YR Speech ...
Tonight, I'm planning to deliver this speech to the Arlington/Falls Church YR's:
The great Athenian orator, Demosthenes, was asked what made for a great speech, and he said three things: "action, action, and action." With that in mind, my talk tonight has to do with some general advice and action items for young future Republican leaders -- which is exactly who you are. First, I have three general pieces of advice, then I'm going to end with three things we can do specifically after the November 7 elections:
1. Associate with people at the top of their game. The way to learn the most is to associate with successful people. I have intentionally sought out the best people. Sometimes it has meant developing a mentor/protegee relationship. I'm found that it is remarkably easy to meet any political leader you want for advice over, say, breakfast. Like anything else, the hard part is getting up the courage to ask. Other times it has meant working with them in a consultant capacity. And sometimes it has meant taking a step back in salary or stature, in order to sort of learn at the knee of the master. It is almost always worth the investment.
2. Establish good habits - A wise man once said that men don't pick their futures, they pick their habits and their habits determine their future. What are your habits? Reading good books is a good habit. Working out is a good habit. Volunteering is a good habit. Your habits determine how you spend your time. On a campaign, time is the most important element. But it's not just true in politics -- it's true in life. Every one of us in this room should guard our time. I urge you to begin paying attention to how you are spending your time because that will ultimately tell me what you really care about and how far you will go.
3. Stay on top of technology - It has gotten much easier to get your message out effectively and cheaply using technology. I published my book, Teaching Elephants to talk and now people can go to my website -- or Amazon.com -- and purchase it. I have an email list and a blog. All these things are very inexpensive -- and every activist and leader can do this. On a campaign, we are seeing things like MySpace and YouTube make a big difference. For example, I predict every presidential campaign will emply a full-time blogger. Every one of us should be familiar with this technology.
Now, with two weeks to go until Election Day, I simply must say something about the upcoming elections. I am not one of those timid souls who wants to throw up our hands and surrender.
But I also think that, no matter what happens on November 7, Republicans need to reevaluate ourselves -- so that this doesn't happen again. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away.
Now, normally, when I have done speeches such as this, my focus has been to talk about political strategy and tactics -- not ideas. My reason was simple, when I got involved in politics, Republicans had, for years, been great at churning out intellectual ideas. But they had been lousy at selling those ideas. From a career perspective, I picked a niche that needed to be filled (I also happened to be very passionate about it). My goal was to find people who were philosophically sound (in terms of our Republican values), but needed to become more technologically proficient.
But the challenges that conftont us today are very different than they were a few years ago. To every thing there is a season. Thanks to the hard work of a lot of groups and leaders, Republicans are now reasonably adept at getting our message out and running good polical campaigns. The trouble is we have been much more successful at marketing our candidates than we have been at marketing our ideas. In short, we've been better at winning elections than at winning the argument.
This should not come as a surprise to us today. As recent events have unfolded, it has become obvious that too many of our leaders lack a philosophical lodestar.
In some cases, I believe this is a result of having been seduced by power. But more often than not, too many of our Republican leaders were never really deeply-rooted in their beliefs, to begin with. With that in mind, I have come up with a few thoughts on what you and I can do between November 8 and the New Year to make sure that we face 2007 in better shape than we are today. I'm not naive enough to think that our actions will change things for everybody, but I do think that this is something those of us here tonight can pledge to do as one small step for Republicans. I have three things that I want to recommend for us between now and New Year's day:
1. News-fast. I'm reading a very good book right now called The Artist's Way. This book was written by Julia Cameron (the ex-wife of Martin Scorsese) and the purpose of the book is to help people recover and overcome writers block. It's a twelve-week course that involves reading and doing some exercises. One of the exercises involves going a week without reading. According to Cameron, this is the one challenge that evokes the most anger. But she believes that part of recovering a new creative perspective requires going through this reading-fast. For a week, please join me in not watching or reading the news.
2. Read About Ideas. My first thought is that we must recommit ourselves to ideas and philosophy of the past. Let us commit oursleves starting November 8 to read those think intellectual books that are sitting on our shelves. Russell Kirk, and Richard Weaver -- for those of us who are conservative -- are the wholesome Sunday dinner greatly needed for a world snacking on Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity books. Too many of us have been living off "fast-food philosophy." It's time to recommit ourselves to going back to school, so to speak, and refresh our minds and souls with ideas.
3. Put it in Writing. Write a personal statement of political philosophy and values and personal goals. I intentionally put this one third because I think that after reflecting on the ideas of the past, and after sort of freeing your minds through this news fast, you and I will see things more clearly. Think about what things government can do to make things better (in many cases it involves government getting out of certain areas) and commit it to paper. By putting your ideas on paper, you will be more likely to stick to them. Lastly, write our your five goals for the New Year. Studies show that people who have written goals are more likely to achieve them.
I believe that if you and I follow this advice, we will grow as leaders and our community will benefit, as well. Thank you.
