A lesson in humility: Shoshin

A month prior to GLA (Global Leadership Academy), my buddy Alan asked me if I was going to attend the Singularity University in San Francisco, an event I’d been looking forward to since I first heard about it. When I told him that I changed my mind at the last minute and decided to go to GLA, his response was “that’s great, it’s life changing”.

At the time those felt like some pretty strong words coming from a guy who runs a publicly traded company, is influential in his entrepreneur community in Taiwan and is an amazing parent. My curiosity was piqued.

Leading up to GLA, I was getting a bit concerned that they hadn’t sent out any agenda, I had no idea who was speaking, and that I was asked to bring a jacket and tie to wear 3 out of the 4 nights. At the time I owned only one jacket that fit and zero ties! After a quick trip to Nordstrom Rack I hopped on a plane to DC to see what this life changing event was all about.

Day1 began with a field trip together with 27 other entrepreneurs and 5 faculty members of the “academy from 18 countries around the world. But this field trip wasn’t a “Rah Rah” let’s all get together and learn kind of trip, it was a lesson in humility. In two hours we:

• Relieved the memories of millions who died at the hands of tyrannical leadership, racism and hate.
• Saw the heroes who emerged.
• Felt the pain and for all the times we saw something wrong but were afraid to speak out.

But we also had a stop that showed us the power of a humble leader:

• Who was drawn to his service of the people
• Who overcame a handicap to grow what would become the most powerful nation in the world
• Who believed there was a greater purpose and a sense of responsibility in every one of us, starting with himself.

“If you want to focus on yourself as a leader, lose yourself in service to others; just go help someone” Warren Rustand

The first two experiences at GLA quickly opened me up to an ideal called Shoshin, a new Chinese word I learned from one of our humble leaders, George Gan at the beginning of our formal training. He asked us to reset our minds to day zero and open ourselves up to the learning process ahead of us.

For me, that was easy part, as the more I heard Warren Rustand speak the more I was in awe of his presence, his character, and his conviction. In our first lesson with Warren he opened my eyes to three critical essentials of authentic leadership that I was sorely lacking:

• Clarity of Vision
• Clarity of Intent
• Power of Values

I couldn’t help but feel unworthy, but I couldn’t wait to hear more.