Ernst Hemmingway, the much acclaimed and celebrated American author, was asked as to why he deserted his wife and little child for another woman. Hemmingway simply said ‘Because I’m a bastard!’Do we remember, Hemmingway today, as a scumbag or as a great author, who won the Nobel Prize? The latter would be true, I think.
Mahatma Gandhi will go down as one of the world’s greatest transformational leaders of all time and is remembered for that, not for the neglect that his family went through due to his enormous sacrifice. Leadership comes at a steep price that many a mortal is not ready to bear.
Winston Churchill was a washed up back bencher, when Hitler started World War 2, resurrecting his dead career. Churchill seized the moment and went on to become a great politician.
Adolf Hitler was an effective leader; till his megalomania took hold and he lost it all.
As I teach leadership, I grapple with multiple facets to a leader and leadership. Leadership is a complex area, contextual and situational, where the results determine the leader’s efficacy. There is no room for an also ran……….
Paul Gauguin the genius and post impressionist painter fled France for Tahiti, deserting his family,by sea, where he created his masterpieces..........what if the ship had sunk onvoyage.Would we have heard, of Gaugin the genius? It might have well been Gaugin the wretch!
1 comment:
Am a bit confused sir..normally if a human does 10 good thing but incidentally if he made 1 mistake or a bad deed, he or she may be remembered as a culprit! But in case of leaders their bad deeds are not much talked about as you told about Ernest Hemingway and there are plethora of such examples...Why is it so? Is it because their magnitude of good behavior compensates for the bad deed...or they have made big sacrifices which have hurt them to an extent but were more painful to their dear ones??
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