Two Questions

Several years ago, back when I was a young man full of venom and vigor,

I grew up being moved from one place to the another. I never

really had a sense of belonging, sort of like being the fifth person on a

double date. I had been dubbed “bad company” in the minds of parents

whose children were my friends. I was quite good at being a physical

trainer for local police in any of the neighborhoods where I held

residence. I lived by the motto, “catch me if you can!” Sadly, they did,

and after “being encouraged” by a Judge, I joined the Army.

I was a seventeen-year-old delinquent when I entered the Army.

Basic training (BT) was for me a redefinition of who I thought I was at the

time. The BT experience offered so many opportunities to get things

right or wrong. If you got it right, all was good; if you got it wrong, you

paid the price by doing grass drills, or beating your boots, or the dying

cockroach, or my favorite push-ups. I had no idea one could do push-

ups in so many different configurations, but I digress.

During one of those BT opportunities, the experience became, for

me, one of reframing that has lasted my lifetime and continues to do so.

Funny thing, I learned it at someone else’s expense. It is amazing what

you can learn, things to do or not to do, when you watch and listen. 

The morning was shaping up to be yet another exhausting day full

of running, training, and doing those activities mentioned above. On this

day we were learning to manage a person nearing our perimeter. It was

supposed to go like this, “Halt—Who goes there?” Then say, “Advance

to be recognized, place your identification on the ground and take three

steps backwards.” Then we were to move forward, secure their

identification (without taking our eyes off them), and ask, “What is your

purpose?” Simple enough for most, except for this one guy who got

bumfuzzled and nervously asked, “Who are you, and why are you here?”

Laughter ensued and push-ups followed, but his two questions stuck in

my thoughts. 

While doing push-ups all I could think was, “who are you, and why

are you here?” Little did I know that these two sentences would become

my centering questions. I answered those questions that day long ago

and still do so today. “I am a leader, and I choose to lead well!” Perhaps

that is why I ended up a seventeen-year-old squad leader in BT and

have been leading ever since.

I created a motto for myself that reads, “Well led people become

people that lead well.” It is my hope that these questions and this motto

become your own. When you know who you are and what your purpose

is, the rest of what you do falls in line.