I assure you, the hardest part of leadership is not getting rejected.
Yes, you’ll have to call on people in elevated and lofty positions. Yes, sometimes they won’t call you back. Occasionally they’ll even — in the midst of being knee-deep in their own issues and generally terse — be rather unpleasant to interact with. You do get rejected, more or less harshly.
That’s not so bad.
Much harder is when you let someone down. When people believe in you, commit to you, and you can’t deliver final results — which, if you’re really pushing the envelope, is at least somewhat often — that hurts.
As a leader, people pour their energy, their cognition, their time which is the very lifeblood of existence — they pour all this into you and bet on you, and when you let them down…
…it’s really the most awful part. And yet, to do truly worthy things, you have to push off into the darkness, into the abyss, into the void, and facing cold frosts and existential terrors, push through for results, for improvements, for turning nothing into something, just using the power of our minds and hands.
It’s remarkable when it works, and perhaps we don’t celebrate enough — building the world is so supremely satisfying, and when you can lead your people to the promised land, when you can help someone fire on all cylinders, actualize their potential — is there any sweeter thought, feeling, sensation?
Pleasure does not compare; no badges of rank or external honors compare. Wealth and riches are nice, especially when you go from the level of being unstable and wanting into having enough to do as you will…
But no, none of these external things compare to seeing someone with raw talent break through and actualize it. But the flipside, when someone pushes hard, does their part, and you can’t deliver as a leader — nothing is harder to endure.