The Penalty of Leadership

I saw this in a textbook I read recently, Introduction to Mass Communication by Stanley J. Baran and I thought it’d be nice to share with you. It’s a 1915 Cadillac Motor Car Company Image Advert.

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be severely left alone- if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues wagging.

Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done… The leader is assailed (attacked) because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely a proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy- but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant (displace or usurp). There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions- envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains- the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial, that which deserves to live- lives.

©The Cadillac Motor Car Company 1915

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