Leadership Wisdom From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: The 8 Rituals of Visionary Leaders (23 page)

“Greetings, Peter!” Julian said with his usual degree of enthusiasm. “It’s quite a day up here on the mountain,” he added, taking a whiff of fresh air deep into his lungs. “Kind of makes me feel as if I was back in the Himalayas with Yogi Raman and the rest of my wise teachers.”

“Do you miss their company?”

“Terribly. They were the kindest, most giving men and women I have ever known. They treated me like I was a part of their small family and I felt like they were a part of mine. Those days, up in that natural oasis of beauty, peace and knowledge were truly the best of my life. Having said that, I made a promise to them and I plan to keep it. I have a duty to perform and will dedicate the rest of my days to spreading their ideas about leadership in business and in life, making sure that their timeless message is heard by all those who need to hear it.”

“Mind if I ask another question?”

“Not at all,” Julian replied as we walked to the lodge to purchase a ticket up the mountain by cable car.

“Why are we going up there?” I asked as I strained my neck to look up at the summit.

“Because there is another leadership lesson I wish to share with you. And that is the perfect place for me to share it.”

As we rode up the mountain, neither of us said a word. The beauty of the scenery was simply breathtaking, something to be taken in fully—and silently. With the feeling of joy that came over me through this connection to the gifts of nature, I wondered why I did not leave that oak-paneled office of mine more often to get outdoors and enjoy the simple pleasures of life. At least, I could bring Samantha and the kids up here on weekends. I really needed to spend more time with them. And I knew that such an outing would bring a greater sense of perspective to my days along with energy to my weeks.

After about half an hour of steady climbing, the cable car stopped abruptly and a voice on the public address system asked us to “de-car,” a term I had never heard before and prayed I wouldn’t again. Julian, obviously familiar with the place, led me along a snow-covered walkway lined on both sides with thick strands of rope. I silently followed my friend, placing my full trust in this man, who I had learned had my best interests in mind. Finally we arrived at our destination. And it was like nothing I had ever seen.

The ridge we were standing on looked out across the entire region as well as over other smaller mountains, which struggled to push through the billowy clouds in the otherwise clear blue sky. I truly wished Samantha and the kids were there with me. This sight would have amazed them. I felt deeply peaceful in this heavenly place and shared this sentiment with my youthful companion.

“I know what you mean, my friend. I know what you mean.” After a few minutes of soaking in the view, Julian began his lesson.

“Ritual
6
is an extremely important one, Peter, one that visionary leaders practice on a daily basis. If they fail to do so, even for a few days, their vision is diminished and much of their effectiveness is lost.”

“Exactly what does Leader Lead Thyself mean?” I asked as I pulled the sixth piece of the puzzle from the light ski jacket I had put on for the occasion and glanced more closely at it.

“Ritual
6
is the ritual of self-leadership. Sadly, self-leadership is the discipline most neglected by leaders in this part of the world. And yet, it is the foundation from which all other success in business and in life springs.”

“Is self-leadership the same as self-improvement?”

“It’s about so much more than that. Sir Edmund Hillary, who as you know was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest, said it best when he observed, ‘It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.’ That’s really the essence of self-leadership — it’s about conquering and mastering yourself.”

“Interesting.”

“Most leaders believe that effectiveness and excellence come from external factors like an efficient work force or application of the latest technology. The truth of the matter, as visionary leaders have known over the centuries, is that success is an inside job. Excellence begins within. Market leadership begins with self-leadership.”

After inhaling another deep breath of the crisp mountain air, Julian continued. “You see, Peter, how can you lead an organization if you’ve never learned how to lead yourself? How can you coach a
team if you’ve never mastered the art of self-coaching? And how can you expect to manage others if you’ve never refined the skill of managing yourself?”

“My dad used to say that you can’t do good if you don’t feel good.”

