This Sunday Story will be a shorter one - mostly because I’m watching the tides roll in to a setting sun on the south end of Vancouver Island as I write it, and I have a campfire to attend to - the nature of running ones own business is the work has to happen when the work has to happen, and in this case it includes a family camping trip that we book-ended with celebrating a dear friend’s graduation from their Master’s program. Tonight will be spent in a tent, listening to waves roll in and out, and perhaps that’s why I’m thinking of a fantastic book I read about leadership that I recommend to anyone.
We all know who Teddy Roosevelt was - former President, adventurer, and an icon of American history. Teddy Roosevelt wasn’t entirely unproblematic - he was a product of his times - and he’s known around the world for many things. If you are a fan of the stage play Arsenic and Old Lace you know him because of the eccentric character who thought he was Teddy and would yell “Charge!” up the stairs to bring comedic relief to an already very funny play - a role yours truly played about 25 years ago - but even people with a passing knowledge of Roosevelt generally know the broad strokes: President, Adventurer, Statesman, and Leader. On that second point - adventurer - folks likely know that he travelled the American west, and was responsible for protecting over 230 million acres of public land that is still enjoyed today as part of “America’s best idea” - the national park system. You might also know that he travelled to Africa on Safari; the photos of him on this voyage are famous. But few folks know that Teddy Roosevelt also traversed an uncharted river in the Amazon Rainforest, and that’s the Sunday Story I wanted to share today.
In fact, I first learned about this story when I was in the middle of the amazon rainforest. The simple building I was staying in had small rooms with mosquito nets and a single larger room for dining, and in the dining room was a small bookshelf that was treated as the village library. I won’t share why I was there - that’s for another story - but on that bookshelf I found a book by Candace Millard called the “River of Doubt: Roosevelts’ Darkest Journey” that told me about Teddy’s adventures; surrounded by the flora and fauna that was in a constant battle for survival (something I was relating to at that time) gave a particularly impressive backdrop and I ended up devouring the book almost in one sitting. It’s well worth a read, and I recommend it, but this Sunday Story is about the broad strokes and the key takeaways for leaders that I saw in that story.
First and foremost: When we think of presidents, we tend to think of people in their 50's or later who have had a lifetime in business, law, or some other vocation before turning to politics. I wouldn’t blame anyone for assuming Teddy did his Amazonian adventure in his youth prior to becoming President, but you’d be wrong about that - the reason for his adventure was actually because he lost his re-election bid; at 55 years old, he had achieved more than most leaders ever do, but he was so chagrined by his loss that he thrust himself into a grand adventure and where most people would be considering retirement, he was on a steamship to Brazil preparing to embark upon the greatest adventure of his life.
It wasn’t an easy trip - far from it, as they squared off with murders, cannibals, and the jungle itself. Before all that drama, it initially began as a speaking tour, but Teddy decided soon after leaving America that he was going to cast off the dusty museums in favour of some real proper adventure, and chose to instead bring a party together to run the length of an uncharted tributary to the mighty Amazon.
How many of us think that the time for great adventures is behind us? Probably a lot. But Teddy showed us that it doesn’t have to be. I have always felt that the minute a person starts focusing more on what was than what will be, something changes in them. There’s always more life to live, and always more adventures to have - what’s your next one going to be?
The second key takeaway for me was about the team that Teddy had with him. A leader is only ever as good as their team, and I’ve been really lucky to have some good ones. Teddy was too - his partner on this voyage was a man named Colonel Cåndido Rondon. Colonel Rondon was a Brazilian military veteran who was given the responsibility to run telegraph lines throughout the Amazon. The simplicity of that betrays the difficulty of the task; Amazon is an incredibly hostile place. Workers aren’t allowed regular breaks and performance metrics are superhuman and near impossible.
The rainforest it’s named after is even worse. Rondon would regularly enter the jungle with the mission of running a telegraph line to bring communications to a community; he would enter with 100 men and return with 50, 30, or even just 12. Time and time again he was sent into the jungle, and time and time again the jungle would chew him and his company up and spit what remained back out. It’s a place that is incredibly hostile to any life that hasn’t evolved over millennia to survive there. Rondon was Teddy’s guide, and without him, he would have most certainly died in the jungle. The two became friends, sharing a mutual love and respect for each other that can only be forged in the hardest of times. The other key member of Teddy’s team was his son Kermit, who also played a critical role in the survival of the expedition. As a father and a bit of an adventurer, I am writing this as I keep one eye on my son jumping from log to rock, terrified of a fall but at the same time knowing that some risk is healthy and needed (My wife is keeping both eyes on him too). I cannot imagine bringing my son into the depths of a place as hostile as the Amazon, but I also cannot imagine anyone I’d rather have by my side when the chips are down than my primary team - my family.
That’s the paradox of leadership in a way. You care deeply about those you lead, and you want them to take risks - because growth requires risks - but at the same time, you want to keep them safe and protect them from the sometimes harmful nasty stuff that comes their way.
I don’t have a solution for that paradox, but I think the first lesson supports the second. Leadership is always a conflict between challenge and support. We want those we lead to be put in situations that force them to grow, but we want them to be supported too and sometimes that means wanting to protect them from challenges. But you can’t lead others without first leading yourself - and even though we want to grow, we might sometimes want to protect ourselves from challenges too. I think that’s why people sometimes hang up their adventure hat for good as we age - “I’ve done that when I was younger. That’s enough”.
But that’s not good self leadership, is it? We don’t all have to jet off to a deadly jungle, but we should never stop growing. The minute we choose to protect ourselves instead of growing the person we are is the minute we stop leading, and start going through the motions of leadership. Leading by definition requires us to be on the edge of a thing and helping other people navigate that edge - whether that’s a dangerous adventure, a new idea at work, or committed to a mission for bettering the human condition. Without challenge and growth, I argue we’re not leading anything.
What’s your next adventure going to be? And if you don’t have one in mind, why’d you stop?
Time to get the fire going, the sun has set. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next Sunday.
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