We continue our discussion on the insights of Napoleon Hill by looking at more Leadership challenges …
10 Major causes of failure in leadership …
#3: “EXPECTATION OF PAY FOR WHAT THEY ‘KNOW’ INSTEAD OF WHAT THEY DO WITH WHAT THEY KNOW. The world does not pay for what people ‘know’. It pays them for what they do, or induce others to do.” (by Napoleon Hill in “Think and Grow Rich”)
Most of the keys to great leadership we have discussed tend to focus on what the leader expects from or inspires in his/her followers. But … this cause of failure is deeply personal and telling of the Prince’s qualities and personality. We have to ask of ourselves: “How shallow am I as a leader”? “Do I expect to be followed and supported simply because I graduated Harvard or Yale or simply because I carry professional designations (letters) behind my name? Do I think that my followers should be devoted strictly on the basis of my office or station … or am I willing to put action and effort into the endeavor?”
In other words, does the woman or man who deigns to be a prince or princess believe that they have no more personal and professional growth required of themselves to continue greatness?
In our first book, we devote an entire chapter to the problem in American society with the notion that the “system” tells us that we can, at some point, stop growing and rest on our laurels. Once you have your PhD you have earned a lifetime of high income regardless of your continued effort and self-sacrifice. This is perhaps the most destructive and egregious lie that we are told. The world does not pay for knowledge that sees no practical application. The entrepreneur does not just observe and report on an opportunity, they see a need and fill it, whether through inventing a unique product or service or building a better mousetrap.
What Napoleon Hill said almost 100-years ago is right on the mark. It does not matter WHAT you know … if you cannot apply it. What matters is what you do with what you know … including what you do with that knowledge as it affects, elevates, impacts and empowers your followers.
A Prince or Princes uses their knowledge, experience, expertise and influence to create cohesion and strength in the collective heart of their followers, which in turn creates momentum in the group effort … towards success.