Wednesday, November 9, 2016

THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP


These words have inspired me for many years.  I hope they do the same for you.


The
PENALTY OF
LEADERSHIP


IN every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live
in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested
in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at
work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the
punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recog-
nition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man's
work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target
for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he
will be left severely alone - if he achieve a masterpiece, it will set a million
tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at
the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you
write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or
to slander you, unless your work be stamped with the the seal of genius.
Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who
are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it can not be done.
Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own
Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him
its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship
at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he
had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at
all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never
build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see
his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and
the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing
to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but
only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to
supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world
and as old as the human passions -envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the
desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly
leads, he remains - the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-
workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through
the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter
how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live - lives.

THIS TEXT APPEARED AS AN ADVERTISEMENT IN THE SATURDAY EVENING POST ¶ JANUARY 2ND, IN THE YEAR 1915 ¶ COPYRIGHT, CADILLAC MOTOR CAR DIVISION