The recent events at Penn State provide a great example of personal leadership. It made me think of a poem that has been around for years, but it gets to the heart of the situation at Penn State.
This is a little story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.
There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.
Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.
Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job.
Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it.
It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
Like the situation at Penn State, many chapters have behavior occurring that is inappropriate, dangerous or offensive. It might be hazing, sexual assault, racism, domestic violence, alcoholism, anorexia, bulimia, prescription drug abuse, etc. What is happening in your chapter that needs to be addressed? It continues to amaze me how infrequent it is that someone steps up in a chapter and says that our member’s behavior is harming him, those around him and our entire organization.
Next time you encounter a situation that doesn’t feel right think about Penn State. There were a number of people who could have been somebody. Instead, they were all nobodies.
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