Page 278 - Executive Warfare

EXECUTIVE W ARF ARE

career if you have family and outside friends who can offer you advice and
support—you also will not be a pathetic and unhappy figure when your
career is over.
Keep a sense of humor, too, because there is plenty of absurdity at the
top of any organization, and you will make better decisions if you recog-
nize it.
Above all,avoid being isolated by your success.Most people are not inter-
ested in anarchy—they want to be led. But, they won’t take their cues from
someone out of touch, someone who
lives in a business or social cocoon.

MOST PEOPLE ARE Once you crawl into that cocoon and
NOT INTERESTED IN start socializing only with people who
ANARCHY—THEY are exactly like you, you still might rise,
WANT TO BE LED. but you will not last. You simply won’t
BUT THEY WON’T know enough to survive the multifac-
TAKE THEIR CUES eted challenges you’ll inevitably face. It
FROM SOMEONE takes perspective to lead, and you can’t
WHO LIVES IN A get perspective on the sixteenth tee.
BUSINESS OR A lot of executives think that if they
SOCIAL COCOON. talk to the people whose paychecks they
sign, they’ve stayed grounded. Well, I’m
sorry, but those people can’t afford to
contradict you. It’s much more instructive to go to a baseball game and
have somebody completely disinterested spill beer on you and yell at you.
If you worry that a cocoon is being spun around you, go watch a roofer
work in the heat of the summer or a waitress in a busy coffee shop. As I
was rising, I’d sneak out of the office once or twice a year and go to court
on sentencing day, just to observe. Make sure that you never forget that
most lives involve a lot of struggle, because people will not look up to you
if you have no empathy for them.
To get to the top—and stay there—you need to be able to lead human
beings. And, the only way to learn how to lead is to live.

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