The Next Commander In Chief of The USA
“Excuses are tools of the incompetent”
Last week was a historical one. For the first time in the history of the United States, an African American by the name of Barack Obama will become the 44th President of the United States.
Even though his race has always been somewhat of a big deal to some, his intellectual capacity has never been questionned. He has the ability to hold intelligent conversations with Nobel laureates and the grace, to captivate the imaginations of millions of people around the globe.
One thing that President Elect Obama never did was make an excuse for why he shouldn’t be the next President of the United States, despite the odds being stacked against him. He used technology to fuel his campaign in a way technology has never been used. He visited the most rural areas in the United States to campaign for voters. He targeted the large number of voters that didn’t show up to vote in the 2004 elections in battle ground states like Florida and urged them to come out and vote. He decided not to use a government program that matches campaign funding because he realized that, as amazing as America is, he was going to need to outspend his opponent to get his message across and it was imperative that no limit was placed on this amount.
The list of things his campaign did is endless. When people are presented with huge obstacles to achieve their dreams they are often quick to make an excuse not to do so.
I have never been one to make excuses. I was always taught that I had to work twice as hard, be twice as smart to be considered half as good. This was instilled in me very early on in life, and so in all of my endeavors I was involved with, I knew that I had no options but to excel with flying colors. This ideology powers my drive to excel constantly. The Obama campaign was fuelled by this philosophy and hence was it was excellently planned and executed. They had no choice BUT to run an excellent and flawless campaign to pull off this victory for the first African American President.
There are so many things one can take away from Barack’s victory, that can be applied to business and I wanted to briefly cover some of these.
1. Branding - Very early on, Barack’s Platform focused on “Change”, health care reform, McCain being the “third bush” and reforming tax codes to help middle class families. He stuck with these main points throughout his platform and never wavered. Not only did he constantly reminded you why voting for McCain wasn’t in the best interest of the country, he constantly bombarded you with his ideologies so you always knew where Obama stood on the issues.
2. Empathy/Identification - This goes with the first point. Barack Obama “knows” what it means to for a family to worry financially. He was born to a teenage mother, abandoned by his father at age 2 and raised in a small apartment by his middle class grandparents. Hence when Obama speaks about struggling, he knows first hand what this means.
3. Trust - You always knew that no matter what happened, Obama would never betray the voters trust. In electing Vice President Elect, Joe Biden, he picked a running mate with tremendous foreign policy experience, that would compliment him in this area where he was somewhat lacking in experience. Conversely, McCain pick of Gov. Sarah Palin shocked many conservatives into voting for Barack. Even though Gov. Sarah Palin’s abilities as a politician are not to be doubted, many felt as though she was not READY to be the Vice President of the United States. They felt as though McCain betrayed them because he simply wanted the popular woman vote so he picked a woman running mate.
There is much more to take away from how Obama accomplished this impressive victory.
What lessons can one take away from Obama’s victory in their day to day business / life in general?
1. Continue to have high aspirations and dreams.
2. Make no excuses for why you can’t be great.
3. Branding is important. You must do everything you can to protect your brand at all times because you are not ubiquitous, whilst your brand can be. Your brand can speak on your behalf when you are unable to do so.
Congratulations to the Barack Obama Campaign!
Photos Credit: (STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images) , (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)