise because they can push buttons, buy fans, or make bots in their attempt to achieve fame and build their personal brands.<br />
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And who can blame them? Shortcuts to fame would seem to be preferable to actually doing the work. Lewis H. Lapham wrote, "Celebrity is about being, not becoming," and that sums it up the skewed priorities that the world seems to reward.<br />
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<em><strong>"Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury—to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Albert Einstein, 1931</em></div>
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Social media gives us our fair share of Hollywood celebrities, and their legions of fans. But it has also birthed thousands more YouTubers, Instagrammers, TikTokkers and the like, who dazzle us with their creativity nonstop.<br />
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The unending parade of content is an assault on our senses that doesn't allow us to recover. The infinite scroll keeps our thumbs moving while our brains are at rest, passively consuming whatever is presented to them. Lapham observed: "Perceptions of the world furnished by the camera substitute montage for narrative…<a href="https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/celebrity/dancing-stars">the camera doesn't think</a>."  <br />
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It's what allows us to have celebrities who are famous for being famous. Zsa Zsa Gabor was probably the first of this kind who eventually gave way to the likes of the Kardashians and Paris Hilton. [Incidentally, Zsa Zsa was Conrad Hilton's second wife (he was the second of her nine husbands); Paris Hilton was Conrad's great-granddaughter. The circle is complete.]<br />
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<em><strong>"Men are more generally pleased with a widespread than a great reputation."</strong> </em></div>
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<em>— Pliny the Younger, c. 110</em></div>
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So we have online personalities (I refuse to call them "influencers") who see the fame, think it's easy to achieve, and chase after it with willful disregard for how they're perceived by those who are paying attention. Or at least by those who are paying attention and can understand the difference between aspiration and raw, greedy ambition.<br />
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In pursuing their unbridled passion for digital dominance (followers, likes, views), they may be sacrificing their reputation along the way. Or perhaps they'll simply further demonstrate who they are — they'll have a reputation, alright.<br />
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With so much content out there and limited space on the platforms, it's harder to get noticed. In an age of content deluge, <a href="https://aeon.co/ideas/say-goodbye-to-the-information-age-its-all-about-reputation-now">it's all about reputation</a>. Rather than pursuing fame, perhaps we should pursue excellence. Or competence. Or helpfulness.<br />
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The best leaders know how to focus on today versus constantly worrying about their legacy. The Stoics knew that <a href="https://dailystoic.com/in-the-end-its-nothing/">in the end, all of the fame, money and trappings means nothing</a>.<br />
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What you have to live with every day, and the legacy you leave to those who care most about you is your integrity, your character, and your reputation.<br />
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Put your efforts into leading with integrity and character, and greatness will follow.<br />
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<i style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">This originally appeared in the May 20 issue of the <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">Timeless & Timely</a> newsletter. What are you missing? To see this issue in its entirety, with entertaining and thoughtful links, recommendations, and more, <a href="https://scottmonty.substack.com/monuments-to-ourselves" style="color: #280170; font-weight: bold; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">please click here</a></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: verdana, geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"></span><br />
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Monuments to Ourselves

Apotheosis of Homer by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 1827 (public domain - Wikipedia) "I would much rather have men ask wh...

Scott Monty - Strategic Communications & Leadership Advisor

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