﻿How To Lead Under Pressure [0:00:00]
So, usually when you call a politician a clown, it’s meant as an insult. But,
for the President of Ukraine, it’s just part of his history. The guy went to clown
school. He was a comedian, then he became an actor and then the President of Ukraine.
So, based off that experience, you can see why so many people thought
he was out of his league when he ascended to the presidency. And,
I’ll be honest, I was definitely one of his doubters. That being said,
over the last week what I’ve witnessed is a politician giving a masterclass on leadership.
In today’s video, gents, we’re going to be talking about why President Volodymyr Zelensky is such an
inspirational leader and how he is doing all the right things when it comes to leading
through crisis. [Music]
So, if you’ve been living under a rock and not aware of Russia has invaded Ukraine. And what
we’ve seen in the last week is a leader that in my opinion is doing almost everything right
when it comes to inspiring his people. And what makes the story even more amazing
and I think more applicable to the average guy out there, when you look at this guy’s background, you
wouldn’t have expected this level of leadership. Now, today’s video, I’m breaking into five points.
Each of them incredibly important, but that last one is so simple, easily the most important point
of them all. So, make sure to stick around for that last point because I think it’s
the one that so many guys mess up on. So, the first lesson any aspiring leader
can learn from President Zelensky is to unify your competitors to fight a common enemy. Now,
this one is pretty simple pretty clear. You’ve got an invading country coming in, so what do you do?
All of these other politicians, so you were fighting -- I mean, Ukraine is famous for
their fistfights and for people not getting along, all these guys have huge egos.
And the last President, Poroshenko, I mean, this guy was a billionaire and he had fled the company,
you know, the country on corruption problem, guess what? He came back, he’s fighting on the street.
You’ve got the Klitschko brothers, I mean, these guys, you know, world-class
boxers. One of them, Vitali, the mayor of Kyiv, you know, he – they are all now
under a unified banner. It’s not about himself. Look at these videos he’s doing. He’s got other
people behind him. All these people he doesn’t always get along with, they’ve got different
opinions, but he said, “You know what? We got to put that all to the side. We’ve got to come
together as one to be able to fight a common enemy.” And that’s what a great leader does.
They realized that, hey, I may disagree with this guy, but when it comes down to it,
we are all Ukrainians. We’re going to unify to fight off that common enemy.
If you’re an American, you probably remember that Ben Franklin cartoon, Join, or Die. It was snake
divided into parts, each of them representing a state. That unless they came together to fight
for their independence, they were going to lose. And it’s the same thing whether you are running
a company, whether you’re trying to get an organization above the ground,
a nonprofit. Maybe you’ve got – you got a team, a soccer team that you’re putting together.
You’ve got to make sure you work together as one if you’re going to be able to defeat your enemy.
Next lesson you can learn, how he’s over communicating, how he’s dealing with
misinformation. So, there’s a lot of people spreading out rumors that he’s ran away from
the capital, that he’s not even in Ukraine or Kyiv anymore. And he’s like all these other
politicians and country leaders we’ve seen that have disappeared,
gone into hiding, gone into exile. No, he goes out there and he films video
showing the ba – you can see his background. I mean, I know Kyiv, I’ve ran through that city
so many hundreds of times living there for a year and a half, my wife being from there.
It’s just something I know those buildings. I know where, you know, in general where
he’s at. I’m sure he’s moving around. Point being is he’s dealing with that
misinformation straight on in a way that people want to consume. You can tell this is a guy that
gets social media. He gets – he just needs to send out a 45-second message about, hey, I am here,
my ministry, you know, all the men that are supporters are here, the soldiers are here,
you are here and we’re going to fight together. That’s a very simple message. He gets it
out and he’s doing a great job over communicating because a lot of people
they just forget it. Every single day, people need to hear when they’re getting shelled
when the things are bad things are tough, you’ve got to again and again communicate and clearly
let people know that you are there for them. The next leadership lesson to take from here is
that there is one simple message that starting at the top was Zelensky and all of the leaders
going down, they are consistently saying, “This is our country, get out invaders.”
And it’s, I mean, they’re saying it in different ways, but, again and again we have simple clear
message. This isn’t we’re going to concede a little bit, everyone, we’re going to concede
nothing. It doesn’t matter if it takes a month, if it takes a year, if it takes a hundred years.
