The Leadership Scarcity

Seth Godin has a great excerpt
from his book Tribes
on the scarcity of leaders
and why that scarcity makes them valuable.

I disagree with his premise
that not anyone could do it.
Anyone COULD be a leader.
I believe everyone has the potential.

There’s a leadership shortage
because…
people don’t WANT to be leaders.

Why?

Because leaders are hated.

If you want to be
President of the United States,
the job comes with having
either the Republicans or Democrats hating you.

If you lead an organization
fighting child prostitution,
you’ll have the pimps, johns,
and other ‘fans’ of child prostitution
hating you.
They could hate you so much,
they kill you.

If you want to lead a business blog,
you’ll deal with stalkers, haters,
and people who disagree
with every word you write
just because you wrote it.

These haters are relentless
and because they’re relentless,
they can break the spirits of leaders.

UNLESS…
the leaders’ fans are as relentless.
That is one of the secrets of success,
having relentless fans
to offset the haters.

If you admire a leader,
an organization, a movement,
send them a fan letter today.