The show got this big group of kids and then brought in 4 of their peers to be their “leaders”. The oldest leader being 14 and the youngest being 10 which adds a really interesting dynamic to the show. How many 10 year olds do you know that are capable of leading 40 other kids their age? Not many.

I’m really interested to see where the show goes and how some of these kids react to certain situations. I think we can all see a bit of ourselves in these kids. One of the leaders, Mike, was talking about how he’s such a great leader when it turns out he was just telling people what to do, one of the bigger kids sort of called him out on it and he got ticked. It’s your classic middle manager with an inferiority complex and the whole ‘my way is right b/c I’m in charge’ mentality but you can’t expect a kid to know that. I’m sure all of our parents saw the same sort of idiotic tendencies that even I”m able to see in some of these kids.

It reminded me of an article I read this morning about leadership which states that leadership is about influence and not control. It’s a very true statement that is often confused by inexperienced leaders but also portrayed in accidental leaders. The article goes on and states

I often hear leaders, particularly younger ones, complaining about their lack of control in various situations. “If only the sales department reported to me, I could consistently hit my budget,” they lament. Or, “If the production department reported to me, I would not have run out of inventory!”

What they are really saying is, “If I could control these people, I could guarantee the results.” The truth is that control is an illusion. You can’t control anyone, even the people that report to you.

However, while you can’t control anyone (except perhaps yourself), you can influence nearly everyone. This is the essence of true leadership. By this definition, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King were great leaders. They had control of virtually no one, yet their influence changed the course of history.

Aspiring leaders would do well to stop focusing on control and figure out how to expand their influence.

It’s a really good concept and anyone looking to understand the nature of leadership (which we all should) needs to understand this concept of influence rather than control. It goes a long perfectly and even defines the saying “attitude reflects leadership.” Just thinking about someone you know who is a leader, I would bet a large percentage of them are positive thinkers and hold strong convictions with what they believe. That’s infectious, that’s a good leader.

The author nails his examples of great leaders, but even the characteristics of bad people who happen to be great leaders fall in line with some of the greatest people in history. Hitler, David Corresh, and Napoleon all share similar leadership characteristics of Jesus, MLK and Ghandi albeit with entirely different motives.

I think anyone can be a leader if they want to be, it just takes a simple understanding of leadership and human behavior.

*this post has nothing to do with Scoogles, but I figured you’d read it looking for a connection

Well, there was this recent BBC report that Man vs Wild is staged and Bear isn’t a real survivorman. The report says that Bear is basically a sissy who let the production company do all the work why he was chillin’ in a hotel. Apparently, Man vs Wild was picked up by a BBC channel whose viewers are upset about being misled that Bear’s adventures weren’t unaided.

Channel 4 is to investigate a claim that it misled viewers in a survival series, in the latest allegation of reality being manipulated on a TV show.

First off, I just have to laugh. Leave it to the Brits to get teed off about something like this. First off Bear has a camera crew with him, how can anyone think that he has zero interaction with them? Secondly, no one says that he does things exactly how you should do them, most of the time he is putting himself in extreme situations so that if you happen to find yourself in a similar situation, you may not freak out as bad. If you want to know exactly what to do, get a Boy Scout’s Field Guide. Thirdly, he may have had helped building things or finding his way but I don’t see any help for him when he’s swimming in the glacier water or jumping off rock clifffs. He’s got no chef chocolate coating the bugs he eats or purifying the dung-water he drinks.

Its an entertaining show but apparently some people can’t determine the difference between reality and Reality-Tv!

This comes as a huge relief to my DVR which has complained to me numerous times about the crap on TV and the constant reruns.

Welcome back Bear!

On another note, does anyone else watch ABC’s Traveler? Its damn good.

In other news, I just want to rant about the shitass coverage CBS gave us of the 2007 Masters. Last year CBS went with the 56 minutes of golf and 4 minutes of commercials each hour but apparently they tried to make up for it this year and ran a commercial every other shot. As I was sitting with my bro and pops on Sunday, at one point the series went one shot, commercial, one shot, commercial, commentary and scores, commercial. It wasn’t just the commercials, it was the terrible camera angles and inconsistent player coverage that was driving me up the wall. But the biggest pain in my ass was the fact that they only had coverage from 330-end of each round. What happened to all the early morning coverage? I remember laying around with my roommates from 10am to 7pm with a 1hr break around 2.

I was really disappointed in the terrible coverage of the whole 2007 Masters. I hope they fix it for 2008 Masters

Contestants answer questions from a 1-5th grade level on a variety of subjects from math and science to geography and grammer. Its funny to see people struggling with some of the questions especially a lawyer who graduated from UCLA not get any questions right on his own.

Think YOU are smarter than a 5th grader? Here are some sample questions, post your answers in the comments below for grading. (No Googling!)

1. What country has the longest border with the US?

2. The area of a triangle is 16, its’ base is 8, what is its’ heigh?

3. Who was the first US President to get impeached?

4. True or False, Polar Bears feed on Penguins?

5. Mt Rushmore is located in what state?

6. What are the names of the five Great Lakes?

7. What are the colors of a rainbow?

8. What is the largest South American Country by Land mass?

9. Columbus Day is in what month?

10. A heptagon is a shape with how many sides?

Looking forward to your visit.

[HGTV's Dream Home Contest]

And then when the stirring new prime time drama debuts, it tanks. Gets whipped in the ratings by some cheap, fluffy excrement on another channel. Network execs freak out. People get fired. Show gets canned. Critics claim that America wasn’t ready for something so edgy, so unusual, so real.

Smith the CBS drama about some high stakes theives starring everyone’s favorite bad guy Ray Liotta has been cancelled after 3 episodes. I don’t know if this means they will be showing the remainder of the shows they have taped or if they will just show reruns of CSI but either way I am not happy. Apparently me and 8.4 million are as well but CBS doesn’t care.

Smith comes on Tuesday nights after The Unit (starring the AllState guy), another show which I am a big fan of, and I thought Smith’s would be a perfect fit seeing as they probably capture the same demographic. But seeing as how Smith has failed I’m wondering how long it will be until they take Mr Hayesbert off the air as well? I guess the frugle, 27 year old beer drinking demographic isn’t doing it for CBS, or could it be they gave it the most boring name in TV history? hmmmm