text post from 11 years ago

The Value of Opening Up

In a recent profile of Mitt Romney, the New Yorker uncovers an exchange had between him and Clayton Christensen. At the time, Clay was trying to get Mitt to open up, to talk about himself, his talents and his limitations. Given their shared faith, Clay leaned on the story of the Prophet Moses from the Old Testament: 

“God spoke to the guy: ‘I want you to lead Israel out of Egypt.’ He tried over and over. Nothing worked. Finally, it worked. The Red Sea parted. Up to that point, you would have had a Plan B and a Plan C. Here there was no backup plan, ladies and gentlemen. Sure enough, God parted the Red Sea.

“So then, on the other side, Moses had no experience in management. His father-in-law shows up, and says, ‘Moses, you’re a horrible manager. Ever heard the word “delegation”? Can you do this, Moses?’ And Moses had never been responsible for the supply chain in any industry, but now we have run out of water. So he banged the rock and out comes water. Then he goes to Mt. Sinai. He gets the instructions, he sees what the people are doing, and he’s so mad. They can’t handle anything beyond the elevator pitch for God. So then Moses told everything about himself. Mitt, look at the impact his openness had on Israel! Most of the other prophets, you had no idea what their life was like. All the other prophets aren’t in the psyche of Israel. Why?”

I love this. 

For all his short comings, for all of his reasons to fail Moses could have shrunk. Could have hid behind a facade of knowing.

Instead he opened up. He invited the people of Israel in to see who he really was. A skill rarely seen before or since in his line of work. 

And for that openness he’s beloved, studied and recited. Emblazoned in the minds and hearts of a people.

Regardless of your politics or your faith there’s a vital lesson for us all in this. Drop the facade, open up and let others in to see who you really are. 

It’s likely they’ll also see who you have the potential to become.