dropped

This is also the reason leadership is often described as a lonely job.

Constantly facing the doubts and uncertainties of unfiltered realities, while protecting others, can be brutal. When things get hard, you will want to scream, “Why am I the only adult around here?”

“interpret external reality” job is a delicate balancing act on the leader’s part: you need to keep your people connected enough to reality to be effective, but not so connected that they are demotivated and demoralized.

In that vein of thinking, my favorite definition of a CEO’s job is from A. G. Lafley: “A CEO’s job is to interpret external realities for a company.” I have met many people who’ve

company that starts down the road to evil in even a small way will end up totally evil.”

The answer is a decision that Boyd challenged each of his acolytes to make: in life you eventually have to decide whether to be somebody, or do something.

Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War, which has now bumped Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power to the #2 spot in my Be Slightly Evil reading list. You should also check out Chet Richards’ Certain to Win, an application of Boyd’s ideas to business.

If you are driven by your own principles, you’ll generally search desperately for a calling, and when you find one, it will consume your life.