board of directors

[flea]

For my management class, I have the following assignment:

A) pick a personal board of directors --a small set of individuals whose life and leadership you would like to emulate. (You don't have to have known all of these personally and they may be either historical or contemporary figures. But, there should be at least six and no more than ten individuals on your board.)

I am really bad at believing in role models. So far I have come up with 4 people: Barack Obama, Mary Patterson McPherson (who was the president of my undergraduate college and now sits on the Mellon Foundation board), and two former coworkers, neither of whom actually hold any managerial position.

Ideas? Who do you respect and want to emulate? All I can think of are cliches (Gandhi) and people who were good leaders (in some way or another) but not people I want to actually emulate.

Comments

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Embrace your inner dork!

[fashionista-35.livejournal.com]

All righty then--

Mind you, keeping in mind that I'm totally not of the sheep mentality, so I don't get into emulating or hero-worship either, but I look at a guy like Josh Groban and I have to respect the hell out of what he's managed to accomplish artistically and professionally. It would be really easy for him, with his natural abilities and the early fame that he found, to have just kept churning out the same thing over and over, but it's a road he's refused to take-- each CD he puts out, he pushes the envelope a little more, defies expectations a bit more, lets more and more of his personality and artistic sensibilities shine through as they evolve.

He's often said that he realizes that by doing so, he risks losing some of the die hard fans who'd love to keep him trapped in a box, as the perennially cherub-cheeked/curly-haired nineteen year-old, but it's a risk he's willing to take.

He takes risks in his collaborative efforts as well, making unexpected choices (like a duet with the Smashing Pumpkins, frex)

For me, as an artist in a similar sort of field, where expectations can sort of take over and drive you away from your natural impulses to experiment and grow your craft, it's a remarkable balance that he's managed to strike and one that I respect like mad.

He also had mentors, early on, that showed him the value of using his fame and position to help others and when such a strong (read kind of insane and scary) fan base sprung up around him, he used their enthusiasm (read: crazy dedication-- no seriously, they SCARE me) to establish a foundation and has used it to fund charitable efforts around the world, plus he lends his name to many other philanthropic efforts.

And yet, he still comes across as pretty human and kind of bemused by the whole thing.

Not bad for only twenty-seven, you know?