An Iranian expert, Brigette Gabriel recently stated on a US TV journalist program ‘Facture’, that, in the eyes of the Iranians, Obama’s recent video speaking to the Iranian people seeking ‘coopperation’ will be seen as the opposite. She stated, “The Iranian leaders will take Obama’s video as a sign of surrender and weakness, an admission that “we cannot beat you” so we will appeal to you for cooperation.” She further stated that Barack Obama was not seen in his video as being “a man” or “manly” at all, and that “the Iranian Leaders immediately noted Obama’s failure to present himself as a man or manly, or a man’s man.”
It begs a question for all us men to consider; When you know you are right about a matter do you need others approval, a compromise, co-operation, etc., to convince someone of your conviction, beliefs? If you back down to something less than 100%, will your watered-down conviction about the matter still have the same strength and power? Or is it truly weakness displaying itself with a perception of ‘willingness and goodwill’. Something to consider.
I recently had the opportunity to see a little of this in action in my own life. The office where I do management consulting is going through a business license issue. The property on which the office is located has zoning issues for many of the businesses that operate there. We took the initiative to apply for the license early in the process. One month down the road the management group from which we lease from asked us for a significant sum of money to initiate the same licensing process, through them, which we had already undertaken on our own. We stand by our decision and conviction to act accordingly, and not seeking approval or anything less than what we believe is the right thing to do.
There are and will always be situations you can relate to in the past and opportunities in the future which will always test your strength of conviction to a matter. The secret is to know you must stand strong when are right which does not require approval or weaker position for acceptance. This is also a secret to getting people to follow your beliefs. Gandi’s conviction to the freedom of the people of India proved this. A great leader will always draw people to a better place. A movie I watched a while back also made this point strongly which stayed with me ever since. A general was in his quarters when a private approached him to bring to his attention a problem the private was having with his superior. The private believed the superior was acting out of integrity which lowered the trust and morale of the group. The private could not take it any more, hence approaching the general about it, after speaking to his superior with no result or change. The general repremanded him for speaking directly to the general in place of his superior and dealing with it. After scorning him for a length of time, the private backed down, apologised, and promised to take the issue back to his superior in hopes of resolving it. After the private left the office the general walked over to the opposite end of he room and said out loud, to no one in particular, “I can’t believe what just happened. That man can never be trusted. He backed down easily when challenged face to face to stand with what he said he believed in. He will never be a lieutenant under my command, ever.”
A man must be a man, a man’s man…
Until the next WebLog