Doug Cartland's Four-Minute Leadership Advisory
Doug Cartland, Inc.09/13/2011
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Have you ever heard of a guy named Glenn Cunningham? Yeah, I didn't think so. I hadn't either.

 

It bothers me when people who do extraordinary things slip into the pall of history. People know about them for a while and then they're gone.

 

At first blush, this may not seem to be leadership pertinent, but it is. It prods us to recognize and remember those who work for us; to give them their due and not forget or neglect their contributions to our lives, businesses and careers...especially the obscure ones who don't get recognition as a matter of course. History may not remember them, but we should.

 

I was quite a sports fan growing up in the 1960s, poring over sports pages every morning, reading a number of sports books and having a subscription to Sports Illustrated. I remember one book given to me by my uncle called, Greatest Athletes of the Twentieth Century. But in none of those headlines, articles or books was there any story about Glenn Cunningham...

 

I'm reading an amazing book right now entitled Unbroken, a masterful bit of writing by Laura Hillenbrand, who also wrote Seabiscuit. This woman can trill a pen! Glenn Cunningham is not the central character of her story. He was an inspiration to the main character of the book, mentioned only briefly. But here he is nonetheless...

 

When Glenn Cunningham was very young, in the early 1920s he was caught in an explosion at a schoolhouse that killed his brother and left Glenn with severe burns all up and down his legs and torso.

 

It took six weeks before he could even sit up and longer still for him to stand. He couldn't straighten his legs, though, so he learned to push himself around by leaning on a chair with his legs dangling and dragging.

 

Ultimately he began to learn to walk again by holding onto the tail of the family mule and being led about, albeit haltingly at first. As he slowly gained a little stamina, he graduated to a patient horse named Paint. Glenn began to relearn to run gripping Paint's tail. It was excruciatingly painful at first.

 

Within a few months Glenn was running alone...and within a few years he was racing.

 

Not only did he race, but he eventually set records in the mile run. As Hillenbrand wrote he was, "obliterating opponents by the length of a homestretch."

 

She continued, "By 1932, the modest, mild-tempered Cunningham, whose legs and back were covered in a twisting mesh of scars, was becoming a national sensation, soon to be acclaimed as the greatest miler in American history."

 

Really.

 

Do you know Glenn Cunningham now? It's too bad people fade and the impact of their example gets lost. It doesn't do them justice, but, I suppose, it can't be helped. We have only so much space in our heads and only so many stories can be written for time immemorial.

 

But, leaders, we can do justice to those living now. Give attention to the obscure and recognize the unseen. Their excellent efforts should be applauded and their example should be trumpeted.

 

Let's not so quickly usher their deeds to the dustbin of history, but use them as a lamp to light the way for ourselves and others.

 

As Laura Hillenbrand resurrected Glenn Cunningham for us, you do the same. 

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Doug

 

Doug Cartland, President
Doug Cartland, Inc.

 

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