with reporters who could blindside him, or traveled in troubled
countries, he opened himself to all sorts of consequences. Taking
risks day after day, year after year, equals some failures. It’s sim-
ple math. Yet risk is a necessity of leadership.
Sheehy’s book Pathfinders is based on extensive research plus
one-on-one interviews. She contrasts people of “high well-being”
who have come up with creative solu-
tions to life’s crises with those who
flounder. The “pathfinders” responded
to failure by recasting the experience in
their minds, coming to see it as a useful plus. These pathfinders
“turned most often to the same coping devices: work more;
depend on friends; see the humor in the situation; pray.” Those
with low well-being turned to these: “Drink more, eat more, take
drugs—indulge; pretend the problem doesn’t exist; develop phys-
ical symptoms; escape into fantasy.”
“Pathfinders feel the blows—often severely,” she writes. “It’s
just that they do not go down for the count.” Her hopeful con-
clusion from this large study? “Resiliency in failure and the abil-
ity to take criticism are not qualities with which one is born; they
are acquired strengths.”
But to acquire those strengths, one must take wisely calcu-
lated risks. “A willingness to risk is the master quality for pathfind-
ing,” she says. “It is the linchpin.”
Leaders are pathfinders. To lead and thrive, they must deftly
secure that linchpin.Grab the Bull’s Tail
Some of us plunge ahead too fast; others hesitate to grab
opportunity when we should. Each must lead with lots of self-
understanding, wise counsel, and judicious analysis. But for all of
us, times come when we have to make that decision: grab the bull
by the tail or let it go by.
Grabbing the tail may result in wild, unpredictable things hap-
pening. Yet if they do, Mark Twain has a bit of wisdom for us. The
great novelist made this wry observation: “A person who has had
The Leadership Secrets of Billy GrahamOnly those who dare to fail
miserably can achieve greatly.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY