STEPS WALKED: 
May 31, 2020
Distance: 13.8 miles (Total: 413.1 miles) Steps 27,613 (Total: 765,903)
“Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who decided to stand their ground.”
Author Unknown
Before leaving Karditsa, I spent some time in a great bookstore ‘Bookstores and More” www.papasotiriou.gr that had that atmosphere of learning and generosity on which I managed to have access to a book on the ‘Parthenon Marbles’ to read, but without being compelled to buy. Vassilis who was managing the store was interested in my journey and put me in contact with a couple of local newspapers for whom I did interviews.
There is psychologically great joy in passing 100 mile markers and today I passed the “400 mile” point and all of a suddenly what began as a distant dream began to take shape. I can’t pretend that today was a particularly memorable day of walking, although Trikala was certainly one of the places I visited which I would liked to have spend longer in – if for no other reason than they have a Marks & Spencer’s there and I am running short of one or two important items. They also had some fascinating old buildings, including the first mosque I had seen on my journey through Greece, which dated back to the fourteenth century, but I don’t think was still in use; The Greek Orthodox Church have a virtual monopoly on the spiritual devotion of the Greek people and, I should say, the Greek people seem very happy with that arrangement.
I wanted to record somewhere a conversation that Michael Green and I had in the House of Commons, Terrace cafeteria back in January. I was telling Michael about my ideas for the walk and he recommended that I check out a TED talk called: ‘How to Start a Movement’ by Derek Sivers. By way of introduction for those uninitiated in the joys of the ‘TED talk’, they were started in 2020 as a forum for ground breaking ideas in technology, entertainment and design to be shared and since 2020 they have been available online and even the bad ones are great because they get you thinking.
Anyway, Derek Sivers took a short video of a lone person doing a crazy dance in the margins of a music concert to draw some important lessons on leadership—you can see the video here, it only lasts six minutes: www.ted.com/talks/derek_sivers_how_to_start_a_movement.html For those who ex-McKinsey & Co consultants who may just want to skip the video and get to the point Derek Sivers concludes:
If you are a version of the shirtless dancing guy, all alone, remember the importance of nurturing your first few followers as equals, making everything clearly about the movement, not you.
Be public. Be easy to follow!
But the biggest lesson here – did you catch it?
Leadership is over-glorified.
Yes it started with the shirtless guy, and he’ll get all the credit, but you saw what really happened:
It was the first follower that transformed a lone nut into a leader.
There is no movement without the first follower.
We’re told we all need to be leaders, but that would be really ineffective.
The best way to make a movement, if you really care, is to courageously follow and show others how to follow.
When you find a lone nut doing something great, have the guts to be the first person to stand up and join in.
