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#43: You don’t have to lead to lead
Shem Opolot
October 27, 2023
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Happy Friday 🎉 I was on a 14-hour flight with Zion a couple of days ago, and one thing is clear to me: trying to get a baby to sleep on a plane is much like cuddling a loved one—it’s cute, but now your hand is numb and it’s hot.
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Estimated read time: 5 minutes
ONE THING I’VE LEARNED
You don’t have to lead to lead
By Storyset illustrations
The headmaster of St. Mary’s College Kisubi, arguably one of the best high schools in the country, chased 200 boys around the school compound for close to 2 hours, but no one got expelled.
2006 was petering to a stop, my pimples were popping, and Sean Paul’s We be Burnin’ was more of a motto than a mainstay in every function presentation. And like all Senior 4’s, the urge to do the wrong thing was oozing out of our ears.
Not me, though; my parents would beat my ass. But for most of my classmates—yes.
My friend, Roger, was an average, unremarkable student. He played no positions, starred in no sports, and topped no tables. But Roger had a taste for trouble. Or trouble had a particular taste for Roger. It was hard to tell sometimes.
One evening, as Roger did often, he decided to escape from school to buy Rolexes (for my non-Ugandans, if you think these are watches, that’s on you) and pork for resale at a ridiculous markup in class later.
Pause.
It’s important to note that high school product markups were outrageous, but they demonstrated the power of supply and demand better than any economic curve ever could. A man with a bag of lollipops at sports time would be king by dinner.
Ok, let’s go on.
But this particular crime was special for Roger because he convinced a league of other lemmings to crip-walk with him into crime. Close to 10 lemmings, they were.
Something went wrong, though.
Perhaps it was the lake flies flying with extra fury and smelling a little fishier, or it was the disquiet on the Senior 4 block during night prep. Something was off. From the back of 4A, at the end of the Senior 4 block, we heard squeaking desks and shuffling footsteps. Eventually, the class messenger pigeon (Gerald, the chief class gossip) stuck his head through our classroom window and whispered loudly:
“They are taking roll call, and Buki [the headmaster] is popping.”
On any other day, this was fine. But on this day, we all knew close to a dozen of our classmates were out running errands for our benefit. And if they got caught, they’d get expelled. Or worse—we wouldn’t eat Rolexes and pork that night.
So we had to do something.
Toka, a tiny but mighty guy who was equally as unaccomplished as Roger, rallied us in a single breath by saying:
“We can’t let them count us, man. They’ll grab our baddez.”
So we spilled onto the lawn that encircled the classroom block, constituted an impressive crowd—all approximately 200 of us—and agreed to avoid roll call by running around and stalling for time. It was a simple plan, and everyone knew their lines: “Don’t get caught.”
Buki (the headmaster), the most arrogant Catholic Brother of Christian Instruction, decked in his white cassock with a large rapper-esque cross resting on his chest, joined the teachers-on-duty in pursuing this mob of adolescent boys to no avail.
Soon, Roger and his league of lemmings rejoined the mob (this story from their perspective is much better), and—in a masterstroke of crisis communication—once all the criminals were accounted for, we returned to class for roll call like intuitive village chickens.
We had beaten the system, and that was one of the best days on that hill in Wakiso.
***
In the same way teachers used to make me the class monitor because I had good grades, authority is given. But leadership…leadership is earned through trust and respect. That’s why a lowly janitor can run a company into the ground. That’s why Roger and Toka commanded followers, though they weren’t furnished with fancy prefect blazers, special name tags, and special meals.
Stop waiting to be chosen. You don’t have to lead to lead.
SHAMELESS PLUG
Like the Twitter of old, people are saying they can’t believe TLDR Weekly is free. “The early adopters shall be rewarded handsomely”—is all we can say now.
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MY FAVOURITE THINGS
A quote
If Nike announced that they were opening a hotel, you'd have a pretty good guess about what it would be like. But if Hyatt announced that they were going to start making shoes, you would have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what those shoes would be like. That's because Nike owns a brand and Hyatt simply owns real estate.
A picture
I love America because of the way their freedom of expression manifests sometimes. I always see this on my commute; it’s updated daily.
PRO TIP
A faster way to Excel.
Here’s your data:
You want to populate the Amount (UGX) column with the commensurate values in Uganda Shillings for the dollars shown.
Knowing the exchange rate, you can just manually multiply each dollar value by the exchange rate to get the value in UGX. But that’s inefficient and [cough] basic:
Don’t do this.
When calculating something like an Exchange Rate in Excel, DON’T manually type the value. It’s inefficient, since rates change all the time.
Instead, most people create a reference cell for the exchange rate and refer to it in the calculation (⚠️ Remember to lock/fix the exchange rate with the ‘$’ signs or—what nerds call—the absolute reference):
You can do this.
But a real pro would give the cell with the exchange rate a name (I used “ExchangeRate” below)…
…and then type “ExchangeRate” and select it from the dropdown (that appears anywhere in the workbook!) when they want to use the Exchange Rate in a calculation.
You should defo do this!
💡 You can name individual cells and ranges. Think of all the possibilities!
WHERE FUN GOES TO FLOURISH
The Friday Fix playlist
Brain teaser
From Braingle.
What is this common phrase?
step
the rest
Answer below
Shem’s picks
🤖 Find the AI-generated image
📚 Dissecting covers of modern romance novels (the site is cool)
🖌 Some artists use paintbrushes, but he uses pebbles
Brain teaser answer
Answer: A step above the rest.
Have a great weekend,
— Shem
Et cetera
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