MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL (MNF) AND VIRGIN ATLANTIC?

What do Robert Griffin III (RGIII) and Richard Branson have in common?

On August 20, the Washington Redskins played the Pittsburgh Steelers in a pre-season game on Monday Night Football, at Fedex Field, in Landover, MD.

The most talked about super-quarterback RG III ran the warm-ups with the team and when the game started, RGIII stayed off the field. RGIII went about smiling and meeting with all the team players of the Redskins. He cheered from the side-lines. After every play, RGIII met with the incoming team members and cheered the ones leaving for the next play, offense or defense.

The Washington Redskins won that night in the Monday Night Game against the Pittsburgh Steelers 24-13, without RGIII playing. Great players do not have to be involved in every play. Just their very presence on the field makes the team confident I their abilities. The outcome was a sweet win.

Sir Richard Branson, a self-made billionaire is another example of great leadership. Branson started with Virgin Records and built an empire launching Virgin Atlantic Airways, Virgin American, Virgin Fuels, Virginia Galactic and a mega Virgin empire. Branson is not on every flight or anywhere on the day to day operations of his mega Virgin Empire, yet all the parts of the empire keep running smoothly and churning out good profits at the end of the year.

Great leaders do not have to stand and watch their employees every day. The Leaders inspire their employees to create and innovate, and think independently; yet play as a team for the ultimate goal of winning or making a profit. Business (or empire) owners can be “the Activator” and help stimulate the true potential of people working “WITH” them, rather than for them.

We can all learn from Sir Richard Branson and Robert Griffin III (RGIII) and inspire others to think from the sidelines but help them if they make a mistake, and cheer them on to win the next big game.

Hail to the REDSKINS !!!

The Dream - Do you have a Dream?

On August 19, 2013, I was one of the lucky few invited by Richmond Times Dispatch to make a recording of the famous speech by Dr. Martin Luther King of August 28, 1963. The idea was Bringing “The Dream” to Life by Richmond Times Dispatch.

The last passage of the speech was given to me for narration.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

I was definitely not around in 1963 but reading this passage left a lump in my throat, that too on camera. Why, I thought? The freedom won was not just for the African Americans but for all people. This in turn gave way to a new way of life in the US, for people of all ages and colors to think on their own and be free.

This newly won freedom of “way of life” gave people an opportunity to be creative, energetic and learn to get back on their feet. New business ideas came forth, bringing new companies now owned by people of all color. Today the US is leading the charge in creative marketing ideas and the other countries are catching up too.   

We need to ask our youth, “Do you have a Dream?” This will inspire them to think big and be creative. Bring new ideas on to the market and the global arena. Don’t’ take freedom for granted.

“Think Globally, Act Locally”