Well for those of you are regular readers of my blog, as you know, yesterday, I wrote a post about how I thought that I wanted to be a thought leader. In keeping with principle of applied stupidity number 14, i.e., “the dumber you look the more stuff people tell you,” I was informed (see the comment thread) that there actually were a whole set of standards for what a thought leader is. Apparently all the thought leaders got together and came to a general agreement. I think that’s wonderful.
Now to be honest, I never really wanted to be a thought leader. Too much responsibility, and way too much work.
For example, if I were a real-life thought leader, when I get hired to do a speaking gig, there would probably be a fair amount of pressure on me to come up with something… well… you know… thoughtful. If you’ve ever tried to do this, you know how hard it is to do. Coming up with something truly original is hard. The other problem is, truly original stuff is a lot less appealing to the average crowd of people than the good old tried-and-true banalities.
So anyway, instead of being an actual thought leader, I’m thinking more of just being sort of, I don’t know, something . . . thought leader-esque. This would be somewhat analogous to being the King of Sweden. Lots of money, lots of parties, nice house, but no real responsibilities other than just showing up occasionally.
The other challenge of being a thought leader is, its sort of expected that you keep up with current events, and frankly, I find the nightly news to be very depressing.
So anyway, I’ve pretty much given up on the idea of ever being a thought leader but I do want to be a thought something. Maybe how about… a thought minister? A thought enhancer? A thought figurehead? A low-calorie thought alternative? “I can’t believe it’s not an actual thought leader”? I mean, a real thought leader charges an arm and leg for a speaking appearance, so this would be like a nice alternative for event planners on a budget.
Of course, I’ll have to think about this…
© Justin Locke
