CHAPTER 3: THE GREEN LANTERN: THE WILL AND THE WAY

In 1960, at the dawn of the Silver Age of Comics, DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz set out to revise and update one of his childhood favorites, a superhero named the Green Lantern. In doing so, Schwartz helped usher in the Second Age of Superheroes.

WHO IS THE GREEN LANTERN?

In the DC universe, the Green Lantern is one of 7,200 space patrolmen who make up the fabled Green Lantern Corps. Each patrolman guards a particular sector of space against evil and injustice, answering only to the omniscient race of blue-skinned aliens dubbed the Guardians of the Universe. The Lanterns are armed with their quick wit, courage, and an invincible weapon of justice called a "power ring."

This ring, powered by the wearer's willpower, can manifest its owner's imagination. With it, the bearer of the ring (often called a "Ringslinger" can fly, turn invisible and/or immaterial, be telepathic, understand any language, shoot force beams, transmute matter, and even create hard-light holograms in any shape or form (such as giant green boxing gloves, shovels, and teddy bears). Truth be told, the ring can pretty much do anything, subject to three limitations:

• It has difficulty affecting anything colored yellow (due to an impurity in the central power battery that was later overcome).
• It can hold only a limited amount of energy and thus typically needs to be recharged at a "power battery" every twenty-four hours.
• It is only as strong as its possessor's willpower.

It is this last point that truly speaks to the essence of the Green Lantern. To join the Green Lantern Corps, one need only be fearless and possess an incredibly strong will. Personal backgrounds are irrelevant. In fact, the corps is an interstellar mosaic made up of an almost infinitely assorted menagerie of sentient beings, making it a bastion of diversity.

WHY DOES THE GREEN LANTERN MATTER?

For me, the Green Lantern has always shown that with wisdom (knowing what needs to be done) and willpower (the dedication one needs to do what is needed), altering reality is possible.

This isn't just a comic book fantasy—athletes around the world have testified to the power of visualization. Michael Jordan saw his shot before he took it. Wayne Gretzky saw the winning goal before the puck left his stick. Carl Lewis imagined breaking the 100-meter world record long before he crossed the finish line. These athletes claim that by visualizing the outcome they desire they are actually able to increase the probability of its occurrence, thus providing compelling evidence in support of the power of visualization.

Similarly, the power of visualizatio was also a cornerstone of Nike cofounder Bill Bowerman's success. In both his career as the head coach of University of Oregon's track team and at Nike, Bowerman knew the power of visualization—a technique he passed on to his athletes and managers. Did it work? Oregon's track and field team had twenty-three winning seasons in the twenty-four years he was head coach, and the team went on to win four National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) titles. Bowerman achieved similar excellence in the corporate world: By 1980, sixteen years after it was founded, Nike had more than 50 percent of the market share in athletic shoes, proving the power of visualization in business.

In her 2006 bestseller The Secret, Rhonda Byrne dubbed this theory the "Law of Attraction." Well, this theory is not a revolutionary one—the idea that positive thoughts can produce positive outcomes dates back thousands of years. Buddha stated, "All that we are is the result of what we have thought." Furthermore, several contemporary thinkers believe that this may be more than a simple platitude and may actually have scientific basis in the principles that underlie quantum physics. All evidence aside, there is much commonsense merit in visualizing your desired outcome before pursuing it. After all, if you can't believe it, how can you possibly be prepared to receive it?

The other aspect of the Green Lantern that has always fascinated me is the fact that each member of the corps had to be fearless. As a child, I thought that meant that my heroes were actually immune to anxiety and trepidation. But today, the stories of these Emerald Warriors have shown me that fearlessness is in fact a more nuanced emotion than I had originally believed—one best described by paraphrasing Ambrose Redmoon: To be fearless is not to be without fear; it is to understand fear, to know fear, and to continue on in spite of and in the face of what you fear.

Everyone fears something. Some fears, like claustrophobia (the fear of being unable to escape a confining situation), are seemingly irrational and may be the result of childhood trauma or neurosis. These sorts of fears are better left to the therapist. I want to deal with the other type of fear—the fear that prevents you from pursuing tasks you know you should, like speaking up at a meeting, asking for a raise, or agreeing to lead your team.

Let me be clear on this. In my mind at least, there is nothing wrong with being afraid, but there is everything wrong with letting that fear prevent you from pursuing what you know is right. Fear has its place (it prevents us from courting danger recklessly), but you have to decide how much control over your actions you want that fear to have. Nvidia's founder Jen-Hsun Huang knew fear would be at the heart of his now globally dominant computer chip-making company. Huang claims that his fear of letting others down fueled his focus and was crucial to his successful creation of the $5 billion company. Indeed, Huang knows something about fear: Upon immigration to the United States when he was ten years old, Huang's family decided to enroll the boy in a prep school; they unintentionally enrolled him in a reform school for juvenile delinquents, instead. It was there that Huang learned to "overcome great fear."

