No Man’s Land

 

My good friend, Doug Tatum, recently authored an excellent and widely acclaimed book entitled No Man’s Land; the subtitle of the book is “What to Do When Your Company is Too Big to be Small and Too Small to be Big”.  Doug masterfully describes the dangerous chasm young companies must traverse after initial growth in order to reach the next level of success.  He offers insightful observations based on years of experience working with companies in this category. His practical suggestions equip leaders of these ventures to make difficult, but necessary decisions.  Doug’s message is essential because these young companies are the future backbone of our economy.

 

There is another “No Man’s Land”, a different chasm which is far more prevalent and just as dangerous.  Let’s call it “The Teen Years, When Males are Too Old to be Boys and Too Young to be Men”.  In the book Do Hard Things, Brett and Alex Harris remind us that the word teenager is a relatively new term.  Until the early 1900’s boys became men between the ages of 13-15.  Even our American Indians were on horseback in battle when they turned 14.  How did these boys become men?  By assuming the responsibilities of an adult.  There was no extended, fabricated transition time where boys hearts, minds, and actions were “put on hold” until they could finish a formal education sometime in their early twenties. 

 

Take a look at the following clip from the new video series John Adams based on David McCullough’s popular book.  In this scene Adams sends his fourteen year old son, John Quincy Adams, to Russia as secretary to a fellow diplomat. 

 

 

Did you notice Adam’s acknowledgement of his son’s adulthood?  Can you imagine 99.9% of today’s fourteen year old boys assuming such responsibility? Many, if not most, of our male youth today are shackled in apathy, addictions, and insecurity.  For many men “No Man’s Land” extends well beyond their teen years as they carry the habits and behaviors of youth into business and marriage.  In a time when “Black Swans” of all shapes and sizes (I’ll discuss this term in the next blog entry) have the potential to emerge at any moment and change life as we know it, our boys are preparing less to be leaders than they are to be Wii-miesters. 

 

We must rescue (there’s that word again) young mens’ hearts and minds from the perils of No Man’s Land so they can participate as (at least part of) the backbone of our future society. 

 

Do Hard Things – The Essential Rebellion

 

http://www.generationsofvirtue.org/product_info.php?products_id=757

 

I just finished a book that rocked my world.  I just wished I could have read it 35 years ago.  Brett and Alex Harris, twin brothers of Joshua Harris (author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye) wrote Do Hard Things – a book every teenager (an unfortunate term they explore) and parent should read, now!

 

It all started with a blog that the twins launched a few years ago entitled The Rebelution (www.therebelution.com).  The goal was to create a venue where teens could be challenged and challenge each other to hold themselves to higher expectations, aspirations, and dreams.  The result was viral; it soon became and remains one of the top 5 teen blogs on the web. 

 

Brett and Alex now travel the world with their challenge.  They also tour the Do Hard Things Conference, which is catching fire nationwide. 

I’ll revisit some of Do Hard things principles in subsequent posts, but suffice it to say that this is the message our youth (and the rest of us) should read and heed in order to challenge ourselves to a higher level of expectation and impact in this world.