“If you want to be a great leader, you must learn to follow the path. Stop trying to control. Let go of fixed plans and concepts, and the world will govern itself.” ~Lao Tsu

In the past month, a very informal blog post styled as a “speech I never gave” went viral — raking thousands of visitors in just 48 hours and becoming the site’s most popular piece ever.

Then, I decided to officially write a book (16,470 words and counting), which will be published for you this summer(!!).

And last week, I released a free 19-page e-book for you that, in less than 5 days, has been downloaded over 1,400 times. Meanwhile, my blog (and face!) made guest appearances on the nationally-televised CBS Sunday Morning.

Kinda crazy, right?

I’m not sure, my friend, but I think we’re on the verge of a leadership revolution!

The Tao of Pursuing Your Dreams

Metal Horns: Pre-Skydive in PDX!

When I look over those few sentences above, I’m pretty taken aback. I could have only dreamed to see these sudden developments come to fruition over the last couple of years… and yet, I’m really not sure how to really respond to them all!

The inner rock’n’roller “renegade” in me is totally psyched. I’m crankin’ the music volume up to 11 and tossing my metal horns signals in the air with unbridled disregard. Headbang. Air-guitar. Rar.

But, another side of me… you know, that semi-mature, zen-meditating, chi-running, what-would-a-Taoist-do side of me… knows to take it all in stride, one step at a time, and understand each success as but a small victory among the others — with steady and determined patience.

You see, these “rapid” developments are actually culminations of nearly three years of grinding out a dream. And over two years since I quit my job to officially pursue it. And tens of thousands of painstaking hours trying to understand what the hell to do, why, how, and when.

Maybe that’s the reason why, for each success, I do get reallllly excited for a short time… before reeling it in.

That’s the Tao of pursuing your dreams.

You can’t get addicted to the highs, or the lows will crush your spirit. You cannot become unhealthily attached to the success of a goal, because as soon as it is achieved, you obsess to find a new one. If you live from aim to aim and pursuit to pursuit, you feel lost without them — aimless by your living and Being, unable to enjoy the present moment fully.

Successes are wonderful. Pursuits are adventurous, challenging and fun. But to focus one eye upon your pursuits and the other upon a compulsive “need” to accomplish them, you’ll soon become blinded to the beautify of life, itself.

How You Can Help (Because I Really Do Need You)

Download Your Free E-Book Now :)

With everything unfolding at such a crazy pace, here’s a short list of ways you can help and other developments across the web — so you so you can enjoy them fully along with me!

After all, I write for you, and for our leadership revolution to take root, I’m really going to need your help.

  1. First, download my new 19-page e-book, “How to Lead Without Followers: the World Domination Summit Talk I Never Gave” — feel warmly invited to share it freely with your friends.
  2. Next, vote for my ChangeThis.com manifesto proposal “Lead Without Followers: How Radically Redefining “Leadership” Can Save Its Meaning in a Troubled World” — top vote-getters get to publish a fully-designed manifesto on their awesome site. We’re currently in 2nd place in voting with just 3 weeks to go! (You can vote up several times without having to sign up for account!
  3. Help hold my feet to the fire by incessantly asking me how Lead Without Followers: The Book is progressing! Like I mentioned, I’m over 16,000 words and it looks like we’ll be finished around 35,000-40,000 words. My goal is to finish the first draft by the end of July, workshop the book a bit in August and launch by September 1 at the latest.
  4. Subscribe to the blog by email for updates that aren’t posted here. If you weren’t an official insider subscriber, you weren’t the first few hundred to receive the new Lead Without Followers e-book in your inbox last Wednesday. So sign up for free now, and never miss a beat!
  5. Get ready for Lead Without Followers: The Book and my new leadership course with Molly Mahar, both due out late this summer! Are you psyched? I know I am.

A Rockin’ N’ Rollin’ Round-Up

Click Here to Vote at ChangeThis.com

Reflecting on the quote above by Lao Tsu earlier this morning, I realized, things started to come around for me when I stopped trying to “control” and instead followed wherever the path emerges and then began to lead me.

When you let go and “let God,” as the saying goes, the path might lead you but you’re still rather unaware of where you’re exactly headed. But things begin to pan out in a very serendipitous, mysterious way — totally outside of your control. A path alone does not reveal it’s ending place, only where you are at that current moment.

And, when even the dominoes begin to fall your way, you never know how or when the next will tumble — you must simply trust that it shall.

Be sure to tune in to Radio Enso tonight with Greg Berg (Monday, July 11, at 6PM Pacific / 9PM EST), I’ll be on talkin’ World Domination Summit, Lead Without Followers and much more.

(Update: Pssst, if you missed the interview, you can listen to it here or download it directly here! Hope you enjoy!)

And this Thursday, I’ll be interviewed by Lisa Robbin Young at BusinessActionHero.com for her podcast series on business leadership and more. Details on where to catch that audio will soon follow :)

Rock and roll. Carry on! :)

Flickr photo credit: Robert Bejil Photography