The Penalty Of Leadership

Dear Friend,

Sometimes even things that don't make sense offer you something.  Take this ad, for instance, which was ran for Cadillac in the Saturday Evening Post, on January 20, 1915, almost a century ago.  As an ad to sell cars, it seems pretty useless.  But read it slowly, and pay close attention to what it's saying.  It's a little hard to digest because what was commonplace speaking back then, is now antiquated gibberish, but it has a VERY important meaning inside the message, that goes WAY beyond "Cadillac".

The headline read "The Penalty Of Leadership" and here's what it said:

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 recognition; 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 reminds me of what Detroit-born heavyweight boxer Joe Louis once said, "Everybody wants to get to heaven but nobody wants to die to get there."

Reality is, everyone wants to reach the top, to be the best, the leader, but few are willing to pay the price to achieve this goal.  Instead, they prefer to criticise and ridicule, jealous with envy instead of keeping their eye on the ball.

On your journey to the top, beware the critic.  In fact, you'll know you're close once you start hearing them whispering behind you.  In this month's Seductive Selling Newsletter, I devoted a substantial portion -- maybe 5 of the 24 pages -- to exactly this topic.  The sacrifice it takes to get to the top, and the criticism and "envy" you get as a result.  In reality, most of it is unintentional, spurred on by ignorance and weakness.  Nevertheless, it's there and you'd best be prepared for it.  If you do NOT subscribe to Seductive Selling yet, and you want to get your hands on this article, you can take a free trial of it right here:  http://www.kingofcopy.com/ssnl

By the way, if you own the Seductive Selling System - http://www.kingofcopy.com/seductive, you should have already received your informaion about today's call at 3pm.  If you order the system before this, you will be sent the information you need to be able to participate on this call.

Now go sell something,

Craig Garber

P.S. Want to eliminate your fear of success?  Then check out the NEW Science Of Getting Rich: http://www.kingofcopy.com/science

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