There is growing evidence that even personality traits—intro-
version, humor, and so on—are genetic in origin. In the great
debate between hereditary determinism and environmental de-
terminism, there is not much room left for self-determination.
In a sense, both schools justify removing responsibility for be-
havior from the individual, a new variation on the ancient Flip
Wilson routine, “The devil made me do it!”
The truth is, we’re products of everything—genes, environ-
ment, family, friends, trade winds, earthquakes, sunspots,
schools, accidents, serendipity, anything you can think of, and
more. The endless nature-nurture debate is interesting, even
occasionally revelatory, but inconclusive. Like everyone else,
leaders are products of this great stew of chemistry and circum-
stance. What distinguishes the leader from everyone else is that
he or she takes all of that and creates a new, unique self.
Novelist William Faulkner told us that the past isn’t dead. It
isn’t even past yet. Each of us contains his or her entire life.
Everything we did or saw, everyone we ever encountered, is in
our heads. But all that psychic baggage can be turned into
comprehensible and useful experience by reflecting on it.
Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” I’d go
a step further: The unexamined life is impossible to live suc-
cessfully. Like oarsmen, we generally move forward while look-
ing backward, but not until we truly see the past—and
understand it—can we successfully navigate the future.
Until you make your life your own, you’re walking around
in borrowed clothes. Leaders, whatever their field, are made up
as much of their experiences as their skills, like everyone else.
Unlike everyone else, they use their experience rather than be-
ing used by it.
William James again: “Genius... means little more than the
faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” By the time we
On Becoming a Leader