Think Like A Comedian, Act Like A Leader: Building Resilience And Trust To Inspire The World
“I need ammunition, not a ride.”
I can visualize the history book publishers quickly scrambling to make quote graphics out of this response from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy when the U.S. offered support for him to escape.
History is full of leaders who run when the odds are against them, but not Zelenskyy, a former comedian turned freedom fighting icon that has rallied his people around his cause.
Former what?
When you watch a stand-up comedy special on Netflix, HBO, or Comedy Central, it’s packed with laugh after laugh for a full hour. However those comedians on that level had to endure year after year, night after night, joke after joke of failing to get even a giggle.
I’ve watched many a new open mic comedian walk through the door with swagger, perform a five-minute set that fails to register one laugh, then disappear, never to be seen onstage again.
The comedians who find success are the ones who let these kinds of nights fuel them. The bad nights are vital lessons in resilience, building trust, and improving communication, and over time you learn to win over a room full of strangers.
In my programs, I push the message of “Think like a comedian, act like a leader,” which raises some eyebrows since leadership is rarely associated with something like stand-up comedy.
Zelenskyy is a prime example of the endurance, poise, and the inspiration that comes with learning to handle the inevitable barrage of bombs, heckles, and bad nights at the comedy clubs.
Except in his case, applying those lessons has won over the world.
Unfortunately, now those bombs are literal, but each of us can take a lesson from him and apply it to the way we lead ourselves and others: don’t look for a ride — a way out — withstand the uphill battles and keep going, no matter how challenging it may be.
