Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do

Hear, O listeners, the words of Tom Landry, a master of the gridiron and a teacher of discipline: “Leadership is getting someone to do what they don’t want to do, to achieve what they want to achieve.” This saying, though born in the field of sport, resounds with eternal truth. For it unveils the paradox of human will—that men and women desire greatness, yet resist the hardship required to grasp it. The leader’s sacred task is not to grant desires with ease, but to guide others through the very struggles they would avoid, so that the hidden treasure of their own longing may at last be won.

What is it to do what one does not want to do? It is to wake early when the body cries for sleep, to train when the heart craves rest, to study when the mind longs for distraction, to persevere when the spirit is weary. These are the burdens men flee from, yet within them lies the forge of greatness. Left alone, most would choose comfort over struggle, pleasure over discipline, ease over labor. But comfort never crowns the head with victory, nor does ease build monuments. Only through the doing of what is difficult can the soul rise toward its truest desire.

And what is it to achieve what one wants to achieve? Every heart longs for triumph—be it mastery, freedom, knowledge, or honor. Yet such ends are not reached by mere wishing. They demand the toil of body and the discipline of mind. The athlete longs for the trophy, yet dreads the endless drills. The student dreams of wisdom, yet resists the long nights of study. The people yearn for justice, yet shrink from the sacrifices it requires. Here enters the leader, who bridges the gap between longing and labor, awakening discipline so that dreams may be fulfilled.

Consider the story of Alexander the Great and his soldiers. When they crossed the harsh deserts of Persia, the men longed for conquest but recoiled at thirst and exhaustion. Alexander himself poured out a cup of precious water on the sands, refusing to drink while his men suffered. By his act, he compelled them to continue, to endure what they did not wish to face, so that they might at last achieve the empire they dreamed of. This is Landry’s truth: leadership is the art of carrying people through their reluctance to the fulfillment of their deepest aims.

So too did Moses lead his people out of Egypt. They longed for freedom, but at each trial they cried to return to the chains of their old life, preferring the certainty of slavery to the hardship of the wilderness. Yet Moses, through faith and endurance, pressed them onward through what they resisted, until they reached the land of promise. Here again we see: leadership is not indulgence but perseverance, compelling the people to embrace the path they would flee, so that they may hold the destiny they seek.

The meaning of Landry’s words is therefore this: true leadership is not pleasing others, nor granting them comfort. It is guiding them to discipline, to sacrifice, to labor, even against their immediate desires, because you see the higher victory that they themselves cannot yet behold. It is the art of aligning struggle with longing, labor with destiny.

The lesson for you, O listeners, is plain: if you are called to lead, you must not shrink from asking others to endure difficulty. You must see beyond the moment of resistance, into the horizon of fulfillment. Encourage, inspire, and, when needed, press others into the discipline that brings true achievement. And if you are called to follow, trust your leaders when they guide you through hardship, for often the road you resist is the only path to the dream you hold.

Therefore, practice this: do not flee from the task you resist, for within it may lie the door to the victory you desire. If you lead, help others to endure such tasks; if you follow, embrace them with trust. For as Tom Landry has taught, leadership is the art of uniting discipline with desire, hardship with hope, so that the greatness already longed for may at last be attained.