What does it take to be a world leader? Courage? Compassion? Vision? Integrity? All of the above is the honest answer.

There’s also dedication, empathy, sacrifice, and lots of good, old-fashioned work. There are hard decisions to make, and difficult times to endure, but the reward of serving humanity carries its own assuring weight.

Ever since I was little, I aspired to be like that, to help the world in some meaningful way. That’s why I’ve always loved this line from a beautiful song by Gnarls Barkley:

My heroes had the heart to lose their lives out on the limb

And all I remember is thinking I want to be like them

So, perhaps you can imagine the humility I feel, the amazement really, at seeing myself billed as a global leader by none other than media powerhouse, Reuters! I knew when they came calling that this would be an awesome opportunity, and boy, was it ever! I’ve never prepared so much in my mind for an event like that, and the reality did not disappoint.

Sharing the stage with world leaders like António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, or Brian Moynihan, CEO at Bank of America? Amazing! Doing a panel with the CEOs of Boomi and Teradata (Steve Lucas & Steve McMillan), plus the CAO of CBS (Radha Subramanyam), was truly remarkable and inspiring.

Pondering the whole journey now, I can’t help but hear the mellifluous voice of Neil Tennant, lead singer of the Pet Shop Boys, who sang:

What have i, What have I, What have I done to deserve this?

Upon reflection, there are some stories that stand out, and they all share a common thread: worthy causes for which I gladly gave my time and energy, free of charge.

Ecological Times

The first big story took place in the earliest 1990s, while at my initial post-college job as reporter, then editor of the Lemont Metropolitan Newspaper. A couple friends and I learned enough about the printing business to do our own thing, so we launched Ecological Times.

By our fourth edition, we eclipsed The Reader as the third-largest controlled distribution paper in Chicago! (Controlled circulation is a fancy way of saying we gave it away.) And our cover story featured an exclusive interview with the amazing and inspiring, Capt. Jacques Cousteau!!

Talk about an experience! I actually got Capt. Cousteau to say to me, “Ah, yes, you are absolutely right!” My comment that prompted his response was that we should not expect the citizens of third-world nations to focus on recycling, because they’re just trying to get by.

We did our part to help Capt. Cousteau’s mission to promote a global, Environmental Bill of Rights! The timing worked out perfectly, because he was in the midst of his world tour, but had not planned to visit Chicago. You know what they say? Luck is when opportunity meets preparation!

Big Brothers

Several years later, after moving to my spiritual home of New Orleans, I embarked on another life mission. I had always wanted to take part in the Big Brothers / Big Sisters program, and so I did! I went to a meeting, heard all about the program, and signed up.

Well, let me tell you something! That was one of the best decisions I ever made. As anyone who’s spent time in New Orleans knows, there are many neighborhoods where things aren’t going well. There are countless young boys and girls who don’t have father figures in their lives.

I knew there was only so much I could do, but made the commitment to get involved. I’ll never forget the first time we met, me and that adorable little man, Daniel Hart! What a name, right? He was the absolute cutest little boy the world has ever seen. We played and played in a park near his house. He was so happy! Just on that first day, the reward was overwhelming.

We used to drive around town in my Geo Storm GSI, manual transmission, of course! We’d go to the park, or hang out in a restaurant. We came to my apartment a few times. I’d share whatever advice I could with that young man. He was wise beyond his years!

One time he told me something that his teacher told him, and all the students, and it was a pearl of wisdom. His teacher implored Daniel and all his classmates about the incredible importance of learning to read between the lines! Very often in life, people won’t tell you what you really need to know, so you need to find a way to figure it out yourself.

That’s powerful stuff.

A year or so later, I wound up getting a job in New York City, so I had to leave town, and that was very hard. But we kept in touch for many years. I remember attending a family reunion with him in Texas years later, and showed off my then-new car, a Mazda Miata six-speed, manual of course! “I prefer the old car,” he said. Indeed!

The last time we talked, he was in the military. He looked so handsome in that uniform! But when the Covid lockdowns came, he didn’t do so well. The isolation was too much for him. The army had put him on anti-depressants, and he didn’t like that at all, so one day, he just stopped taking them. I found out a while later from his mother that Daniel took his own life.

That’s when I learned the hardest lesson about leadership: You can’t fix everything.

Katrina & Transparency

Like many New Orleanians, the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina took its toll on each of us. I had just taken a job in Seattle, where my fiancee and I watched TV with horror as the Crescent City went underwater for days.

I remember one time, Daniel telling me that Katrina left a big hole in his heart. He wound up moving to Texas, but the experience of that hurricane really hit him hard. You can imagine why. It’s so unnerving to lose your home to any natural disaster. And they lived in New Orleans East.

For my part, I took on another pro bono initiative: Evangelizing the need for transparency in federal spending! I recall the two Louisiana Senators, Mary Landrieu and David Vitter, calling for a quarter-trillion dollars to help rebuild Southern Louisiana.

Of course, I was all in favor of federal funds to help that ravaged city, and the surrounding areas that were also devastated. But I had spent many years working with a public-private partnership called the Downtown Development District of New Orleans. Through that lens, I clearly saw the amount of corruption that pervaded the politics of that town, and Louisiana at large.

I personally covered the final official duty of then-Governor Edwin W. Edwards, when he spoke two words at the opening ceremony for Zephyrs field: “Play ball!”. He’s the man who famously once said to the press corps, leading up to his final vie for the Governor’s mansion: “The only way I could lose this election would be if I were caught in bed with a live boy or a dead girl!”

I knew that without transparency in where the money would go, the world-renowned politicians of Louisiana would make much of it disappear. There are countless stories of cash in freezers and parking garage scams. The corruption in that part of the world has been well documented.

So, on my high horse I went, with Bacon’s Media Source in my back pocket, I began my crusade for transparency in federal spending. My argument was simple: With Sarbanes-Oxley in full force, corporations had to share with the government their processes and systems for keeping track of who did what and when, financially.

If corporate America must be transparent with the government and the people, why shouldn’t the government be transparent to all of us? After all, it’s our money they’re spending! And as of 2005, there was no software or hardware constraint to making all that spending data public.

https://tdwi.org/articles/2005/09/25/visibility-seeing-is-believing-in-government-as-in-business.aspx

https://tdwi.org/articles/2006/10/04/bi-for-the-masses-president-signs-transparency-act.aspx?m=1

Well, 40,000 emails later, only a precious few journalists showed any interest. Okay, the number was actually two! Jonathan Alter from Newsweek got back to me, and I actually met him in person during his book tour. And one other gentleman showed significant interest.

That man’s name was Mark Tapscott, then of the Heritage Foundation. He responded to an email, asking why I had contacted him. I explained the mission to get transparency in federal spending. He got back and stated that was his life’s mission!

Tapscott went on to testify before Congress, using a term I coined: Citizen Auditors! Turns out he was rather persuasive. Before too long, the House passed a bill, and then the Senate passed a bill (co-sponsored by then-Sen Barack Obama), and then, on Sept. 26, 2006…

President George W Bush signed the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act! It probably took me a few weeks to digest what had taken place. But suffice to say, that was a remarkably rewarding moment. Granted, no one mentioned me at the signing, but…

Just like Ronald Reagan once said: “There’s no limit to how far a man can go, or what he can achieve, so long as he doesn’t mind who gets the credit!”

Doing good offers its own rewards!