DISCOVERING LESSONS
FROM 1492
THAT COULD STILL
CHANGE THE WORLD TODAY
Goodbye Columbus? Today we’re commemorating -- and maybe celebrating
-- the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the New World.
 |
| Hello ... Columbus? Even the image we have of Chris may be inaccurate, unless it’s this one, a detail from the painting Virgin of the Navigators, done by Alejo Fernández (1475 -1545) between 1505 and 1536. The state-sponsored painting was commissioned for a chapel in Seville's Casa de Contratación (House of Trade) and remains there to this day, as the earliest known painting about the discovery of the Americas. |
But why? These days we know
that much of the simplistic “everyone thought the world was flat” stuff we
learned in Grammar School about “The Admiral of the Ocean Sea” is far from
historically authentic.
These days we recognize there’s a lot more to the story.
· Christopher
Columbus didn’t actually accomplish what he intended (reach China and India by
sailing West from Europe).
· In
4 voyages he barely touched the continental landmass (and never North America).
· It
took a long time to realize that. (His refusal to accept that the lands he had
visited and claimed for Spain were not part of Asia might explain, in part, why
the American continent was named after the Florentine explorer Amerigo Vespucci
and not after Columbus.)
· He
did some hard-to-justify things to the locals as well as crew members and
individuals who represented him.
· He
wasn’t exactly a master of team management, modern style. Almost immediately he
faced mutinies and folks conspiring to undermine his royal relationships.
· He
certainly didn’t produce the ROI his underwriters expected on his initial
voyages.
· And
more. Much, much more.
Still …
Chris was a persistent guy, no doubt. And he did do what no one before him had knowingly done. (In the 11th Century Leif Ericson and those “northern” sailors who stumbled on the “New World” were just kinda knocking around the neighborhood and weren’t on an all-out quest to get to the East by sailing West.)
Chris was a persistent guy, no doubt. And he did do what no one before him had knowingly done. (In the 11th Century Leif Ericson and those “northern” sailors who stumbled on the “New World” were just kinda knocking around the neighborhood and weren’t on an all-out quest to get to the East by sailing West.)
When
all is said and done –
Quirky Christopher Columbus
changed the world’s perception of,
well,
THE WORLD!
TGIM ACTION IDEA: Not many folks do
that. So on this 2012 Columbus Day, let’s quit knocking the guy long enough to see
what we can find to emulate.
TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: To start the
process, here are some thoughts grounded in historic Columbus-circa-1492 precedent
that we can all apply, even in this modern age:
►Think big. CC wasn’t just a guy
with crazy ideas; he was a persistent, quirky guy with the courage of his
convictions and the intent of executing his ideas at a grand scale. He had a
plan. And when he presented it, he backed it up with convincing evidence. And,
in the aggregate, he executed the key parts of his plan successfully.
►Connect with the right people. And persist. Ferdinand and Isabella
weren’t the first monarchs that Columbus asked for support. He pitched his plan
to many including Henry VII of England, Charles VIII of France, John II of
Portugal, and twice to Ferdinand II & Isabella I, Monarchs of Aragon,
Castile, and Leon in Spain, before they were convinced. It took him years, but he
finally got royal backing for his endeavors.
►Play the game. He told the powers
that be what they wanted to hear in order to get the job done. In addition to
the enticement of a fast-track to the riches of the East, he had a strong,
lets-go-convert-the-heathen-natives pitch that appealed to the Catholic
monarchs of Spain.
►Provide value. Know what you’re
bringing to the negotiation. Columbus was convincing enough that the monarchs
gave him an allowance, and gave him a letter ordering all cities and towns
under their domain to provide him food and lodging at no cost. They didn’t want
him to go elsewhere with his ideas.
►Know your value. Ferdinand &
Isabella promised Columbus that, if he succeeded, he would be given the rank of
Admiral of the Ocean Sea and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new
lands he could claim for Spain. He would be entitled to 10% of all the revenues
from the New Lands in perpetuity. In addition he would also have the option of
buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the New Lands and
receive one-eighth of the profits. And he also had the right to nominate three
persons (from whom the sovereigns would choose one) for any office in the New Lands.
► Concentrate on your strengths. Hire
the skills you need. CC was NOT first and foremost a mariner. He began his
career path in 1473 as a business agent. So he hired sailors and experienced
sea captains. He ran the expedition and navigated as an executive, not the guy
hoisting sails and steering.
►Communicate with confidence. Columbus knew he
would be commanding a team that spoke different languages. In order to
communicate well, he spoke the language of his people. Although his first
language was a rough Genoese dialect of Lingurian, he was ambitious enough to
learn Latin, Portuguese, and Castilian.
►Chart your own course with confidence. A self-educated,
independent thinker, Columbus had the courage of his convictions. On his first
voyage this helped him successfully return to Spain. Instead of going back the
way they came, he used his knowledge of Trade Winds going East (the
“Easterlies”) which convinced him to sail Northeast to the middle latitudes to
catch the “Westerlies,” thereby avoiding putting unnecessary strain on his ships
and crew.
►Share your special
knowledge.
When in 1503, his crew was beached for a year in Jamaica, the natives helped
get water and food. That relationship kept them alive. Columbus balanced the
equation by predicting a lunar eclipse, thus impressing the natives with his
unique talent. Street cred, baby.
►Stay alert for unexpected opportunities. When Columbus met
the New World natives and noted how fast they were learning the language his
crew spoke, he wrote, "I believe that people from the mainland come here
to take them as slaves. They ought to make good and skilled servants, for they
repeat very quickly whatever we say to them."
►Build your brand. All in all, despite being vilified and imprisoned by his sponsors between
his third and fourth voyages, Chris and his family (brothers and children)
remained prominent and somewhat recognized for their accomplishments in their
day.
And,
hey! Five centuries+ later, it’s Christopher Columbus --
not name-on-a-map Amerigo Vespucci -- who reigns in the history books and has
monuments and holidays and cities and countries around the New World named for
him.
TGIM Takeaway: The world is not flat. There’s always something new to discover for
those who make the effort. And even a deeply flawed man like Christopher
Columbus has life lessons to teach us.
Smooth
sailing to you this Columbus Day -- and in all the days ahead.
Geoff
Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing
8
Depot Square
Englewood,
NJ 07631
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com
201-569-5373
tgimguy@gmail.com
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