It’s lonely at the top, or so the saying goes. In fact, it can feel lonely a lot of places, can’t it? The CEO’s office, though an envied location by many, can seem utterly isolated to the one sitting in the chair behind the desk. Sometimes it can all get a bit stifling, whatever your particular role within an organization is.
Like my buddy James Robert Lay likes to remind me by channeling his inner Jack Shepherd: We can live together, or we can die alone. If you didn’t watch LOST, then the previous reference might be a little lost on you (see what I did there?), but I’m sure you can put it together. And if you did watch LOST, I’m sorry to bring back the likely painful memory of a show that ended up wasting a lot of our time. But I digress.
It’s important that you’re not alone. Everyone, and perhaps especially leaders, needs people around them to encourage them, push them, look out for them, and dream with them. We need people who help us think huge, as Mark Arnold so often and so correctly says.
You see, even the biggest of thinkers struggles sometimes. Even the great writers develop cases of the dreaded writer’s block. People who regularly inspire us all have uninspired spells themselves. That’s why it’s so important that we find ways to connect with folks who help us tap into who we are deep down inside. We’ve got to hunt down people who help us continue to grow into better and truer versions of ourselves. We all need those people who somehow seem to make it feel OK to think big and chase dreams. We all need to fight the fear that prevents us from thinking those thoughts and chasing those dreams. And we need to help others do the same.
I hope you have people like that in your life, because you need them. And I hope you’re that person for others, because they need you.