“Precisely. And Goethe made the point in a similar way when he noted that ‘Before you can do something you must
be
something.’ You cannot be the inspirational leader you hope to be if you wake up every morning feeling miserable and depressed. You cannot guide your people forward to victory if you are being kept behind by a lack of energy. You will not be able to capture their hearts and energize their minds if you are still yelling and screaming at them all day. Remember, before you can like another person, you must like yourself.
Success on the outside begins within.

“It’s like that old story my favorite professor told me when I was in law school,” Julian added. “One night a father was relaxing with his newspaper after a long day at the office. His son, who wanted to play, kept on pestering him. Finally, fed up, the father ripped out a picture of the globe that was in the paper and tore it into many tiny pieces. ‘Here, son, go ahead and try to put this back together,’ he said, hoping this would keep the little boy busy long enough for him to finish reading his paper. To his amazement, his son returned after only one minute with the globe perfectly reassembled. When the startled father asked how he achieved this feat, the child smiled gently and replied, ‘Dad, on the other side of the globe there was a picture of a person, and once I got the person together, the world was okay’”

“So the lesson is that success on the outside really does begin within. It all starts by getting myself together. And once I do, my own world will be okay, correct?”

“Yes, Peter, that’s it exactly.”

“Are you suggesting that I make personal mastery one of my major goals?”

“Make it a vow.” “What’s the difference?”

“A goal is something you aim to do, a positive intention that you plan to achieve sometime in the future. I discovered from the sages that a vow is something much deeper than that. Making a vow means you are committed, from the very core of your character, to keeping the promise you have made. Failure is simply not an option. By making a vow, you simply refuse to lose.”

“Self-leadership is really that important?”

“Definitely. All the great thinkers have known of this truth. Seneca said, ‘To master one’s self is the greatest mastery’ while Confucius noted that ‘good people strengthen themselves ceaselessly’ ‘Man is made and unmade by himself,’ discovered James Allen, while the sixth-century Chinese military leader Sun Tzu said, ‘To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands.’ Even the modern leadership philosopher Peter Drucker observed that ‘Self-development of the effective executive is central to the development of the organization, whether it be a business, a government agency, a research laboratory, a hospital or a military service. It is the way toward performance of the organization.’

“You see, my friend, one of the most enduring of all the ancient laws of humanity is that
we see the world not as it is, but as we are.
By improving, refining and defining who we are, we see the world from the highest, most enlightened perspective. By mastering ourselves, we see the world and all its limitless opportunities and potential from the top of the mountain rather than from the bottom. Commit yourself to excellence. Raise the personal
Standards you have set for yourself. Strive to do everything spectacularly well.
Remember that when you settle for mediocrity in the small things, you will also begin to settle for mediocrity in the big things. And anything less than a conscious commitment to peak personal performance is an unconscious commitment to weak personal performance.

As I absorbed this profound piece of leadership wisdom, I gazed off into the horizon. I had never taken the time to think about self-improvement. I had often seen other executives reading personal development books, such as As a
Man Thinketh, University of Success, Think and Grow Rich, Psycho-Cybernetics
and
MegaLiving,
on my frequent airline flights and thought silently, ‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ assuming that these were poor souls suffering a professional or a personal crisis. I now realized that while those who could effectively manage others were wise, those who had mastered themselves were enlightened. The most important thing any leader could do to improve his organization was to first improve himself. My dad was right. You can’t do good if you don’t feel good. It is impossible to do great things if you are not thinking great thoughts. I had to make a “vow,” as Julian suggested, to get serious about the development of my self so I could achieve all the things I wanted to achieve. I had to Focus on the Worthy and make the time to lift my inner life to a whole new level of effectiveness.

“Now do you see why I brought you up to the top of this mountain? To gain leadership over others, you must gain true leadership over yourself,” Julian said. “You must climb your own mountains and rise to the top, conquering yourself in the process. You must stop
making excuses for why things have gone wrong and assume some responsibility for a change. Visionary leaders are alibi-free.”

