Working With Others

During an otherwise low-key weekend, I happened to catch the movie “Coach Carter” on cable. For those of you who have not seen the movie, it is based on the true story of Ken Carter who coached the Richmond CA boy’s basketball team and received both praise and criticism for putting academics above athletics. At various times during the movie Coach Carter (played by Samuel L. Jackson) would ask his players, “What is your deepest fear? They would look at each other in bewilderment about what this crazy coach could be asking. In one poignant scene toward the end of the film, one of his players stands up in study hall and finally answers the Coach’s question:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us¦ Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you… 

This excerpt is a quote of Marianne Williamson. (Apparently this quote has been incorrectly attributed to the inaugural speech of Nelson Mandela.)

This quote really hits home for me. My friend and colleague, Linda Houden says that fear simply stands for “False Evidence Appearing Real. So what false evidence perpetuates our deepest fear “that we are powerful beyond measure?

Perhaps it is the messages that we received as children from parents or relatives that we weren’t good enough, or that we’d never amount to anything. Maybe we had a coach or teacher point out our flaws. (I once had a coach that told me I had deceptive speed , that I was slower than I looked. We actually laughed about this because (a) it was true and (b) I worked hard to compensate for it.) However, I not so sure these disparaging words are the culprit. There are people with whom I grew up and many whom I’ve met since who after hearing these words – did consider them as “false evidence and took an “I’ll show you attitude and made something of themselves.

I think it is something else. It is not fear of failure that plagues us. It is the fear of success. Over the past several years, I have noticed more and more people in organizations , for that matter, in any walk of life , who seemed to be afraid to succeed. They just have not yet seen how competent they really are and what they can accomplish. For some reason, their power scares them. It gets put away, never to show its face again. Perhaps there is a feeling that if their power scares them, it will scare others. What about the possibility of letting our power shine through in a way that helps others play better. As the quote says, “There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.” In reality, each one of us has a gift (or two) that we can put to the greater good of the world. The intensity of the power may scare us , but overcoming that deepest fear can be the best way to make a difference for all.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 1st, 2007 at 11:08 am and is filed under Observations, Work place issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.