Participating in the Energy Exchange

Energy is
interactional currency.

If you want to lead
the people around you, pay attention not only to what you do that gives you
energy, but what you do that
gives others energy.

I learned this lesson busking in the park.

Turns out, playing and singing music as loud as you possibly
can in a public space with amazing acoustics gives people energy. It’s the coolest thing. As folks walk past,
you can literally watch their faces and bodies changing. They dance and hum and
smile and wave and sometimes drop a dollar in the case, and it makes you feel
warm inside for having participated in the energy exchange.

Which is helpful when it’s thirty fucking degrees outside.

The point is, being a leader isn’t about how people
experience you; it’s how they experience themselves when they’re around you.