Which Way Will You Go? Let me tell you about Col. John Boyd!

By Rich Kozlovich

Through the course of my life I discovered that being a good leader means standing up and saying:

 Hold it! This is all wrong and we’re going to change!

Never confuse real leaders with those with titles or rank.  Whether it is in academia, the military, government, or in business, being a real leader means being the rock in the current, a character quality that had to have been there for most of their life.   Let’s face it, heterodoxy isn’t for the faint of heart, and for the most part is a personal trait, which means this quality was part and parcel of who and what they are, making it easy to be seen for what they are, often disliked, often ridiculed, and often rejected.  However it can be learned and practiced, if one has vision and courage.

As for the go along to get along guys who are perceived as 'good leaders':  They may in reality only be ‘good managers’ who were chosen to merely organize the direction everyone decided to go! They’re easy to deal with, easy to get along with, and would never in a million years stir up the manure.

Take for example two arenas where this is so obvious I shouldn’t have to explain it, but most don’t get it because people believe they represent the highest standards for leadership. Military career officers and PhD’s, both of which got to the top by going along to get along.  So, let me tell you about Col. John Boyd. (Editor's Note: What appears below is from a site that no longer exists. RK.)

"Forty-Second" Boyd, the man remembered for defeating every opponent in aerial combat at the Air Force's premier dog-fighting academy in two-thirds of a minute, helped found the Fort Myer get-togethers at the end of his Air Force career”…..however this doesn’t demonstrate the “long and often painful saga of a man who, as a full colonel, went toe to toe, time after time, with a phalanx of two-and three-star generals for the good of the country, winning most of his battles and surviving long enough to help provide secretary of defense Richard Cheney the ideas needed for swift and decisive victory in the Persian Gulf War. 

("Keep it simple — so that the generals will understand it,") Boyd frequently told his small band of fellow guerrillas, known collectively as "The Acolytes." Boyd was…..a Pentagon "Whiz Kid"— one of the rare few who were "defined by the courts-martial and investigations they faced." He was also "the most important unknown man of his time and the most remarkable unsung hero in American military history."….. Loud and profane, Boyd's intellectual achievements were matched by his relentless guerrilla warfare against hidebound "careerists" then running the Air Force…… The tenets of this speech reflected both his spirit and values:

"One day you will come to a fork in the road. And you're going to have to make a decision about what direction you want to go." [Boyd] raised his hand and pointed. "If you go that way you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and you will get good assignments." Then Boyd raised the other hand and pointed another direction. "Or you can go that way and you can do something — something for your country and for your Air Force and for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and you may not get the good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. You will be true to your friends and to yourself. And your work might make a difference."

He paused and stared. "To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you will have to make a decision. To be or to do? Which way will you go?"

The people of the world are at a cross roads. One path leads to Marxism and tyranny, and the other path leads to capitalism and freedom.  Which way will you go?