Purpose 27
THINKINGBIG
Alan Mullaly was the leader of the team that built that pioneering air-
craft. Here is how he describes the experience: ‘‘We wanted everyone
to feel that, oh boy, building a brand-new airplane would be worth
contributing to! The mission has to be bigger than any one of us, and it
has to feel good... So that became our mission: building the best new
airplane we could.’’ One of the engineers of the project noted, ‘‘Alan
energized us.’’^1
Like Solomon, Mullaly wasn’t just building a product; he was leading
a mission with a purpose. And the best leaders approach all tasks that
way. John F. Kennedy galvanized a nation by proclaiming his purpose
of landing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. Martha Stewart
grew her vast culinary/fashion empire from a small catering business,
with her ultimate mission in mind from day one. Meg Whitman,
founder of eBay, could have been knocked ‘‘off purpose’’ when her
computer systems crashed in 1999. Instead, she worked 100-hour
weeks for a month until the problem was solved. Fred Smith of Federal
Express could easily have been deterred from the Promised Land; his
blueprint for the company was dismissed as unworkable when he sub-
mitted it to his business school professor. But he intuitively felt that
using one airport as a ‘‘hub’’ to achieve twenty-four–hour guaranteed
delivery was an idea that would actually work.
When a leader is dedicated to a purpose, and when all the ‘‘troops’’
see that dedication is unwavering and ‘‘for real,’’ great things happen.
King David, faced with the daunting task of the construction of a tem-
ple, handed it over to his son Solomon, who admittedly lacked experi-
ence in the construction business. But David had also given himself
wholeheartedly to this project: ‘‘With all my resources have I provided
for the temple... gold for the gold work, silver for the silver...
bronze... iron... onyx... stones of various colors. Besides I now
give my personal treasures of gold and silver, over and above everything
I have provided for this holy temple... Now who is going to conse-
crate himself today to the Lord?’’ (1 Chron. 29:2–5)
What David really meant was, ‘‘Who is going to follow my example