These people, you know, they’ve gone through a lot of hardship and they’re pulling on the strength,
you know, from their grandfathers and their grandmothers going way back and they understand
what – how bad this is going to get and they are being consistent. Yes, we don’t know how
long it’s going to take, but we are going to retain our country and we’re going to push
these people off that have come in. There’s no talk of surrender,
there’s no talk of compromise, there’s no talk about giving up their government and accepting
Russia as rulers. These guys are really clear, no, we are going to fight for our independence.
[0:04:57] And let’s talk about the confidence. So,
we see these videos coming out of Zelensky having coffee with soldiers right there in Kyiv. And,
you know, somebody who’s watching these videos is going to say, that’s my cousin, that’s my son.
And those stories are going to go through. I mean, I served in the Marine Corps, I remember
what it was like to have certain generals right there on the front lines. And just you are
inspired when these guys are up walking around inspecting and there is fire – you could hear
gunfire that you’re all of a sudden like, wow, if they can do this, then you are going to follow.
And people are seeing this, the legend is building. All of a sudden, I mean, it’s
amazing. I mean, Poroshenko, I mean, the former president is there and those reporters saying,
you know, “How long can you guys hold out?” He cut the guy off, he said, “Forever.” And
he was very clear Ukraine will never fall. And, yes, you can argue, you know, I know there
are some guy keyboard warriors out there saying, “Oh, you know, Russia’s got the superior military.
They’ll eventually take over.” Yeah, but they’re not going to change the mindset. These people have
tasted what it’s like for 30 years to live free and independent and that’s not going to go away.
And the fight maybe it will – maybe it will stop in Ukraine at some point, but it will never stop
outside of Ukraine as long as Ukrainians the dream of Ukrainians lives on with these people.
Now, for this last and most important point, I’m going to paraphrase what apparently Zelensky said,
whenever the US or maybe it was a European country said, “Hey, we can get you out of Kyiv.” And
he basically responded back, “The fight is here. I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.”
And this just hits on the point, this is something I picked up the United States Marine
Corps taught again and again I know in various militaries around the world is true leaders
lead by example. They lead from the front. This goes back and Napoleon talked about this.
Go back to Alexander. Why did people follow Alexander the Great all around the world?
Because he led from the front. Those kind of warriors, you can’t help, but follow.
And, yes, I just called Zelensky a warrior, a guy that I don’t think served in any military,
yet a warrior. And that’s why I think this is such a great example because so many of you guys worry,
how can I be a leader if I don’t have leadership experience or if I haven’t been in the military
of if I haven’t done something super heroic? Well, you can’t determine whenever that time
comes up, but what you can do is when the moment does arrive that you step up. And this is the
most important point that you are the first to stand and to say, “Hey, follow me, not go out
there and do what I’m not going to do.” It happens again and again. Politicians,
these so-called leaders of countries, they run away or they go into hiding. I mean,
when you’ve got somebody out there doing what we’ve only read about I history books
right in front of us, I think this is an inspirational moment for so many of us out there
that want to actually identify a true leader. Now, could he end up disappointing us?
Could he end up being killed? Yes, but that could all happen and it has happened throughout history.
But, I think if we take this moment and we look at this and even if he is killed, he becomes a
martyr. He becomes something better. He’s already inspired millions of people around the world.
So, really that is the power of a leader is the example they set by their actions,
not the words that other people say about them and maybe not so much their – their
background and their lack of training, but the actions that they take when the moment calls.
Now, gents, today’s video and a number of videos I’m going to be putting out here in
the future are going to be very personal stories about Ukraine. At the same time, I want to keep it
relevant to the Real Men Real Style audience and hopefully, you know, as you watch these, you enjoy
them you learn a lot more about the country. If you to understand, you know, my connection
to Ukraine, check out this video. I just put it out the other day and actually, I talk about,
you know, just a place I was eating just this last summer hit by a missile just recently.
And you know just – you know this is, again, my stories, my experience, but this one right
here I just talk about what to do when you feel useless, when you don’t know what to do. So,
check it out, I think it’s a good video. And to our friends over in Ukraine,
Slava Ukraini! [0:09:00] End of audio