Who Is My Idol?
Who is my idol in my professional life? I’m asking to my soon-to-be-37 self. The answer is no one. There is no one particular person who I admire and follow. We all have pros & cons and there is no exception when it comes to the top IQs and geniuses. Having said that, I must admit that there are certain features, personality treats, attitudes and/or leadership styles of certain legends that I study, practice and teach.
Who is my idol? My pro-idol (idol in professional life) is a hypothetic combination of three. If I had a divine force I would certainly created a person consisting of elements of Steve Jobs, Andrew Grove and Sir Ernest Shackleton! Let me elaborate on details.
Steve Jobs
He is my pro-idol when it comes to intersection of vision, art and technology. An optimal perfectionist. Father of branding, design, innovation and understanding & addressing customer needs. Every time I watch his videos I understand how immense his vision was. His attention to details, presentation style, storytelling and ability to create an alternative universe is just a masterpiece. Reportedly, he had an intolerable temperament, left people a few reason to love him, not the best father in the world but… nothing can shadow his brilliance. For me, he is the greatest marketer of all time!
Andrew Grove
The best teacher. Master of measurement & improvement. He is my pro-idol of management. His way of management is something from another universe. Mr. Grove not only turned Intel into a tech giant as we know today, he also created the OKR system which eased the life of thousand of managers including Google’s founders. I regularly read about his methodology and each and every time I discover something new. You need time to digest his complex ideas. Whenever I ponder on a strategic projects I envision what he would recommended: “Build a sustainable organism that evolves even without his creator and make sure it is measurable.”
Ernest Shackleton
A true leader and a sign of resilience. He led an expedition team of twenty eight men during the two-year struggle for survival. Think, their ship was crushed by ice floes in the coast of Antarctica, leaving the men stranded on the pack ice who drifted on it for over a year. Despite all the difficulties, Sir Shackleton managed to maintain high morale of the crew and invented some routines such as carrying snow from here to there and other way around just to prevent them from freezing and keeping them mentally busy so they didn’t eat each other. Just read “Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage” by Alfred Lansing and you’ll understand why he is my pro-idol about leadership.
Here you go. Now you know who is my hypothetical idol. He has a vision and artistic taste of Steve Jobs, managerial methods of Andrew Grove and leadership and resilience of Ernest Shackleton. I’m sure I’ll change my mind as time goes by so I set myself a task to return to this topic after 3 years.
Who is your idol?
