The Silver Bullet – People want change but aren’t willing to change

My temperature rises when I’m in the room with “leaders” and “problem solvers” and we get to the point when somebody says, “there’s no Silver Bullet”. What are they really saying?

When I hear that, I immediately think of three things.

1. The person saying it understands the problem but doesn’t know how to solve it.

2. They don’t understand the problem and don’t care to solve it.

3. They simply don’t care to solve the problem.

What is impeding the solution?

What if it is true that all problems are created by people and all problems start out simplistically.

Simplistic statements are typically overstated, shallow and trite. They serve the speaker and can foster avoidance and lack of responsibility. Statements such as, “hard work beats talent when talent works hard”. When put to the test, fails 50% of the time. Why? One reason it is doesn’t account for when we work hard at the wrong thing.

When solutions are simple, things get done. However, don’t confuse “simple” with “easy”. The real Silver Bullet is the “simple thing”. When solutions become simple, folks are now responsible for taking action which exposes their will. Folks that don’t really want to do the work to create change, strive for and hope to maintain convolution.

I live by six Core Values that help me not succumb to the trite statement, “hard work beats talent when talent works hard”.

The 6-Core Values are …

1. Excellence is setting and meeting expectations.

2. Humility is thinking of others more than yourself without thinking less of yourself.

3. Integrity is doing the right thing even when you can do the wrong thing.

4. Loyalty is doing the right thing even when it is unpopular.

5. Stewardship is protection of values, beliefs and people.

6. And finally, teamwork, being your best within a group of people that are being their best for a specific purpose.

The airplane was a Silver Bullet for transportation. The internet, the Silver Bullet for information. How about the telephone? A Silver Bullet for communication. What problems do you see today? Acknowledge the answer may be simple and require us to deal with our will to act.

I’m the CEO and co-founder of L.E.A.D. (Launch, Expose, Advise, Direct) and we use baseball as a vehicle to empower an at-risk generation to lead and transform their city of Atlanta. We empower our Ambassadors to fight against crime, racism and poverty.

The nay-sayers and cynics respond to this by saying that there is no bullet for fighting crime, racism and poverty and my response is simply, L.E.A.D.