Btter than Alexander—— a Treatise on Leadership1

Leo Luo

Ever since seventh grade, I had been obsessed with Alexander the Great, the man who never lost once. His military prowess awed me to the point where I had memorized all of his major battles, from his first taste of success at Chaeronea to his heroic victory at Gaugamela that sounded the death knell for Persia.2. 他杰出的军事才能令我充满敬畏，以至于我记住了他所有重要的战役，从喀罗尼亚的首战大捷到高加米拉之战英雄般的胜利，这次胜利宣告了波斯的灭亡。prowess: 英勇，威力；sound: v.敲响；death knell: 丧钟，结束的信号；Persia: 波斯，伊朗的旧称。But more importantly,I revered3. revere: 尊敬，崇敬。Alexander for the respect that he inspired among his troops.The story that I loved to recite told of how Alexander, after refusing to drink water that a soldier brought him while marching through a desert,proclaimed:4. march: 行军；proclaim: 宣布，声明。“Why should I drink when you have none?” I seared this display of self-sacrifice in my mind, and tried to channel that same spirit this semester when I served as the head of the Georgetown University Ballroom Dance Team.5. sear: 烙印，这里指“铭记在心”；channel: 传递，输送；ballroom dance:交谊舞。Even though it was registered as only a student club, I took my position as seriously as any other real job. Since this was my first experience in a leadership role, I envisioned big dreams of guiding the club out of its current slump and back to its glory days when the practice rooms were packed with dancing couples.6. envision: 预期，展望；slump: 衰退；be packed with: 挤满，塞满。When my term ended four months later, I emerged disappointed and with no visible improvement. Yet through this failure, I discovered not only insights into true leadership, but also a realization about my own abilities and limitations.

大学社团活动的魅力之处在于：每一次的社团活动都像是对现实社会的一次彩排。在此过程中，失败留下的记忆远比成功要深刻。本文作者曾担任本校交谊舞社团的Team Leader，并从自己一次失败的活动策划中领悟到了什么是领导者的价值。

The organizational structure of the ballroom dance team is quite simple. The President acts as the head, while six other “board members7. board member: 文中指“俱乐部中的领导成员”。” are responsible for different aspects of the club, such as coordinating competitions or organizing social events. On one hand, this meant that I did not have to specialize8. specialize: 专攻，专门从事。. On the other hand, I needed to be everywhere at once to resolve the questions and conflicts that would inevitably arise. But for the first few weeks of my presidency, I relished each time I introduced myself to school administration and fellow dancers as “President of Georgetown Ballroom.”9. relish: 享受，满足；fellow dancer: 交谊舞社团中的其他成员。I stayed late after meetings to compose emails, and arrived early to practices to help set-up.10. compose:（尤指仔细考虑之后）写；set-up: 计划，组织。Ballroom events even began showing up in my dreams. This self-sacrifice of my time was my way of showing that my leadership style was built upon treating each board member and the experienced dancers as equals. My phone was glued to my hand as emails and text messages flew in,my mind already composing a reply before my fingers even started typing. To use a cliché analogy, I had to be the axle that held together each spoke that kept the wheel of ballroom turning.11. 打个常用的比方：我必须成为连接每根辐条的车轴，来维持交谊舞社团这个车轮的运转。cliché: 陈词滥调的；analogy: 类比；axle: 车轴；spoke:（车轮的）辐条。

By the end of my leadership, the ballroom dance team did not utterly dissipate,12. utterly: 完全地，彻底地；dissipate: 解散。but it certainly did not reach the heights that I imagined for it. Perhaps the biggest failure was how I was forced to cancel our participation in a ballroom competition at Harvard University that many experienced dancers were looking forward to. Two nights before we were scheduled to leave, I held an emergency meeting with my board that didn’t end until midnight. We still hadn’t reserved a coach bus to take us from D.C. to Boston,nor did we have the funding to do so.13. reserve: 预约，预订；coach bus: 长途汽车；funding: 资金。Our butts left deep imprints on the cushioned chairs as we ran through scenarios to resolve our challenges.14. imprint: 印痕，压痕；cushioned: 加椅垫的；run through: 浏览；scenario:方案。Each time we came to the same conclusion:too little time, not enough money. As the last minute ticked down15. tick down: 时间来到，tick指“发出嘀答声”。to midnight, I stood up. “Everyone agreed on what we will do?” I asked the sleepy board members around me. They all nodded, and left with me to inform everyone that our competition was cancelled. Although the experienced dancers all said they understood the situation and tried to console me by saying that I had been “nothing but a kind person,”their disappointed and frustrated expressions haunted my mind as I composed an apology email.16. console: 安慰；frustrated: 失意的，泄气的；haunt: 萦绕于……。Although this was a collective failure,the cruel reality is that the blame always falls on the leader’s lap.17. collective: 集体的；fall on sb.’s lap: 此处指“交由某人承担”。

