The Penalty of Leadership Revisited
Back on December 12th, 2006, my brother published a blog about this Cadillac advertisement,but it is well worth the time to publish it again. The fact is that it should be published over and over so that we never forget it.
I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I just happen to sell the #1 pharmaceutical used for asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Advair is truly innovative, both in its pharmacology and in the delivery device and this causes the predicament which is so eloquently spoken about in this 1915 ad. You see, when our competitors come in to see a physician, usually the first words spoken are not about the features and benefits of their product, but rather are pejorative comments about Advair. After years of speaking ill of our product, now there are several companies coming out with "me-too" drugs in hopes of copying our success and once again ... their first efforts are to bad-mouth our product instead of speaking of the features of their own. THIS IS WHAT FOLLOWERS ALWAYS DO! It takes a ton or fortitude to be a leader, but any moron can be a follower!
I realize that my situation is duplicated numerous times throughout the business world ... jealousy's rearing her ugly head. The penalty of leadership is certainly not unique to the pharmaceutical industry, but is evident in every endeavor.
The advertisement you are about to read appeared in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST on January 2nd, 1915. It has been chosen as one of the greatest ads of all time. It was written by Theodore F. MacManus and is considered by some to be the GREATEST of all ads ever written. One will notice that there are no pictures or artwork ... just text! Packard was having a field day when a defect was discovered in Cadillac's new 1915 V8 Touring Model and this ad ran in response to the efforts by Packard to punish Cadillac for being a leader. Sales rebounded and as you know, Packard has been out of business for years.
This holds true not just in products but in personal leadership also. People do not follow someone unless that person has earned the privilege ... LEADERSHIP DOES NOT COME BY POSITION OR TITLE!
_________
THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work.
In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.
If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone - if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.
Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius.
Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.
There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions - envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains - the leader.
Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.
That which deserves to live - lives.
I work in the pharmaceutical industry and I just happen to sell the #1 pharmaceutical used for asthma and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). Advair is truly innovative, both in its pharmacology and in the delivery device and this causes the predicament which is so eloquently spoken about in this 1915 ad. You see, when our competitors come in to see a physician, usually the first words spoken are not about the features and benefits of their product, but rather are pejorative comments about Advair. After years of speaking ill of our product, now there are several companies coming out with "me-too" drugs in hopes of copying our success and once again ... their first efforts are to bad-mouth our product instead of speaking of the features of their own. THIS IS WHAT FOLLOWERS ALWAYS DO! It takes a ton or fortitude to be a leader, but any moron can be a follower!
I realize that my situation is duplicated numerous times throughout the business world ... jealousy's rearing her ugly head. The penalty of leadership is certainly not unique to the pharmaceutical industry, but is evident in every endeavor.
The advertisement you are about to read appeared in THE SATURDAY EVENING POST on January 2nd, 1915. It has been chosen as one of the greatest ads of all time. It was written by Theodore F. MacManus and is considered by some to be the GREATEST of all ads ever written. One will notice that there are no pictures or artwork ... just text! Packard was having a field day when a defect was discovered in Cadillac's new 1915 V8 Touring Model and this ad ran in response to the efforts by Packard to punish Cadillac for being a leader. Sales rebounded and as you know, Packard has been out of business for years.
This holds true not just in products but in personal leadership also. People do not follow someone unless that person has earned the privilege ... LEADERSHIP DOES NOT COME BY POSITION OR TITLE!
_________
THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP
In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work.
In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few.
If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone - if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.
Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius.
Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy - but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.
There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions - envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains - the leader.
Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.
That which deserves to live - lives.
posted by George Goddard at
9:07 PM
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