Extraordinary Aristocratic Leadership & The American Republic

GriffinScat #11-08 1/14/08

The story goes that in 1519 Spanish explorer and conquistador Hernán (not “Hernando”) Cortés sailed a small fleet of ships on an unauthorized expedition from Cuba to Mexico. Not long after landing, in order to forestall mutiny, he set fire to the ships in the harbor that would become known as Vera Cruz. By removing the easy escape, he forced his men to work together and focus on the needs of the situation. It was an unconventional but extremely effective tactic. Cortés ended up conquering the Aztecs and claiming Mexico for Spain. Shiploads of Mexican gold would eventually make their way to the Iberian Peninsula because of Cortés’ success.

That story is fairly well-known, but most people don’t think about the possibility that Cortés may have burned the ships so that he himself wouldn’t have the option of retreat, and would have to see the expedition through to the end. He put himself in a position where the only way he would ever see Spain again would be to succeed. How’s that for performance pressure?

Not too long ago I lived in South America for two years. Living in a third-world country and working with locals who would sell their mothers for a visa to the US gave me an opportunity to reflect on what makes our country different. One big question I asked was, “Why did the American Revolution produce a stable government that has withstood all the pressures of civilization when almost all other rebellions have only led to more tyrrany and the things against which the people revolted in the first place? What was so different about the American Revolution?

The significant difference was that the revolt against the British in North America was encouraged, fomented and financed by what could rightfully be described as members of the colonial aristocracy. What made our revolution unique was that it was started by the men who had the most to lose if it went bad. Most of the men refer to as our “Founding Fathers” were wealthy plantation owners or merchants. If they had been content to “just go along” with the British program, they might have been a bit inconvenienced, but they would have kept their spacious homes, servants and luxurious lifestyles. They had the time to spend reading, writing and then sitting around in taverns in Boston, Philadelphia and Williamsburg debating the continued erosion of their rights as British subjects because their employees and servants were literally taking care of their business for them.

It was the best-educated, wealthiest and most respected men of the colonies literally putting their necks on the line when they signed their names to the Declaration of Independence that led the working and agricultural classes to join them in their revolt. This was “leadership by example,” to an extraordinary degree.

Sending the Declaration of Independence to Buckingham Palace was how our Founding Fathers “burned their ships.” They demonstrated their willingness to individually suffer the loss of everything they had in order to stand up for their principles, and shoved that arrogant piece of parchment right in the face of the king. They then had credibility to ask poor farmers, laborers and craftsmen to join them. In their eyes the “status quo” was no longer acceptable, and they proved their willingness to bear the burdens of leadership by taking the responsibility for the rebellion squarely on their own shoulders.

The last line of the Declaration of Independence reads, “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor,”

(full text here). Some of them, in fact, lost their lives. Many lost their fortunes, but none of them lost their honor.

Extraordinary leadership is uncommon and always unconventional. When people who have the most to lose risk everything to change the status quo, those around them sit up and take notice, and some will take the step to upset the status quo in their own lives. The question we should all ask ourselves is, “What part of “normal” in my life needs to change, and what ships do I need to burn, or what “king” do I need to defy in order to guarantee that I change “normal” forever.

“Fly high & roar loudly!”

dirk