Oprah Winfrey, my sister's favority Business Superhero, also learned early on that overcoming fear was a key component to success. Oprah, who is consistently voted one of the most powerful women in America, learned to reject fear. She espouses that the "true test of courage is to be afraid and to go ahead and do it anyway."

SUPERHERO EXERCISE

Preparing for Battle against Fear

Use the example of the Green Lantern (or Oprah) to know and overcome your fear by undertaking the following exercise. Make four lists, one for each of the following:

• Ambition. What is it that you want to do to fulfill your goals?
• Internal obstacle. What fear prevents you from meeting your goals?
• Origins. Where does your fear originate?
• Strategies. How else, other than facing it head on, can you overcome your fear? What resources would you need?

Take the time to look at the relationships among the items on your lists to see which fears hinder a number of your goals or which might have common solutions. Remember that the object is not to eliminate the fear but to eliminate its power over your ability to act in the pursuit of your goals and ideals.

And when in doubt, ask yourself, What would the Green Lantern do?

Lesson: Wisdom + Willpower = Results

Everyone wants a better life, world, and/or job. Few know how to get what they desire. The Green Lantern teaches us that to shape your reality, you need two things:

• Wisdom. Knowing what you need to do
• Willpower. Having the courage to do what is needed

Let's say you want to lose weight.

• You need the wisdom to understand that you lose weight when the calories you burn exceed the calories you take in. Thus realize that you must either lower your calorie intake (by cutting out sweets, for example) or increase the calories you burn (such as by exercising more).
• You need the willpower to follow through, each and every day, exercising regularly and monitoring your calories. Have the courage to stick to your plan, even though it is hard.

As you can see, being wise enough to know what to do is not enough—you need to have the willpower to pursue your plan and the dedication to keep at it. This is true whether you want to be promoted, to obtain a capital infusion for your business' growth, or to lose your beer belly.

Lesson: Remember to Recharge Your Battery

The Green Lantern shows us that even the most powerful tool in the universe has its limits. The same is true with your most powerful personal tool, your brain. No matter who you are, or what you do, everyone needs downtime.

For some this can be a simple nap, whereas for others it can be a weekend at the cottage. Regardless of what it is for you, you need to schedule regular breaks from your duties, or you risk running out of power when you need it most.

Seems like a simple lesson, yes? Yet many high-performing executives routinely suffer from burnout, the epitome of running out of energy. How is that these people, who have demonstrated remarkable proficiency at managing corporate resources, should have such difficulty monitoring and managing their own personal resources?

Among the high-performing CEOs I've had the pleasure to work with, this issue is a real one. However, there really is no excuse for it. After all, what is the point of winning the battle while losing the war? Yet, time and time again, I see many exhausted business superstars. When I discuss with them the need for balance, almost every single one responds with the same reasoning: "I'm too busy to rest" or "I've got way too much to take care of." My simple, yet effective, response to this has always been: "Isn't that like saying 'I'm too busy driving to get gas'?"

Lesson: Everyone Has a Boss

Bob Dylan said it best: "You're gonna have to serve somebody." All Green Lanterns report to the blue-hued immortal Guardians of the Universe, so even while the individual patrolmen have virtual autonomy, in the end they each have a boss to report to.

The same is true in business. CEOs report to the board of directors, entreprenuers report to their clients, and so on. Therefore, you need to understand your bosses' own goals or motivations before you undertake their mission. So every hero (business or super) needs to know four things:

• Who is your true boss?
• What is her or her end goal?
• How does he or she achieve that goal?
• What does your boss need you to do to further his or her goal?

Try keeping these points in mind, or risk exposing yourself to the wrath of your "true boss."

THE GREEN LANTERN OF THE REAL WORLD

To me, Richard Branson is the Green Lantern of our world. Here is a man who, through the sheer force of his will, created an empire. He dropped out of school at an early age and began shaping his world through business: first through the magazine Student, then through Virgin Records, followed by Virgin Atlantic. His creations now include more than 200 companies operating under the Virgin brand.

On the subject of fearlessness, he is equally qualified, having traversed both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans in a hot-air balloon. These trips almost cost him his life on several occasions, yet he did not stop until he finished what he started.

On the issue of Branson's willpower, we can turn to William Whitehorn. The current president of Virgin Galactic (Branson's venture into commercial space travel) said it best about Branson: "When the chips are really down, his determination grows exponentially."

This chapter is from a preview copy and is subject to change.