Mr. K.C. Hildreth - The Evolution of an Ordinary Leader

Copyright 2015 K.C. Hildreth

Published by Hildreth Consulting, Los Angeles, CA.

All rights reserved.

kchildreth.com

ISBN-13: 978-1523955190

ISBN-10: 1523955198

Dedication

To my wife. Your love and support make everything possible.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to my clients, friends and family. I am very grateful for your unswerving encouragement and support.

The Journey

I see,

I see now

What was always there,

always there

But obscured by limitations

I placed before myself.

It was only as I walked,

each step, one foot

In front of the other,

one step after another

That the masks began to fall away,

the ideas of intellect

Meant to hide, to protect

dissolved

Dissolved in my heart

and I finally could see again.

I saw myself.

I saw the other.

I saw the truth

and dropped the illusion.

I saw the truth

and the illusion dropped.

Neha H. Vyas

Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.

Unknown

Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.

John F. Kennedy

Other books by K.C. Hildreth

Supercharge Your Startup!

Creating a Powerful Vision and Business Plan in 5 Easy Steps

Living Into Your Highest Potential

3 Key Steps to Personal Growth

Fund Your Dreams!

Proven Tools for Pitching Investors

The Power of You

Understanding and Unleashing the Incredible Potential Within

Introduction

I write this introduction on the day before my 52nd birthday. It seems like only yesterday that I was turning 18 and wondering what I would be doing at the ripe old age of 35! I had no idea that even at age 35 I would just be starting my journey of learning and developmenta process that continues to this day.

This book is the culmination of over 50 years of work, learning and a personal search for happiness and productivity. My career is almost bizarre in its sheer variety. Since 1985, when I graduated from college, I have worked on Wall Street and Capitol Hill, founded or co-founded 8 different companies, completed 4 advanced degrees, and worked as a consultant to Fortune 50 companies. Over the most recent 10 years I have spent thousands of hours coaching leaders and executives on personal and professional development. During this time Ive read hundreds of books on subjects ranging from physics and biology to psychology, spirituality and community development.

As I meandered through my professional life I have worked for privately held companies, charity groups and large multination organizations, and have held positions from assistant water-boy to CTO and CEO. My industry experience includes areas as diverse as banking and telecommunications, as well as technology, hospitality and entertainment. Lest you think I am bragging, I am not: For the longest time I actually felt quite insecure about being a jack of all trades, with little mastery in any one thing.

Only in the past few years did I realize that my path has turned out to be quite purposeful. By experiencing so many different industries, roles, company cultures and situations I have been afforded a 50,000 foot view of the social world we call work. I have observed great leaders, and suffered through abysmal cultures. I have experimented with my own leadership style, and worked with others on theirs. The resulting insights are what make up this book.

The bottom line is this: I have come to believe that our human societies are reaching a plateau of productivity that can only be surpassed if we take a completely new look at the way we relate to work, both in how we see ourselves and how we interact with others. Fear-and-pressure based management is simply not working anymore, and it is incumbent upon all of us to look deeply inside ourselves to find a better way.

This book is a story of an executive who goes on a personal search for meaning and leadership excellence. His process is the combination of my own 50 years of self-exploration and the experiences of countless others that I have both worked with and coached. The material is dense by design. I am trying to convey to you that which took me (and others) literally tens of thousands of hours to understand, so be patient if you find yourself a bit bored by, say, a dialogue on the nature of quantum biology. Just keep pushing through until you find something that resonates.

I chose a man as the main character because I had to choose a gender and was more able to relate to the male experience. I do not doubt that a woman will read this differently than I might, and I believe that will add value to the discussion. After coaching many female executives, I have found that women generally get these ideas somewhat more easily and at a level that is more heart than brain centered. No matter what your gender, however, the concepts are universal and as old as time. Even so, do not simply believe what I have written. Each person must find his or her own truth, and this is a version of my own. I encourage you to challenge, to seek, and to think .

Some of the topics in this story might feel controversial or unbelievable. For example, I debated quite a bit about including references to God. On the one hand I did not want to alienate those who find God irrelevant, and yet neither did I want to offend those who have a very strict notion about who, or what, God is. I myself came from a place of agnosticism. But as I began to ponder the deeper nature of things, the question begged an answer. I have come to believe that there is a God, but I absolutely do not want to foist that position upon you.

Overall, my deepest wish is for you to read this book with an open mind, consider what it says, and perhaps learn something from it. If it prompts further exploration, I will feel that my purpose has been achieved. If it triggers in you something deeper, perhaps a renewed sense of meaning or happiness, then my joy will be complete.

I wrote this as a service projectto share what I had learned over the past 50 years of inefficient exploration in the hope that you might save yourself the time. I believe that if you can go deeply inside yourself and find your Truth, you (and our society) can reach unimaginable levels of happiness and productivity. This book is meant to help you in that quest.

Sincerely,

K.C.

September 2015

Chapter One

As Michael Benson walked out into the hospital parking lot, he could not help but shake his head at the irony of it all. Just that morning he had been thinking that things couldnt possibly get worse. And now his Dad. What in the world have I done to deserve this, he thought, not without a twinge of embarrassment at his self-centeredness. His father had told him so casually. As if he were going to take a trip, or buy a car. I am going to die within 3 months, and there is nothing I can do about it. My God. Michael didnt even know his father was ill! How in the world could he have kept something so important so quiet!?

The thoughts were swirling around in Michaels head. Part of him wanted to yell at his father, to tell him that it was not fair that he was doing this to him. Another part felt bad for his Dad because he knew that he was, in his own terms, the rock, and that he bore the progression of this illness alone. Michaels Mom had passed away many years since, and he assumed that his fath er was okay alone. What did I miss? Michael thought. He had visited once every month or so, played golf with his Dad a couple of times a year, but he had not really seen anything special. Sure, his Dad sometimes grunted when he got out of the carbut that was part of aging, right?