Canon EOS 5D Mark II
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Seth Godin:

“People don’t become leaders because they have charisma; people get charisma because they’re leaders.”

Exhibit A: Al Gore

And I posted some interesting tidbits earlier from Godin’s new book Tribes.

8 responses to “Bright Bulb”

  1. We (in Finland) got a prime minister with low charisma and he’s been in office a long while now. I don’t agree with Mr. Godin there.

  2. @Tomi Tapio: Fair point. I wonder whether Seth Godin would make a distinction between political office and leadership. Here’s his response to a similar point in a Wired/TED interview:

    Wired: There are a lot of leaders who don’t have charisma.

    SG: Well Al Gore has charisma now. Where did Al find his charisma? The charisma showed up because he was leading. I don’t think you can lead correctly with transparency and create a movement if you’re not passionate about it. The passion and the leadership go together and once you’ve done those things you are seen as being charismatic by the people who are following you…. What makes you a leader is not that you own a company with 150 people. What makes you a leader is that you are leading people who want to be led, going somewhere they want to go.

    From TED Interview: Tribes Author Says People, Not Ads, Build Social Networks

  3. Some times this passion can over take reason…and you become Elmer Gantry!

  4. That is counter to the definition of charisma. From Princenton Word Net.

    charisma:
    a personal attractiveness or interestingness that enables you to influence others

  5. "Passion is the elixer of charlatans and fools. "-arthurbarbato

  6. Why are there so many quotes where people just reverse the order of the sentence whether it’s really true or not? Why not just a meaningful quote rather than a catchy one that is semi-true?

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