Wednesday, May 6, 2015
The Worldwide Crisis for Anyone Looking to Source Fairy-Dust
by Phil Liebman
Here is a scandal in need of being exposed. And you will have read it first and exclusively here in Mikki-Leaks, folks.
If so many people depend on fairy-dust as a “sprinkle-on” solution to their problems and fertilizer for 
opportunities – it would seem that it would be in great abundance – or even selling at a premium due to enormous demand. But disturbingly, it just seems to be off the market. How can this be? Is someone hording the world’s supply? I checked on AMAZON.com – and they sell small bags – but just between you and me it looks fake. OK – so there is novelty Fairy Dust available for “princess parties” for your 8-year old. But I’m looking for the industrial strength magic potion – the kind that will turn my unimaginably ordinary Website idea into the next AMAZON.COM. I even checked on Alibaba.com – figuring surely someone in China knows a guy who knows a guy who can get me this stuff. But it seems that if it exists anywhere – it might be only on the “deep web” and requiring knowing how and where to acquire Bitcoin – to arrange delivery from some unsavory sordid source. Not even something this courageous author of Mikki-Leaks is willing to venture. But I bet Satoshi Nakamoto, the recluse legend in hiding who was exposed last year as guy who invented Bitcoin had plenty of fairy-dust to nurture and build his idea.
If I can’t source the stuff, I figure there has to be a work-around. Maybe the next great idea is whatever can replace fairy-dust. Fairy-Dust 2.0? I called an alchemist I know who is purported to at one time to have been a noted expert on Angel Dust (who so happens to currently also be an advisor to a chain of Medical Marijuana Dispensaries and a few pot-boutiques in Colorado) – and posed the idea of developing synthetic fairy dust to him. He suggested that everyone is going “organic” these days – so this was obviously a bad idea. Then it struck me. Maybe “The Next Big Thing” is organic fairy dust. Just the thought of it made me dizzy and feeling a bit like Tinker-Bell.
This dragged my thinking away from the deep web – and into the Deep Thought of Dr. Lee Thayer. Lee knows more about fairy dust than perhaps anyone on the planet. Why not reach out to the foremost expert? (His book “How Executives Fail” is a must-read primer for anyone looking to understand the absolute power of fairy dust. * see source below) Well, Lee let me on to a closely guarded little secret. “Fairy Dust” doesn’t exist. The novelty stuff on Amazon is really as good as it gets.
It turns out that organizations that surpass all others have known this all along. The have found organic alternatives in how they think, who they deliberately choose to become – and in the way they go about doing things. They perform better than their competitors because they make it necessary for themselves to do so. They undertake to prepare to be so fully competent that they not only outperform their competitors – they outperform themselves everyday. If there is anything out of the ordinary – even resembling the power of magical potions – it is the connection their leadership has with a deep and unyielding sense of purpose. And the understanding of what it takes to prepare, align and conduct the people within their organization to perform at their highest potential – such that the organization can perform beyond it’s perceived boundaries.
Leadership is such a buzzword today – I almost hate to bring it up. How many books have been written on the topic? There are countless seminars, workshops – even full university degree programs dedicated to leadership – yet when we look around, why are there so few outstanding leaders among us? As Lee Thayer told us, it isn’t that those extraordinary leaders have gotten their hands on fairy dust – or likely even sold their souls to The Devil. And more perplexing is why all this research, prescription and motivation for great leadership has not turned out into the world all the leadership we could ever need or handle? Actually, another one of Dr. Thayer’s works, “The Competent Organization” might be more the answer than any of the solutions above.
The answers, much derived from Lee Thayer’s experience, is that extraordinary leaders know what very few others know. They understand that nothing you “know” is the answer. It’s about being constantly curious – and always learning. It’s about what you are thinking about – and whether you are thinking about the right things at the right time. It’s about what you are made of – whether you have the “right stuff” to demand excellence and constant growth from yourself and the people you lead. (If you don’t currently have what you need you may be able to find it within yourself – if you are willing to do the hard work that requires.) It’s about being the kind of leader that cares so unwaveringly about something greater than himself or herself – that they instill not only a great sense of purpose in the people that choose to surround these rare leaders – but they also make it necessary and possible for those who can – to become extraordinarily competent, caring and committed as well. If you could bottle that – we could sell it by the barrel – and call it Newly Improved, As Seen On TV, All Natural, Organically Certified Leadership Power Powder. I got your “fairy-dust.”
Reporting from somewhere in the kiddie-pool section of the Deep Web – wearing inflatable swimmies and nose-plugs – looking for the “Next Big Thing” to leak to you – provided my swimmies don’t leak first. You can also always find me at www.TheBullFrogGroup.com- Shhh… PRL
List of Secret Resources Cited in this Leak:
Phil Liebman is a Vistage Group Chair, a Fellow at the Thayer Institute for Leadership Virtuosity and the Founder of the BullFrog Group – helping CEOs become better leaders. You can reach him by email at phil@Strat.com - or by phone at 845.262.8611 