Harvard Needs Followers

My friend Bruce Weinstein (Swarthmore ‘82, like me) wrote an interesting essay recently in BusinessWeek: Are You a Good Leader?.

I was impelled to share the following with him.

There’s a famous story in my family about the guy (a relative, but I can’t remember which one) who applied to Harvard and wrote on his application, “I am a good follower. Harvard has plenty of leaders. It needs followers.”

then there’s the Biblical story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who jumped out of the tree where he was watching and gladly followed Jesus from that moment on.

For my application to Swarthmore (which asked what person from 100 years ago I would like to meet), I wrote an essay saying Dr. John Watson (Sherlock Holmes’s friend), because everybody needs a good friend!

When I look back at my life, I can see that I am actually a pretty darned good follower — it can be very empowering for a leader to get a really capable person behind them! — but I have always insisted on keeping a part of myself back, just for myself, to lead some things where I want them to go. A thought-provoking dynamic.