I hardly remember the following week, as I spent most of my time brooding on18. brood on: 沉思，深思。figuring out what I did wrong. I had followed the same self-sacrificing steps of Alexander, hadn’t I? In fact, I can’t remember a time when I ever adopted a stern19. stern: 严肃的，严厉的。tone with anybody. And that was how my leadership crumbled20. crumble: 崩溃，文中指“失败”。. By treating everyone kindly,productivity ground to a halt21. grind to a halt: 逐渐停止。because no one felt any pressure, or any fear, to complete their tasks on time. I had forgotten one crucial factor about Alexander’s success: he punished insubordinates without mercy.22. crucial: 重要的；insubordinate: 不服从的，违抗命令的，这里指那些“不顺从的人”。With a combination of respect and fear that he instilled in his army, he went on to conquer Persia and inscribe his name in history.23. instill: 逐渐灌输；inscribe: 铭刻，铭记。As I learned through my rocky tenure as head of the ballroom team,24. rocky: 困难重重的；tenure: 任期。no points are awarded to a leader who was just a “kind person.”Alexander would have laughed at me, just as I laugh bitterly at myself as I reflect on how my kindness ended up hobbling25. hobble: 阻碍，妨碍。the dance club.By the end of the semester, the club had fewer members than ever,and the experienced dancers were already educating my successor in leadership behind my back so that their hopes for ballroom’s revival would not be disappointed again.26. successor: 继任人；revival: 复兴。

Yet the taste of disappointment burrows into27. burrow into: 钻入，深入。memory far deeper than any taste of success. The fiasco28. fiasco: 惨败。of Harvard demonstrated that simply relying on my trust in my board members was not enough to accomplish my goals. I needed to be resolute, and the first step started from changing the way I assigned tasks.29. resolute: 坚决的，果断的；assign: 分配。Instead of saying“get this done when you can,” I discovered that saying “I must have this done by this time” instantly produces faster result. Yet the most effective method of establishing authority is learning how to say“no,” No to excuses, no to unreasonable ideas, and especially no to negativity30. negativity: 消极。. Trying to please everyone translates into pleasing no one. Had I miraculously found some way to get the team to Harvard that weekend while staying under budget, I would have never realized how turning people down could actually improve efficiency.31. 如果那个周末我能奇迹般地在预算范围内带领团队去哈佛，我就永远都不会发现：拒绝别人竟然可以提高效率。miraculously: 奇迹般地，出乎意料地；under budget: 在预算内；turn down: 拒绝，驳回。Perhaps that is the beauty of college:each interaction in the schoolyard acts as a rehearsal for the harshness of the real world.32. rehearsal: 预演，排演；harshness: 无情，严酷。After all, an old Chinese proverb states that “failure is the mother of success,” and such a maxim fits in perfectly with college students preparing to take on the world.33. maxim: 格言；take on: 接受……的挑战。

Nicolo Machiavelli, known as one of the most renowned political writers of the Renaissance,34. Nicolo Machiavelli: 尼可罗·马基亚维利（1469—1527），意大利政治思想家和历史学家；Renaissance: 文艺复兴，是指13世纪末在意大利各城市兴起，之后扩展到西欧各国，于16世纪在欧洲盛行的一场思想文化运动。posed the question of whether it was better for a leader to be loved or feared. “One would wish to be both,” wrote Machiavelli, “but because it is difficult to unite them in one person, it is much safer to be feared than loved.” Nearly six hundred years later, his words still ring true, and I should have listened to his advice. While no leader has succeeded without displaying human kindness in one form or another, their accomplishments rested on the foundation of authority that they held. Perhaps there is a silver lining35. silver lining: （不幸或失望中的）一线希望。to my unsuccessful presidency. For one, I realized that leadership may not be my cup of tea. But second, if I were to ever do it again, I am grateful for this opportunity to fail miserably during my college years, for I have gained invaluable experience to survive in the real world, where stakes36. stake: 赌注。are higher and people are far, far crueler. I am no Alexander the Great, but I have bested him in one area. I have failed, and therefore, I have learned.

尼可罗·马基亚维利