Weird dream about my old boss. Something about accents. People that are different with different ideas don’t always fair well in some places. Not because they aren’t good people just because society has problems of its own and aren’t always ready for new ideas. I wish society was past that. I wish all people from outside of Texas were welcome in Texas. I don’t have an east coast accent.
Being welcoming is tough. Being a leader is tough. Add in corporate problems and people trying to be successful in life all working together is tough. People can confuse ambition with the want to take their jobs unfairly. Younger people don’t always understand that some wisdom comes with age.
I am not sure that anyone that knew all the hardships and problems that lack of wisdom caused would truly want to be boss. Blamed for what you do wrong, blamed for what you don’t know, life and society benefiting from opportunistic moments to cause too good people to have friction that should have been friends. On the other side you have some ability to influence people’s lives for the better. A captain holding a detached steering wheel doesn’t work. So without support leadership really isn’t leading.
Being a younger leader is tough. Trying to give guidance and maintain the image of always knowing the right solution. Truth is most leaders make the best decisions given the information and wisdom they had at the time. People have predisposed ideas that younger people don’t know what they are talking about or lack the wisdom of more experienced people.
Even those with the greatest intelligence, support, and wisdom leaders don’t always have the best answers, so leaders are constantly battling insecurity. Insecurity in keeping the direction and belief of their employees and insecurity in keeping their jobs. Old leaders realize they are living in a day and age where technology and the pace at which society moves could leave them without a job. Sometimes it is not about a younger person not being a good leader, sometimes it is that society isn’t ready and past their own misconceptions. Some people are ready for younger leaders yet they know society isn’t ready so they might differ.
Many are likely jaded by the fight with limited positions at the top. Those with the wisdom and knowledge might not have recovered to be able to fully convey this kind of knowledge. So I write this. Maybe all this knowledge is available in other books. Problem with being young in a world and society where lies and oppression seem to be the norm is it is not always easy to know who to trust or what to trust. I am not sure I would truly believe it if I had not written it myself. I can’t even guarantee by the time it has been read that it will not have been edited to suit some other’s purposes.
Perfectionism plus wisdom is tough. Sometimes the more we know the harder it is to move at all. Wisdom might encourage other’s to give us more responsibility. More responsibility means greater room for error. Perfectionist want to get more things right as time goes on. Perfectionist want their next painting to be greater than their last with less errors. Realizing the more ambitious projects have greater room for error can make us want to not pick up the brush in the first place.
Probably the same feeling as a surgeon that lost a patient. Doctors do a good job of hiding their losses. I hope they feel supported. Sometimes easier to think about the successes than the failures. If we can highlight each other’s strengths rather than weaknesses we would all likely have more support. Our system and media seems to demonize mistakes. Maybe as a way to try and get people not to make them and at times to push their own agendas. The problem with perfectionism is this kind of stuff makes people not want to try at all.
Being supportive and showing people where we think they went wrong is tough. Too much a doctor never helps another patient. Too little people make the same mistakes over and over again. Don’t sacrifice the person for the mistake. Make people feel bad enough about themselves and they lose hope and we lose one of God’s children. Not everyone sees it is not always about the mistake. Many times it is about the missing support. Sometimes a combination of both.
Engineering and art are two disciplines I love. They also make me prone to perfectionism. I want to add value and as time goes on I see more of my failures. I am reminded of a scene from Defying Gravity TV series. Two astronauts are fighting for a chance and they are both hurting each other. People at the top saying they must proceed. Like the Hunger Games. Who knew we fight this own battle within ourselves.
Maybe better to see the value we add and encourage other’s to see their value as well. Living on past mistakes doesn’t really help us all move forward. Forgiveness gives us the freedom to move. Sometimes forgiving ourselves is harder than forgiving others. No beautiful painting has only perfect brush strokes. Do we want less beautiful paintings? I don’t think so.
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