Leaders are few and far between in the 21st century’s version of western civilization. The glorification of victimhood mentality has been plaguing society for years, and is only getting worse as the leaders of western culture refuse to do anything about it. People compete to be the bigger victim and whoever is the most “oppressed” is entitled to the most sympathy and handouts in this new cultural shift. The truth is, you are responsible for your own status in society. Obviously people grow up under different circumstances that either make life easier or harder, but it is up to YOU to determine what happens in your life. Leaders understand this and control only what they can control. They hold themselves accountable to their decisions, admit when they make mistakes, and NEVER blame their lack of performance on anything other than themselves. This is how the most effective people in society think. We are facing a leadership epidemic today in the United States. Of course our capitalistic system is still continuing to produce great leaders in some capacity, but the constant pedaling of victimhood mentality is severely disrupting this trend of leadership and innovation we’ve seen for literally centuries in this country. A great society needs great leaders, and great leaders instill confidence and productive mindsets in the people that follow them.
America, a country founded on leadership
From the very beginning, America was and is a country founded on great leadership of some great men. These Founding Fathers were able to put together a barely equipped group of individuals to take on the greatest army in the world at that time, The British Empire. The Founding Fathers were able to ignite the desire within the average individual to take up arms and fight against tyranny. It is a great story of desire, leadership, and triumph. From a purely tangible point of view, The American Colonies had no business being able to take on an army like The British. It was that intangible that no one on the British side accounted for, leadership and desire, that led to the great American victory. The Founding Fathers were not only powerful enough to put together an army of intense desire, but had the foresight to put together the framework of what is now the greatest country in the world by writing The Constitution. The Colonies could have easily accepted their fate as the victims of British tyranny for the rest of time, but they didn’t. A few men stood up as leaders and risked their lives to bring together The Colonies united against Britain. No one in 1776 was feeling sorry for themselves. No one was competing to be the biggest victim. And that is how America was born, through astounding leadership and desire of a few men that ignited the fire within many men. As we get further and further away from this triumph, we must never forget it and what it taught us about success in its relation to leadership and desire. In order to reinvigorate this value within the American populace, we must rid ourselves of this victimhood mentality completely and replace it with the principles of strong leadership that our great country was built on.
The hard truth of accountability
In the book Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin, the principle that is preached over and over again is that there are no weak teams, only weak leaders. Weak leaders refuse to take responsibility for anything that goes wrong and always find someone or something to project blame on. This creates a negative atmosphere and energy between that weak leader and anyone that person leads. This principle applies to everyone. We all make excuses in our lives for things we could have or should’ve done better. We blame extraneous factors, other people, not enough time, etc. By continuing to blame these factors instead of looking inwards on yourself to correct the true issue, you neglect a valuable life lesson that you, just like everyone else, is subject to mistakes. Whether you take responsibility for those mistakes and learn from them is up to you to decide. The hard truth is that everything that is wrong with your life is your fault. Whether you have relationship issues with someone close to you, you’re having money issues, you have a drug problem, etc. Either directly or indirectly, it is your decisions that got you to where you are and you need to acknowledge that fact. True leaders understand that if something has failed or isn’t working, you are to blame because you missed something or did something the wrong way and need to find a way to improve. Leaders are imperfect and make mistakes, but are constantly learning from those mistakes and implementing new practices to make sure they never happen again. If you are in a fight with a significant other, acknowledge that you are wrong in some capacity and try like hell to fix it instead of blaming the other person for your collective problems. If you are struggling for money, acknowledge that it is no one’s fault but your own and ask yourself what actions you are taking to resolve this issue. if you aren’t taking any, then own up to it and change it. This same line of thinking applies to any form of trouble you may have. By applying the principles illustrated previously, not only will you solve plaguing problems, but you will improve your life significantly in every aspect.
Being a leader takes a lot of poise, accountability, and an ability to take responsibility for their own and those they lead’s mistakes. As a society, we cannot lose these principles because they are the foundation of what makes this country so great to begin with. Being a leader is hard, and it takes a valiant effort from great people. Make that effort to be that person and financial freedom and freedom of any other avenue you could imagine will be right around the corner.