Lead Anywhere – Achievement Series (Part 2)

My family brought a baby me to see the NASA space station in Florida. It was glorious to see the sheer size of the displaying standing rockets and spacecraft. I came back home with a set of model space shuttle and rockets. For the next 24 years of my life, I would acquire model aircraft. I would carry them in my right hand and fly them around the house, using different furniture to take off and land. I would immerse myself in my imagination of being the pilot of the ship I was flying, fighting with my brother and his aircraft. It was EPIC. We were so focused on piloting that it made hours seem like minutes.

As video games grew more sophisticated, I decided to leverage the Internet. I stumbled upon a spacecraft video game that fulfilled, throttling my life towards collaboration and strategic leadership. 

The Path to Leadership

When I was just starting out as a tiny ship, a group of intimidating ships flew above me one by one as a unit. There were around 60 ships. It was one of those moments when you see a motorcycle gang roll by you. I could see that they carried the same digital banner, which indicated that these ships were part of a brigade together. I reveled as they passed by. In a military formation, they were clearly headed someplace and meant serious business.

Starting my Own

I trained hard to qualify to join a brigade, hoping to find purpose and teamwork. Becoming more experienced in the game, I joined a few organizations. However, I did not find a sense of intimacy and collaboration with others. By observing group dynamics in the various brigades, I realized that leadership played a role in setting the culture. I left to start my own brigade to create the culture I was looking for.

In the beginning, it was tough to gain followers. There were many brigades out there already, and most ships were already a part of one. Despite efforts of recruitment, it was just my brother and me. We finally gained a few members after a few months, but they turned out to be inactive players. Though we were well-known for our skills as pilots in the game, no one seemed interested enough to join us.

Compassion and Empathy

Merely creating a brigade was not enough to entice anyone to join. I needed to stand out as a leader and let others see the value of joining. In addition, we trained very hard to become the best we could be and practiced tactics together. Then, my brother and I flew to war, and we just went bananas, destroying ships with the training and flawless execution. Players around us began to notice our skills and effort. Suddenly, we had over 60 applications from many experienced pilots. Since most people wanted to ride the hype and glory, we did not take anyone from that pool.

Instead, we accepted two ships into our brigade who did not know about us. They were still low-level and looking for an intimate community. We were a small motivated group. We eventually grew to a full-sized brigade with a fun and encouraging atmosphere. I remember seeing around 60 ships fly above me. This time, they were part of my brigade, and we were heading someplace to fight together.