Adonis Diaries

What else can I be but myself? Business card read: “Adonis-Himself”

Almost every behavior and physical characteristics are unique to the individual.  If the person is alive, you don’t need a DNA test to identify the person: any record left by the individual such as voice, handwriting, fingers,…is good enough to discriminate him from the billion of other living people.

Individual personality signature such as “fist”, “giss”, finger prints, speech recognition…are unique and define us.

Names are just shortcuts, and yet every one of us think that it is the name that bestow dignity and personality…

During WWII, before mathematicians could manage to decry pt the coded messages of the enemies, the interceptors were able to identify the enemy operators and locate their whereabouts and their units…The British labelled this signature “fist” of the operator

In sport, the habit of physical movements are labelled “giss” of the athlete, such as thinking of using the wrist in tennis while the videos prove the usage of the shoulder joints…

What else can we do but navigate within our signature, our capabilities and limitation? What can we do but improve what can be altered, persistently hard-working on our self-improvement?

Jim Kouzes, prior President, CEO, and Chairman of the Tom Peters Company (1988 to 1999) recalled meeting Regis McKenna, first marketing consultant hired by Steve Jobs.

McKenna’s business card read, “Regis McKenna – Himself.” Jim said, “I want to be that.” Jim Kouzes decided to sing his own song.

Along with his inner search, life tipped in early 2000. Jim’s first wife died. “It was a time to ask what’s next.” The search for self-development started in 2000

Jim said, “When I was young, I wanted to change the world so I joined the Peace Corps. After two years, I realized it was too big a bite. I set out to change the country (USA). I joined the war on poverty. After a while, I realized that was too big a bite so I got into organizational development. But, that was too big, too. Eventually, I started working with leaders. Ultimately, I decided to just be me and work on myself.” 

Dan Rockwell laughed at Jim’s narrowing progression and said, “It seems like you’re changing the world, now.” and Jim to retort: “In the end we realized that leadership development is self-development.”