Rediscovering previous notes on leadership, country and ideas

Recently rediscovered a few comments from yours truly noted for having received the most feedback from Kind Readers. Am hoping they are suitable for reframing in this space.



• Let’s clear our calendars of feel-good meetings in big rooms where big ideas are enthusiastically scribbled on big sheets of paper. And let’s clear our maps of county, city and other capricious turf boundaries. Let us marginalize the roles of the selfish and maximize the influence of the selfless.



• Smart people can have valid differences of opinion, and members of the majority opinion are not necessarily the smartest people in the room. Arenas and fields are wonderful places for team players. In the city board room, however, we should prefer independent thinkers who strive for selfless objectives through professional political discourse.



• Let’s keep our focus sharp and our whining to a low-decibel whimper. And more importantly, each of us needs to encourage our public and private regional leaders to squash provincialism and seek partnership.



• Finding good leaders isn’t easy. It’s important, however, to know with certainty that leaders don’t appear in systems and/or cultures unable or unwilling to demand results. President Lincoln fired more than a handful of generals until he stumbled upon a former Illinois storekeeper who had a drinking problem. The military establishment laughed at Lincoln’s choice, but Grant wasted no time in splitting the Confederacy geographically into thirds and ending the war.



• Our existence as one people is now as it was that first July 4 — tenuous. This country is held together by words on paper and by our faith. External enemies have and will continue to blatantly attack our physical mettle and subtly attack our basic faith in God, government and each other. They underestimate our resilience. We should not underestimate theirs.

We should welcome, not fear, frank and open discussion.

• Leadership sincerely interested in results doesn’t fear the creative fury that can accompany an all-ideas-on-deck process. Leadership interested in positive change creates an atmosphere in which everyone understands that results matter more than personality, politics or past prejudices.



• The marketplace of ideas and commerce should be more sacred to us than that of the various crusades of organized religion and/or zealous liberals. My faith in God and set of values does not require the approval and/or subjugation of any individual, group or government. And our property, whether real estate or intellectual, should not be beholden to the whims of developers, do-gooders or dogma.



• Perhaps it is time as a community we start talking about professional economic development attainment and how we find and enable passionate leaders who possess and can communicate a bold vision that in turn raises our collective socio-economic expectations for the Greater Fort Smith Region. That’s what a can-do community might do.



• Let’s be clear: What’s wrong with the Fort Smith regional economy is no match for what’s right with the Fort Smith area. Within our people and within our many public and private entities, we have the potential for great things; we have the potential to direct overwhelming people-power on whatever problems and obstacles we face.



• We are a great people, in a great place, and we are capable of great progress. All we need is great leadership.