Martin Luther King
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 by Mark | Posted in Uncategorized, Unconventional Thinking | CommentsFrom birth, we are all told the things we cannot or should not do.
Interesting, but these warnings, of sort, often come before and with greater vehemence, then the advice on what we can and should aspire to.
Let’s take one we’ve all grown up with: “Don’t do anything you’ll come to regret.”
When you think about it, that really means “don’t do anything at all.” It is, intentional or not, paralyzing. Whenever we take a chance in life, we run the risk of failing. Of losing face, money, stature, customers, popularity. Those who can’t face that kind of risk, live in the safe zone. They took that childhood caveat about the things we cannot or should not do and allowed it to dictate the terms of their lives.
They may never have the thrill of achievement, but they are safe, or so they think. I’ll return to that illusion in a moment. But first, let’s do a 180 and contemplate Martin Luther King.
We all know he had a dream and that he succeeded in turning the dream into reality. He did not achieve all that he hoped for but he was truly transformative. What gets lost about his story, is that he carried a nation on his back to bring his dream to life.
Young people who did not live in the era of King do not realize how far outside of the safety zone he ventured. They don’t understand–and you can’t glean this from textbooks or news archives alone–how he did it with German shepherds biting at his feet, water hoses driving into his body, redneck mobs taunting and beating his marchers. .
Even more so, King knew that in pursuit of his dream, he was walking headlong into an assassin’s bullet. It was an ugly time in America, with hatred and violence pouring into the streets. For most, it was a time to stay inside and lock the doors.
King would have none of that. Safety was not his holy grail.
In my lifetime, I have witnessed and had the rewards of knowing and working with famous and exceptional people. But Martin Luther King was the bravest and the one who accomplished the most magnificent feat.
King knew that there is nothing more powerful than a human being armed with a dream and willing to do something he or she may pay a staggering price for. And he knew that safety is a figment of the imagination.
Whenever we are tempted to play it safe, to avoid risk, to be driven by consensus, all we really do is expose ourselves to a far graver threat than loss of face, money, stature, popularity and even life.
We fail to accomplish anything of importance.
Mark Stevens
CEO
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