The Ultimate Level Of Leadership

Hold on to what you really are to create a work that is a brilliant crowning of an unparalleled destiny.

Writer Mihail Sebastian, a defender of good taste, could have written a study of Proust’s work if the dice had not fallen so tragically. For closing the volume of Correspondence, he says these painful words to us today: “We can only separate ourselves from his books and his memory with the feeling that this separation is fleeting and that one day, not too far away, we will find them again.”

Mihail Sebastian will not find them. But here, in this volume, “Marcel Proust’s correspondence”, we will find Mihail Sebastian in every line in which he naturally relives and with all the valences of the soul the present subtlety of the processes of consciousness, so undulating, with echoes so durable, disturbing, the intellectual and moral climate of the letters of such great Proustian essence.

His focus on letters, their passionate pursuit, was the fruit of a natural inclination, of the conviction that here, in these confessions, in these random, direct notations, will find the elements of reconstruction of the most discussed creation process, that only their interpretation can make the image of a passionate personality whole again in the minds of readers.

Professor Al. Rosetti wrote about Mihail Sebastian: “The sharpness of his critical judgment in the study of Marcel Proust’s correspondence justified the hope that he would become a world-renowned critic. Written in French, the above work would have enjoyed adhesion of an international public. In this intention of Sebastian to overcome the tight circle of readers and to step into the international arena by treating subjects of general interest was a fair appreciation of his own forces. His work was a brilliant preface for a rich future activity.

Do you allow yourself to be enchanted by the vital torment of the life you imagine only as a training for professional victory, without taking into account the degree of spiritual strength that you have to endure under the pressure of an originality whose name is clearly outlined?

Does an intense remorse give you the strength to engage in a self-overcoming? Are you caught by a strong pressure coming from outside your comfort area? Do you seem besieged by an immense desire to rise above yourself? Does what lies hidden in you resurface more and more in the others?

The only remorse of an artist is to not be rewarded with the creative efforts that have changed the coordinates of a certain vision. As a remedy: to direct the attention and the activity of the spirit in another direction, to place pride in its defeat, which would mean losing any motivation to do something. The name of originality that defines an artist, bringing an unusual contribution to his type of activity, can be outlined only by an exceptional career that includes numerous awards and distinctions, by virtue of an immeasurable importance.

The difficult problem of falling in the nothingness, if I can call it that way, appears when man slips towards one of the extremes of "being" and stubbornly denies his individuality. When it seems to him that he has given enough and hasn't received enough. Or the other way around, when he doesn't give enough, but thinks that everything is theirs. These extremes need a different kind of analysis, a quality one in comparison with leadership.

If man is subject to a certain moral, emotional or material pressure that doesn't give him the strength to engage in a self-overcoming, probably this happens because of the circumstances and burdens he comes across in time. But it's due to a certain way of others to react, framing it in a category of the bizarre, because of a profound lack of understanding.

I am of opinion that the thing which fundamentally and undoubtedly influences the thinking of a man who awaits only a little help in order to "be reborn", are the improper reactions in relation with his needs and aspirations.

Can you enter the consciousness of a human being when nothing else can help it feel the motivation of an inspiring vision, provided you keep at bay your disinterest to reaching an ideal?

Entering the consciousness of a human being when nothing else can help it feel the motivation of an inspiring vision is to put yourself in its place and to feel the cause of a spiritual and moral state in the perspective of a path that does not exist. Or it means to pretend to row in the same direction and you’re really in the same boat with someone, without sacrificing comfort over long distances. It means embracing only the idea of success without taking into account the failure of a certain action due to factors that you cannot control.

You can’t get anywhere through discouragement, rejoicing in the interests and pretensions of a petty world centered on the “dog-eat-dog world” principle. Be prepared at all times to recognize the successes of your fellow man as constants in elating their vision, values, approaches and mission. Learn to cultivate exactly the opposite idea of what he was conditioned to believe about himself, about life, about success. Remember that man can create a new life starting with the change of thought and beliefs that block him.

The beliefs that block an artist from affirming himself his are tied to the interpretation of events from which he has more to lose than win, because everything he cherishes most can always be taken away through a premature death.

Beliefs such as “trust no one” or “I have to please everyone” or “if you express what you feel you are vulnerable”, as well as self-imposed limits, are present in any situation where stress and pain takes possession of an artist. His life is like a journey full of bumps and no return, whose destination might be found out much too late. It would say that his destiny is like a work of art: you can only appreciate its true value when he is gone.

Achieving a guiding life ideal neighbors to the idea of ​​contributing to a creative force whose energy is profitable to everyone through the expressiveness of an original thinking that boasts the fact that “he experienced everything he said”.

There is a sort of law of action, change and strife that takes over man's infinite inner world, which can facilitate its entrance in a normal operation rhythm. And this law, with such a simple concept at its base: "Better than being someone else, be yourself", consolidates the idea that the absence of any interior conflicts is the essential condition for acceding to excellence. Of course, the leader and his team bring an essential contribution to this mentality change.

I clearly recall a useful quote in this equation of man, which contains many unknowns: "Nothing happens until the person who feels the impulse doesn't initiate the process."

Leadership isn't based on predefined rules and principles, more likely it uses judgment and understanding ideals of the man behind the rules and principles which govern him in his relationship with the others.

Leadership has to track those fundamentally significant characteristics of man, to perceive his weak and strong points, to classify them according to multiple criteria and finally, to initiate his transformation process, giving him the impulse to engage in a self-overcoming – beneficial to everyone else and to himself.

Do you bring to a common denominator the real elements that can encourage the establishment of extended relationships towards the tendency to be the defender of an artistic destiny that is somewhat unusual?

Everyone admires a good writer, dedicates many moments of meditation to them, and even shares the purpose of their quests. But no one ventured to trample the same existential thresholds. One is to be a writer, another is to want to be a writer, and something else is to write about a writer instead of giving explanations about your life.

What is hidden in yourself can be seen more and more in those people that come to understand you very well. Of course, this is allowed only when the principle: "Who resembles, gathers." is working. Neglecting that raised side of the bridge that keeps together all the elements that are apparently dispersed between yourself and the others, you will never succeed to bring to a common denominator the true elements that can encourage the relationship formation with them.

Does the thought that you must share the faith to succeed palpitate relentlessly in you? While you shake because of anger to this thought, those around you shake because of doubt?

This aspect, worthy of taking into account, represent only a tradition that often hunts society and that doesn't prompt to participation, but to submissal and conformity. Then the consistency of leadership depends on the evolutionary form of the partnership that unites the two foundations with support function, configured according to each one's capacities to "protect" the latter.

So, in this case, the consistency of leadership is more likely internal and psychological, than technic or strategic in nature. It conditions the openness of man towards a new way of being that leads him to accomplishment and fulfillment, thus chasing away that feeling of entrapment, of remorse that limits his thinking and stops his transformation.

To be a defender of an artistic destiny that is somewhat unusual means to fill the cup of a genius mind with the dream of an endless happiness, often called: “Immortality”.

The Ultimate Level Of Leadership is the value of the contribution made to the creation of a great destiny, which, even if it outlines its purpose prematurely, even if it is written only a few times, assumes a long history. Every great artist symbolizes the novel of a history that lives on through memories, love and a respectful admiration for “what once was”.

* Note: Serghi, Cella - On The Spider's Thread of Memory, Polirom Publishing House, 2013.