All great leaders were first great students and followers.
If you can’t follow, you’ll never lead.

In an age of quick-fixes, push button success, and microwave mentality, many if not most have lost what it takes to become a true leader in whatever their chosen field.

But first, what is leadership? The management consultant Tom Peters states, “Leadership is confusing as hell.”

Is it just someone with followers? No, that can’t be true.

That would mean that everyone who has a large social media following is a leader.



Hardly.

Is it just someone with a certain title or position? No that’s just positional power; and positional power only works to the degree there’s fear. Once fear is gone, so is the ability to lead.

How about a good speaker or communicator? Are they a great leader? No, not just that either. Would you hire a great orator to perform heart surgery on you? Or to run your company?

Having followers does not make you a true leader.
Nor is it just winning the popular vote.
There’s much more to it than that.
Particularly in today’s crazy ‘everybody
can find a platform without even earning it’ world.

Let’s face it. You can’t stand in front of the room effectively until you work your way to the head of the class.
In a world gone mad with the desire to be “an expert,” and to get more “followers,” we’ve forgotten what it means to be an apprentice.

You can’t stand in front of the room effectively
until you work your way to the head of the class.
Be willing to put in the time and do the work.

We’ve forgotten that Leonardo da Vinci apprenticed with Andrea del Verrocchio for 10 years as a studio boy.
In fact, many experts believe that some of Verrocchio’s most famous paintings were actually collaborative efforts between him and Leonardo, even though Leonardo got no credit.

Da Vinci obviously didn’t care. He got experience. He wasn’t in it for fame or applause. He was committed to excellence and mastery.
John Coltrane, one of the greatest saxophone players of all time, apprenticed with Miles Davis and Charlie Parker; and was reported to have practiced for 12 hours per day.

Often practicing until his lips bled. Investing up to 10 hours to the perfecting of ONE single note!

That leads me to another often forgotten truth.

Practice.

Not performance.

Practice!

Practice is not just something you do to become great.
Practice is what you do when you’re already great to become greater.

When Michael Jordan was inducted into the Hall of Fame, his mentor Dean Smith stated,

“One thing that stands out about Michael is how hard he works. Because of that he gets better every single year. He LISTENS CLOSELY to what the coaches say (what a concept), and then GOES AND DOES IT (wow, an even rarer concept). 

He certainly belongs in the Hall of Fame. I don’t know that anybody ever combined the PHYSICAL and the MENTAL sides with the effort the way Michael does. Tiger Woods, maybe.”

Work harder on your mindset than you do on your marketing,
your strategy or your technique.
All are important, but mindset drives the bus.

Do you want to be great?

Or just a carbon-copy cliché?

Be willing to pay the price.

Are you willing to pay the price for the prize. Let me help you.

Be willing to do whatever it takes.

Be willing to set your little puffed up romantic ego aside and become a “studio boy or girl.”

Listen, I’ve crawled on my knees on a cold concrete floor for over 2 hours just for a 15 second meeting with an Eastern Master.

I was already a public figure, bestselling author, and very successful business man at the time.

I left my ego at the door.
She told me to wash dishes in the kitchen (not my favorite thing), and I immediately did it; and gave it every ounce of energy that I had.

Willingly.

And that’s just scratching the surface.

I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of hours and dollars to study and listen and learn and practice.

There are no push-button, quick fixes.

You have to do the work.

You must be willing to invest 10 years in obscurity
to possibly leave a lifetime legacy.

If you want to become masterful, you MUST pay the price.

Are you willing?
Most aren’t; and that’s okay.

Not everyone is cut out for mastery.

But if you think you might be, then buckle your seat-belt Dorothy because Kansas is going bye-bye.

I’d be honored to help you, go here: The Prometheus Academy of Life and Business Acceleration®

Stay Awake, Love Life, and Be Epic!

James