This week’s “Leadership Lessons I Learned from Spring Break” is one of my favorites.  It’s an oldie but a goodie and you’ve probably heard it before.  But even if you have, please keep reading.  The story justifies the lesson.  And here it is: Attitude is everything!  The most successful leaders I know understand this and practice this on a daily basis.  Here’s how I learned this valuable lesson…

It was the Spring of nineteen-ninety-something, and my buddy Dave and I packed up and headed south to Key West for Spring Break.  And I had a blast!  At least for the first six hours after arriving.  As luck would have it, at the very first bar, on the very first day, an undercover police officer was working the door and decided to scrutinize my ID.  I don’t know why.  It was the best fake ID money could buy!  But he somehow deduced that the ID was not legitimate and before I could argue my case, I was downtown, being booked.

Looking back on this, Key West ran a pretty successful operation when it came to underage Spring Breakers.  We would get “arrested” and then given a choice.  This infraction could stay on our permanent record or it could magically vanish if we were willing to perform eight hours of community service the following day.  Option B, please!

So, I showed up at the courthouse the following morning at the unreasonable Spring Break hour of 7:00 AM.  It was me and about two hundred other college kids who had similar run-ins with the law the day before.  But there were also a few, what appeared to be, hardened criminals in our midst too.  These were older guys with whom you were afraid to even make eye contact.  I distinctly remember one dude who looked exactly like Charles Manson, if Manson had taken steroids.  Another guy had the word KILL tattooed on his neck.  There were probably about twenty of these guys mixed in with us.  And I was scared of each and every one of them.

When our name was called out, we were escorted on to various buses to take us to different areas to perform our civic duties for the day.  Just so they could keep a better eye on us, we were each given an orange vest to wear.  And this next part is not made up.  I have people that saw me picking up trash that day that can verify this.  There were so many of us that day that they ran out of plain orange vests.  I ended up being issued an orange vest with the word CONVICT on the back of it.

And this is where is got interesting for me.  As soon as I put the vest on, I became the one with whom others were avoiding eye contact.  Other Spring Breakers were actually doing what they could do keep their distance from me.  And I realized…these folks don’t know me.  They think I’m an actual convict.  Even some of the adults that I mentioned earlier started showing me a little respect.  One guy even nodded at me, like we were in the same CONVICT club.  I nodded back and took my seat.  And then I assumed my new role.  Even though I’ve never won a fight in my life, I started to act like the toughest guy on the bus.  I would stare at people until they looked away.  I wouldn’t move out of the way for others. I made them walk around me.  I was basically, an all-around jerk.  But I was doing this to try and stay alive.  I saw the way the older guys were treating the younger Spring Breakers and it wasn’t pretty.  But I was being left alone.

Later, on our lunch break, I sat down with the Charles Manson doppelganger and we talked.  “What did they get you for?” he asked.  I looked him dead in his eyes and said, “I killed a man in Reno.”  He stared back at me for a moment and then started to laugh, possibly harder than I’ve ever seen anyone laugh.  Then I explained to him that I was actually one of the Spring Breakers that had gotten busted for a fake ID.  “You probably thought I was in for something more serious because the word CONVICT on the back of my vest,” I theorized.  “It doesn’t say CONVICT on your vest,” he replied.  Confused, I immediately slipped off my vest to look at it and sure enough, the word CONVICT (which was ironed on) had peeled off at some point.

It turns out most folks hadn’t even seen the word, but still read my body language and overall attitude and acted accordingly.  Two Spring Breakers were beat up that day by other lawbreakers in our group.  But I was not one of them.  I was one of the smaller guys in our crowd that day, but I truly believe that attitude alone helped keep me safe.  And to this day, I truly believe that attitude plays a major role in helping us be successful!

Laugh Hard. Learn More. Lead Well.