life is the stuff of which TV shows and movies are made. His
accomplishments prove, beyond a doubt, the efficacy of full
self-expression.
There are four steps in the process behind Norman Lear’s
success in mastering the context: (1) becoming self-expressive;
(2) listening to the inner voice; (3) learning from the right
mentors; and (4) giving oneself over to a guiding vision.
These steps are all illustrated in the story he told me of how
he was profoundly influenced by Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay
“Self-Reliance” in high school: “Emerson talks about listening
to that inner voice and going with it, against all voices to the
contrary. I don’t know when I started to understand that there
was something divine about that inner voice.... To go with
that—which I confess I don’t do all of the time—is the purest,
truest thing we have. And when we forgo our own thoughts
and opinions, they end up coming back to us from the mouths
of others. They come back with an alien majesty.... So the les-
son is, you believe it. When I’ve been most effective, I’ve listened to
that inner voice.”
Listening to the inner voice—trusting the inner voice—is
one of the most important lessons of leadership. I think it’s so
important that I’ve devoted the bulk of one chapter to it later
in this book.
Lear spoke, too, of other influential people in his life. “My
grandfather was the person who taught me very early on that
you can matter. I lived with him between the ages of 9 and 12.
He was an inveterate letter writer. And I was a captive audience
for every one of those letters. ‘My dearest, darling, Mr. Presi-
dent, don’t you listen to them when they say such-and-such
and so-and-so.’ Or if he disagreed with the President, it was
‘My dearest, darling, Mr. President, you should never have done
Mastering the Context