“What do you mean by alibi-free?” I queried.

“As a litigation lawyer, I had the opportunity to cross-examine thousands of witnesses over the course of my career. No matter how guilty they were, they all did the same thing. They all came up with an excuse that shifted the blame to someone else. Not once could they clearly and simply admit, ‘It was all my fault. I was wrong. And I am truly sorry.’”

“They all had alibis.”

“Right. But visionary leaders are the masters of themselves, as well as of their destinies. They know that if there is a problem with morale in the company, there is a problem with their leadership. They understand that if their relationships are lacking in depth and warmth, there must be some lack within themselves. They know that if their levels of personal achievement are less than outstanding, the thoughts they are having and the actions they are taking must be less than superb. That’s why I say that visionary leaders are alibi-free. They have the power of character to realize that they ultimately control their futures and that their outer lives are shaped by their inner ones.

“And just like scaling any great mountain,” added Julian enthusiastically, “the higher you climb within yourself, the more you will see. The more you come to know who and what you really are as a person, performer and as a leader, the more value you will be able to contribute to the world around you. The saddest thing I know of is a human being who has no sense of self, no idea of what she could achieve in her life if only she had the courage to liberate her full potential through the discipline of self-mastery. Too many people live far below their potential. It’s like Wordsworth once
wrote, The world is too much with us; late and soon,/ Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:/ Little we see in nature that is ours;/ We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!’ The point I’m really trying to make can be made very simply:
Leadership in your world begins with leadership of your life.”

Julian then walked over to a long wooden bench that rested along the ridge and sat down. Closing his eyes and again deeply breathing in the cool, clean air of this spectacular mountain hideaway, he paused before continuing his passionate discourse on the value of self-leadership.

“You know, Peter, I really love this place. Since I’ve returned from the Himalayas, I’ve probably been up here fifty times. It really keeps my head clear. Life with the sages was so serene and peaceful. While they were enormously productive people, their achievement was of a graceful sort. Now that I’m back, I have to admit that I must constantly try not to get swept up in the frenetic pace that dogs our society.”

“I feel the same way,” I replied. “I mean the pace that I keep at the office is crazy. I’m like a wild man most days. Did you know that my executive assistant, Arielle, has already organized my appointment schedule for the next thirteen months? The number of people I have to see and the amount of work I have to do is absolutely unbelievable. Though the Time Model for Visionary Leadership that you shared with me is beginning to free me to Focus on the Worthy, I still feel the stress.”

“Which brings me nicely to the first of the
5
Ancient Disciplines for Self-Leadership. These disciplines are formulations of the timeless wisdom that Yogi Raman gave me for personal mastery. Best practices for human excellence and inner leadership, if you will. Yogi Raman saw that I was in pretty bad
shape when I arrived in the Himalayas, still recovering from my heart attack. So he offered me a series of philosophies and techniques to get my internal world back into shape. Let me simply say that the changes that followed when I applied these strategies were profound. The sense of tranquility that I had lost as a corporate superstar returned. I was able to conquer the worry habit that had plagued me for so long. My energy levels soared. I began to feel the way I had as an idealistic kid at Harvard Law School. And I knocked many years off the way I looked.”

“No kidding,” I observed with a smile. “I thought you were some kid when I saw you standing in my rose garden that day. Your transformation is astonishing. I’d love to hear how you did it. What’s the First Discipline for Self-Leadership?”

“It’s the Discipline of Personal Renewal. All visionary leaders regularly renew themselves. They make time to revitalize their bodies and energize their spirits. You see, in these information-crazed times that we live in, leaders and managers are being driven to do more with less, to work smarter, faster and harder. This frenetic pace that you are required to maintain just to keep up with the competition takes its toll on the way you think, feel and perform. But the thing you need to remember is that it’s not really the stress that diminishes your effectiveness and leaves you feeling utterly exhausted at the end of the day.”