I’m fascinated by life journeys—how you get from one place to another, and how sometimes the journey brings you back home.
Journeys in life are far more random, far less orderly, than they seem at first glance. Paths that appear random, are random, especially when you are looking at them one step at a time. It’s only when you stand back and see the whole journey in perspective, the paths chosen, the paths rejected, a pattern emerges—a pattern that over time defines the journey of life.
At any moment in time you often can’t see where your path is heading, and logic and intellect alone won’t lead you to make the right choices; they won’t, in fact, take you down the right path. You have to master not only the art of listening to your head, you must also listen to your heart and gut. Look beyond the immediate choice of it all. It is too easy to freeze up at important moments.
In some ways, the world today, while far more prosperous, is actually far more complex and complicated than the one faced years ago. But have no fear, although fear is part of the journey as well, because you have all the tools you need up in your head, in your heart, and in your gut. All you really have to do is engage your heart, your gut, and your mind in every decision you make; engage your whole self, and the journey will reveal itself with the passage of time. See your life as a journey and pause at moments to see life’s patterns.
Engage Your Mind
Life teaches lessons in strange ways. The lesson I learned early in life was to love what you do, or don’t do it. Don’t make a choice of any kind, whether in career or in life, just because it pleases others or because it ranks high on someone else’s scale of achievement or even because it seems to be, perhaps even for you at the time, simply the logical thing to do at that moment on your path. Make the choice to do something because it engages your heart as well as your mind. Make the choice because it engages all of you. The freedom to choose is yours.
To make the most of that freedom, use your mind and your heart and your gut. Freedom to choose can sometimes feel like a terrible burden, but the burden is greatly lightened when you learn how to use your whole self, when you realize that you have everything you need for this journey of life. You can absorb knowledge, invent, and create.
Now, of course, for some of you, engaging all of yourself—your mind and your heart—is natural; it’s easy for you. You’ve known how to do it perhaps since birth. But for the rest of us, getting there is a process. It can take years, or decades. Some of us never get to know our whole selves, but we need to keep trying.
My own process of finding the soul to guide me brings me back once again to my parents. My mother was a stay-at-home wife and an artist, but my mother, more than anyone else, taught me about the power of aspiration and courage. She also taught me the world of dreams expressed in art, the world of things freed from the laws of everyday. And she did it with a strength and a passion that I wish could be bottled. Even when it wasn’t easy or convenient, both my mother and father were ultimately true to themselves. And I absorbed that lesson from them. Their definition of greatness was about greatness of character.
Think for a moment about all the people who have influenced you—your parents, grandparents, partners, guardians, friends—whoever has been a catalyst, whoever has had defining influence and lasting impact on your life, whether they truly know it, whether you really see it, whether you really fully feel its weight yet. Take a moment now and remember them.
Technology is only as valuable as the use to which it is put. In the end, technology is ultimately about people. And in this technology renaissance, we will witness and experience the transference of power to the people, to the masses—to the individuals who bring their own spark, their own energy to the process, technology becomes not about bits and bytes, but about the celebration of people’s minds and people’s hearts.
Become a Leader
What will it mean to be a leader in this world? How must leadership be re-invented to be commensurate with the opportunity?
Leadership is not about controlling decision-making. We don’t have time anymore to control decision-making. It’s about creating the right environment. It’s about enablement and empowerment. It is about setting guidelines, boundaries, and parameters—and then setting people free.
Leadership is not about hierarchy, title, or status; it is about having influence and mastering change. Leadership is not about bragging rights, battles, or even the accumulation of wealth; it’s about connecting and engaging at multiple levels. It’s about challenging minds and capturing hearts. Leadership in this new era is about empowering others to decide for themselves. Leadership is about empowering others to reach their full potential. Leaders can no longer view strategy and execution as abstract concepts, but must realize that both elements are ultimately about people.
Now, of course, traditional aspects of being a leader will continue to be important, like understanding the business or the institution, understanding the numbers or the assets, or pushing the right levers to bring about the right results. But the most magical and tangible ingredient in the transformed landscape is people. The greatest strategy, financial plan, or turnaround will only be temporary if it isn’t grounded in people.
There are small and large acts of leadership. And small acts of leadership can change the world as surely as large acts. Ultimately they can have as much effect on people’s lives as big ones. A mother who teaches a child inventive ways of thinking, who encourages her daughter’s professional desires, is performing a small act of leadership.
Believe in Yourself and Others
Our generation of leaders will know that everyone on this earth is born with the potential to lead. And that is a shift worth celebrating. A leader’s greatest obligation is to make possible an environment where people’s minds and hearts can be inventive, brave, human, and strong—where people can aspire to do useful and significant things.
At Hewlett-Packard we call this way of thinking, this set of behaviors, the "rules of the garage." You see, "the garage" is a special place to us—it is where we began. But these rules are about the way we compete and the way we work. And our rules are: Believe you can change the world, work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever, know when to work alone and when to work together; share tools, ideas, and trust your colleagues. No politics, no bureaucracy: These are ridiculous in a garage. The customer defines a job well done. Radical ideas are not bad ideas. Invent different ways of working. Make a contribution every day. If it doesn’t contribute, it doesn’t leave the garage. Believe that together we can do anything. Invent.
While they really are core to our culture, I believe that if you carry these rules with you on your journey, if you create an environment where people’s hearts and minds are fully engaged, where strategy is ennobling, where great aspirations are powered by the desires of people to do something worthwhile, you will touch many others.
Engage your whole self in everything you do. Leadership is not about you, but about the people who you are trying to inspire by unleashing their talents, their hopes, their aspirations. Leadership comes in small acts as well as bold strokes. Whatever is your passion, make sure people are at the heart of your endeavors.
Throughout this journey, the only limits that really matter are the ones you put on yourself. In crucial moments when you know what you need to do, but others advise against what they perceive to be a detour from your path, know yourself, trust your whole self, and don’t blink. If you do these things, when you look back, you will know that this journey was a wonderful gift and that you have made as much of this wonderful gift as you could have.
Excellence in Action: Make a list of your strongest leadership attributes and commit your whole self to some worthwhile quest.
