Of Humility

“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”

― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

There have been many great leaders and rulers in the history of the World. There have also been many poor ones as well. Many times, the division of what makes a good or bad leader can come down to how humble they are. In ancient scriptures, the prideful were always eventually destroyed. When finding oneself in a leadership role with some power at hand, it is important to ask, how will I use this power? There are pretty much just two options: with or without humility.

Back in high school, I participated on a flag football team. I had never played football before on any sort of team, but I had great speed at the time and was one of the more athletic players since I grew up playing sports my whole life. My team ended up appointing me as the team captain. I did not see that coming at all, and I didn't know how to really go about it at first. As we went along, I felt both extremes of humility and pride. There would be times were I felt our team needed to be pushed, so I would use anger and frustration as driving forces to push our players when they didn't do their part. Other times, I felt encouragement and friendship were more important to building chemistry.

Montaigne's approach in Renaissance-style essays would always look at multiple sides of an issue. In this example, I felt both ways contributed to success and failure. Some players need to be yelled at and pushed to limits, while others need words of encouragement. We were able to get to the Championship game, but unfortunately lost. I reflected on this experience a lot, and after finding this quote by Montaigne, it really solidified the ideas of power and humility in my mind. It’s ok to realize you have power, and that you are able to use that power, but we always have to remember to bring ourselves back down to Earth and know we are just as human as anyone else.