On Life & Meaning hosts conversations with interesting people about their lives and work. The show explores human brilliance: our talents, endeavors, motivations and higher purposes. Mark Peres hosts the podcast series.
Guests include artists, writers, philosophers, civic leaders, consultants, executives, entrepreneurs, innovators and creators. The mission of the podcast is to inspire a more insightful and humane world.
Richard Saul Wurman is the founder of the legendary TED Conferences, TED MED, WWW, 555 and The Urban Observatory.
The first time I saw his face was in a June 1997 interview in Fortune Magazine which crowned him “The King of Access.” He was photographed in his Newport mansion’s white living room, reading with his feet up beside a wall-to-wall collection of erotic Mexican ceramics. He looked shamelessly self-indulgent in his throne, fittingly designed by Mies van der Rohe. I remember thinking: How do you get to live like that?
I just knew that one day I would meet the man. The universe gave me the chance in 2004, when a corporate client gave me carte blanche to organize the most creative VIP's event I could come up with, which I hosted at a private island in Venice, Italy (owned at the time by Dr. Edward de Bono, father of the concept of Lateral Thinking). I called Richard and he agreed to come, no speaking fee. It was a great success and the event paid for itself with just one deal.
Over the years, I stayed in touch and in 2009 I decided to visit him at his Newport, RI, mansion, where I recorded a 3-hour conversation on video. Finally, I fulfilled my dream of learning from the master about how to lead through ideas and how to engage my multiple interests to design a resonance platform.
After that visit, TheSircle Executive Club was born, allowing me to access what I enjoy the most: to discover wisdom in high achievers' powerful stories.
In April 2010, I hosted Wurman in Charlotte, NC, at The Ritz Carlton for interactive conversations on his life, curiosity, understanding and "intellectual hedonism." I documented the presentations as well, which captured quite a few gems.
Since then, I’ve taken the time to piece together concepts that presumably explain his worldview. I've synthesized his thinking into three core concepts that I call "The Tao of Wurman" - which I then unpack into 10 principles for action.
Tao means "the path" or "the way," and Richard's way are encapsulated in these concepts:
To share Richards' wisdom, I've created a Web Project that you can access for free here: "The Tao of Richard Saul Wurman: Understanding leads to Meaningful Action"
Read, watch the exclusive videos, use the questions and share the link...
I was interviewed by Dr. Maha Gingrich for her program "Charlotte: City of International Success" on "Leadership Performance Strategy." The program's duration is 30 minutes.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to share my family's story of emigration and success in Latin America, how I arrived to the United States, my integration through international tennis projects and how ultimately I've been able to become a Leadership Performance Strategist for corporate leaders.
On a beautiful, sunny afternoon on September 8, 1990, Gabriela Sabatini won the U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York, fulfilling her lifetime dream before an audience of millions. From the players’ box, I watched her crush the match point and leap towards the sky pumping her clenched fist. She had beaten Steffi Graf, her nemesis and the best player in the world. However, just five months before, Gabriela had told me she wanted to quit for good, despite her #3 world-ranking. She was disheartened by a series of bad losses and felt no joy whatsoever.
Gabriela Sabatini’s Breakthrough
At her father’s request, Dr. Jim Loehr, the world’s leading sport psychologist, and I focused on untangling Gabriela’s emotional world. Her recovery involved recognizing how her thinking influenced how she felt and how she acted. To break negative thought patterns, she started acting how she felt at her best, when she enjoyed being challenged. Gradually, positive feelings poured out, transforming Gabriela from a joyless routine-addict into an engaged, resilient and resourceful thinker in the face of adversity. Gabriela realized that when we embrace who we want to be in the future, it’s helpful to start thinking, feeling and acting like that “future self” today, bit-by-bit, step-by-step. Her evident turnaround revitalized her stellar career and inspired thousands of people, especially young girls, to follow their dreams. Soon after retiring, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
How Leading Ourselves Evolves into Leading Others
I believe Gabriela’s breakthrough points to the essence of leadership: we first must lead ourselves before we can lead others. Granted, tennis is not the whole of life, but, by requiring that one aligns their energy with their purpose to achieve excellence in performance, it ushers them to become whole and then radiates their energy outwards to others.
Corporate Leaders Must Exhibit a Sense of Excellence
When I started advising corporate leaders, I noticed that the most influential ones easily related to peak performance concepts, since their mission is to instill energy and purpose in people to drive the organization towards an engaging, common vision. Visionary leaders already are at the mountaintop and must now help others understand how to change and act on their new reality. Their sense of excellence pulls everyone to perform at a much higher level, way above of what they consider their 100%. Consider the makers of Giro biking helmets: “We will be to the biking industry what Nike is to shoes.” Without such burning desire, followers will likely sabotage development plans to maintain their “average” and perform at a set level. According to the Towers Perrin Global Workforce Study, only 1 out of 5 workers today is giving full effort on the job and 4 out of 10 workers are disenchanted or disengaged. Based on myriad examples, despotic, incompetent and uninspiring leaders are to blame. Engagement might increase if more leaders model excellence through action, inspiring powerful common visions, challenging assumptions, seeking new opportunities, enabling collaboration and celebrating results with fair rewards. Is this idealistic? Of course… and so was Gabriela Sabatini’s choice, which was mysteriously in harmony with Gandhi’s suggestion to become the change we want to see in the world.
I suggest we ask ourselves: How will the world be different as a result of how I lead myself? Who could feel inspired by my behavior? And most importantly today: How do we need to be to be better together?
Salum International Resources, Inc. - Carlos Salum, Founder - Leadership Performance Strategist. I help business leaders and their teams design a strategy to create breakthrough achievements and a powerful legacy.
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