The great Athenian orator, Demosthenes, was asked what made for a great speech, and he said three things: "action, action, and action." With that in mind, my talk tonight has to do with some general advice and action items for young future Republican leaders -- which is exactly who you are. First, I have three general pieces of advice, then I'm going to end with three things we can do specifically after the November 7 elections:
1. Associate with people at the top of their game. The way to learn the most is to associate with successful people. I have intentionally sought out the best people. Sometimes it has meant developing a mentor/protegee relationship. I'm found that it is remarkably easy to meet any political leader you want for advice over, say, breakfast. Like anything else, the hard part is getting up the courage to ask. Other times it has meant working with them in a consultant capacity. And sometimes it has meant taking a step back in salary or stature, in order to sort of learn at the knee of the master. It is almost always worth the investment.
2. Establish good habits - A wise man once said that men don't pick their futures, they pick their habits and their habits determine their future. What are your habits? Reading good books is a good habit. Working out is a good habit. Volunteering is a good habit. Your habits determine how you spend your time. On a campaign, time is the most important element. But it's not just true in politics -- it's true in life. Every one of us in this room should guard our time. I urge you to begin paying attention to how you are spending your time because that will ultimately tell me what you really care about and how far you will go.
3. Stay on top of technology - It has gotten much easier to get your message out effectively and cheaply using technology. I published my book, Teaching Elephants to talk and now people can go to my website -- or Amazon.com -- and purchase it. I have an email list and a blog. All these things are very inexpensive -- and every activist and leader can do this. On a campaign, we are seeing things like MySpace and YouTube make a big difference. For example, I predict every presidential campaign will emply a full-time blogger. Every one of us should be familiar with this technology.
Now, with two weeks to go until Election Day, I simply must say something about the upcoming elections. I am not one of those timid souls who wants to throw up our hands and surrender.
But I also think that, no matter what happens on November 7, Republicans need to reevaluate ourselves -- so that this doesn't happen again. Ignoring the problem won't make it go away.
Now, normally, when I have done speeches such as this, my focus has been to talk about political strategy and tactics -- not ideas. My reason was simple, when I got involved in politics, Republicans had, for years, been great at churning out intellectual ideas. But they had been lousy at selling those ideas. From a career perspective, I picked a niche that needed to be filled (I also happened to be very passionate about it). My goal was to find people who were philosophically sound (in terms of our Republican values), but needed to become more technologically proficient.
But the challenges that conftont us today are very different than they were a few years ago. To every thing there is a season. Thanks to the hard work of a lot of groups and leaders, Republicans are now reasonably adept at getting our message out and running good polical campaigns. The trouble is we have been much more successful at marketing our candidates than we have been at marketing our ideas. In short, we've been better at winning elections than at winning the argument.
This should not come as a surprise to us today. As recent events have unfolded, it has become obvious that too many of our leaders lack a philosophical lodestar.
In some cases, I believe this is a result of having been seduced by power. But more often than not, too many of our Republican leaders were never really deeply-rooted in their beliefs, to begin with. With that in mind, I have come up with a few thoughts on what you and I can do between November 8 and the New Year to make sure that we face 2007 in better shape than we are today. I'm not naive enough to think that our actions will change things for everybody, but I do think that this is something those of us here tonight can pledge to do as one small step for Republicans. I have three things that I want to recommend for us between now and New Year's day:
1. News-fast. I'm reading a very good book right now called The Artist's Way. This book was written by Julia Cameron (the ex-wife of Martin Scorsese) and the purpose of the book is to help people recover and overcome writers block. It's a twelve-week course that involves reading and doing some exercises. One of the exercises involves going a week without reading. According to Cameron, this is the one challenge that evokes the most anger. But she believes that part of recovering a new creative perspective requires going through this reading-fast. For a week, please join me in not watching or reading the news.
2. Read About Ideas. My first thought is that we must recommit ourselves to ideas and philosophy of the past. Let us commit oursleves starting November 8 to read those think intellectual books that are sitting on our shelves. Russell Kirk, and Richard Weaver -- for those of us who are conservative -- are the wholesome Sunday dinner greatly needed for a world snacking on Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity books. Too many of us have been living off "fast-food philosophy." It's time to recommit ourselves to going back to school, so to speak, and refresh our minds and souls with ideas.
3. Put it in Writing. Write a personal statement of political philosophy and values and personal goals. I intentionally put this one third because I think that after reflecting on the ideas of the past, and after sort of freeing your minds through this news fast, you and I will see things more clearly. Think about what things government can do to make things better (in many cases it involves government getting out of certain areas) and commit it to paper. By putting your ideas on paper, you will be more likely to stick to them. Lastly, write our your five goals for the New Year. Studies show that people who have written goals are more likely to achieve them.
I believe that if you and I follow this advice, we will grow as leaders and our community will benefit, as well. Thank you.
posted by Matt Lewis at 8:15 AM
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