Here…we…go!  The first blog of a new series: Leadership Lessons I Learned from Spring Break!  For the next few months I’ll be revisiting past Spring Breaks and sharing stories and the subsequent lessons in leadership that I gleaned from them.  The lesson today is this: Always learn from those who have gone before you.  Every time I’m asked to speak at a new venue or teach a new class or work with a new publisher, I always find someone who has preceded me in the endeavor and ask questions.  Usually it’s someone I’ve never met, and I have to make an introduction.  And I’m happy to say that I have never had anyone turn me down.  That speaks a lot to the character of the folks in whose footsteps I’m following.  Successful people always make time to help others.

So where did I learn this concept of learning from others who have gone first?  I’m glad you asked.  It was the Spring of nineteen ninety-something and I was a student at Radford University.  One of my best friends to this day and genuinely all-around great guy (and college roommate at the time), Andy Hersey, and I, were headed to the Bahamas for Spring Break along with six other girls from Radford.  Our relationship with them was strictly platonic (their choice, not ours!).

Once we arrived in the city of Freeport on Grand Bahama Island and got settled in, Andy and I walked down the hotel hallway to the girls’ room to see if they wanted to grab lunch.  They were still unpacking and asked us to give them a few minutes.  We obliged.  As they were emptying their suitcases, we noticed one of the young ladies had packed a taser.  As soon as Andy and I saw it, we looked at each other and had the same sophomoric thought.

“Have you ever been tased?” I asked Andy.

“No. You?” he replied.

“Nope.” I said.

“How bad do you think it is?”

“It can’t be that bad, right?”

“I’ll do it if you do it.”

“Deal,” I said. “But you have to go first.

Andy agreed.  The girls handed over the taser and were actually excited to see the weapon in action.  Andy stood with his back to me and faced one of the hotel beds.  “Ready when you are,” he said.  I turned the taser on and saw the electrical current light up.  I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t invigorating, wielding this much power.  I pushed the taser into Andy’s lower back and he immediately dropped to the bed face-down and convulsing.

Being a novice in the art of tasing, I had no idea when to stop the punishment.  So I kept tasing for about five seconds.  Andy tried to say something but couldn’t manage coherent words.  His body continued to shake for a few more seconds.  This was more than enough to scare me straight.  There was no way I wanted to endure the same pain I had just seen Andy withstand.  I turned to the girl that owned the taser and gave her explicit instructions.  “Whatever you do, however he asks, do NOT, under any circumstances, give this taser to Andy.”  And she didn’t.  And to this day, Andy knows he owes me a good tasing!

And that’s the importance of learning from those that go before us.  They can provide advice and helpful hints, or more importantly, as in Andy’s case, offer us cautionary tales of what we want to avoid.  It’s a leadership lesson I use frequently and I have my good buddy Andy to thank for it.  Sure, there is another leadership lesson in here about keeping your word when you say you’ll do something, but I’ll save that for another day.

Laugh Hard. Learn More. Lead Well.