What We Can Be, We Must Be

A note to young leaders.

In any given moment, we have two choices: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.

In 1968, aged 28, Jack Thompson – later one of Australia’s greatest actors – sat in a car with his father, torn between two futures: the predictable safety of academia or the exciting uncertainty of acting.

After listening to Jack’s enthusiasm for an amateur theatre production he was involved in, his father asked: “Have you ever considered doing this seriously, as a profession?”

Jack admitted he’d been thinking about it for some time. His father then hit him with this piercing line from a Shakespearean sonnet: “Son, remember: Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.”

Wasted talent is uglier than mediocrity.

It was the nudge Jack needed. He threw himself into acting, vowing to give it one year. In that year, Jack auditioned 28 times. The first 27 auditions ended in rejection. His 28th attempt landed a small part in the TV series, Motel.

Two years later, he was in Broken Hill filming Wake in Fright (1970), a landmark of Australian cinema. Within a decade, he was starring in Sunday Too Far Away, Thorn Birds and Breaker Morant – roles that won international acclaim and established him as a national icon.

Each of us carries a duty to fulfill the highest calling of our talent. What we can be, we must be.

If we fail, we don’t just fail ourselves – we leave a little hole in history.