On the Road 87signposts to the future
Through offering the promise of making our values real,
leaders offer one way for us to dream, to go beyond our im-
itations, to be part of creating something larger than
ourselves, to accomplish something important through and
with others as part of a team on a small scale, or as part of a
community on a large scale. Leaders point the way past en-
vironment, through actions and skills, powered by values
and beliefs, past what we can accomplish as individuals.
For example, you cannot build a monument on your own,
it takes many people working together. We look at Stone-
henge and marvel at the time and dedication that went into
positioning those standing stones, and wonder at the vision
that drove those architects to create the site. Stonehenge is
the memorial of a vision whose breadth we can only guess. I
wonder whether any memorial of ours will still be standing
in 2,000 years’ time for our descendants to admire and won-
der how we did it with our primitive technology?
I read that NASA hopes to put the first man on Mars be-
fore the year 2008. The round trip will take up to two years.
It is the riskiest space mission yet and I wouldn’t personally
rate it high on my list of holiday destinations, but there is no
shortage of volunteers. Leaders leave a legacy, something
unique for people to recall. They are remembered by people
whose lives they changed.
Every time we push the boundary on the outside world we
also push the boundary on our inner world. We open a
larger ‘idea space’. Every advance in science, art and tech-
nology means we have gone beyond the limiting ideas that
have stopped us advancing in the past.
I like to collect predictions that turned out to be com-
pletely wrong. It is easy to look back with hindsight and
laugh at the naïvetéof our predecessors – historical progress
seems inevitable or incredible, depending on whether you
view it from the past or the future. I keep the list to remind
myself not to be complacent about what is possible and not
to look into the future and see only a reflection of the past.