My first professional job was with a small company. We had less than fifty employees at the time that I was hired. It was a pretty good place to be, in fact my first boss told me that only one other person had left the company in thirty years of existence. Talk about loyalty. When I left, I struggled with whether this was the right thing to do considering nobody left. But, like the generational high to the awakening of the Fourth Turning theory, eventually everything must change.

After a couple of years at a large company, I was headed back to a small company where I was one of about twenty employees. I stayed as long as I could stand it and what I mean by that is that the company was bought and the dynamics were not the original deal that I signed up for. Clearly, I could name a list of flaws with every place I worked or I would still be employed there. But the places where I was most vested were the small companies.

Both of my small company experiences I rose consistently and relatively rapidly. I attributed this to my ‘leadership’ ability which originally came from my Boy Scout experience of my youth. I never seek to become a leader, it just seems to follow me as a result of disfunction and ineptitude. Eventually, I get to the point where I can see the obvious flaws and what I would do to fix the problems.

I had a epiphany a couple of weeks ago and this was that the term leadership is not what I have always believed it to be. My definition of leadership has always included ideas like competence, initiative and success. I know, I have been teasing this so here it is. Leaders are people that implement other’s ideas. Good leaders do it successfully.

Think about it, if it wasn’t someone else’s idea then you would be an entrepreneur and not a leader. For this reason, people that start their own business are rebelling against something. Maybe it is being managed, maybe it is to push your own idea versus someone else’s. But at the end of the day, starting your own business is a systematic rebellion.

In my professional world, the concept that everyone has to be a leader is pushed to the extreme. Now realizing my new definition, of course why wouldn’t they want that? Leadership is a homogenization concept. I would say that these companies benefit from beating the entrepreneurship out of their employees. An evangelical employee is the best circumstance possible.

Many, many years ago when I left my first job the sales manager said something to me that has always stuck. “The people that get you there are probably not the ones that take you to the next level”. I always took that to mean 1) it was OK to leave my job 2) my grievances against the company were not unheard but would not change and 3) just because I did good work turning things around doesn’t mean that I was destined to do my job forever. Since that job, I have learned that I am best at organizing mess rather than accelerating or optimizing it. I took solace in my decision to leave as well as I was doing the right thing.

It has taken me until today to accept that because I am a good leader that I probably won’t be a successful entrepreneur. This is because the mission is different. I don’t know why nor is it exactly what I wanted to be five years ago when I started AltF4 or had other dreams self-employment. But again, God has a plan for me. As much as I want to be the master of my destiny, I cannot say that the role I am destined to play is the one that I think I want.

End Your Programming Routine: With this inflection about the definition of leadership, I have come to understand is that leadership talent is not exclusive to one domain. What I mean by that is I don’t have to be a leader in just my job. I can be a leader in my church, community, the trap team, my son’s non-profit, my family, etc. There is not one place that I have exclusive control, nor should I when it comes to those entities. Let’s be honest, as much as I want to be an industrious and prosperous employee, in the game of life this only takes one so far. My life existed before my job and my job will exist after I have fulfilled the role. While I think I will always be a good leader, it is where those talents are employed that actually make a difference.