The 25th Annual Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon weekend will be happening soon. The three-day weekend through October 1st is a festival of fitness and life. It includes lots of activities for children, fat people, fit people and the truly athletic among us – runners who can cover 26 miles of city streets without dropping down dead at the finish line. Now, to the casual viewer watching the six o’clock local news, or thumbing through the Star Tribune, one could easily overlook this annual event as another local happening that marks the changing seasons, feeding the human-interest stories local news media needs to balance the reports of mothers cradling dead babies in places far, far away. The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon is a call to the community to participate in the beauty of being a community. It is both a celebration of life and metaphor for business.
One of my earliest memories growing up in England was having my first-grade teacher explain the meaning of the inscription on the back of the old three penny coin which read, in “Ich Dien.” It means “I Serve.” It’s funny how that two word motto and two-minute lesson in character has stuck with me all these years. To this day I often reflect on the fact that such lofty concepts are inscribed on our money, like in “In God We Trust” in the U.S. Another marvelous lesson in character was learned considering the dedication to duty that must have inspired that poor bastard Pheidippides to run back-to-back marathons to deliver the news “Rejoice, we conquer!” before collapsing on the marble steps, dead from exhaustion. Like a good recruiter, hot on his heels, always going the extra mile.
Running the long race, community, service and dedication are hallmarks of a special kind of leader. Like Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, the humility of leadership contrasts with hubris – played out like some Greek tragedy – the arrogance of power. Like my beloved Mahatmaji, leaders do not always appear in Armani suits and swagger with pride. And like exemplary business leaders – Bill George, former Chair & CEO of Medtronic, for example – they often go unnoticed but for their actions and fostering of community.
For some, running a marathon is routine. For others it’s a quest. Like leadership, it a race that requires more than speed – it requires those things that matter most: training, conditioning, endurance, stamina, desire and vision. Some are competing against the next guy, others are competing against their personal best. But what makes a marathon run so interesting for us is that it requires the one thing that distinguishes run-of-the-mill leaders from those who are prepared to step up and serve – faith. Starting a business, like Nerd Search I imagine, requires those things that give marathon runners juice. Being actively involved in one’s community, giving back to take a few steps forward, is that a mark of leadership, or something else?
It’s true, the Greeks have produced some noteworthy leaders, exceptional runners. Dean Karnazes, like Forrest Gump, started running and kept on going. This fall, the 43-year-old long distance runner will tackle one marathon a day for 50 consecutive days, running a total 1,310 miles in 50 days – The Endurance 50. Clearly, this type of extreme behavior is driven by something extraordinary, obsessive even. Or maybe it is something else, something noble? Who knows? It’s all Greek to me.
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