What People are Saying about Empowerment

“Fascinating! A mind-expanding, heart pumping, information-rich joy to read. It inspires you to do the impossible. I love it!”
                     –Joe Vitale, author of The Attractor Factor

“Empowerment is the mother lode of success literature. Landrum dissects the lives of the greatest athletes of all time and shows everyone, from athletes to entrepreneurs, exactly what it takes to develop a competitive spirit that cannot be defeated or denied. If you have yet to discover Landrum’s work, oh, how I envy you! You’re in for one hell of a ride.”
         –Blair Warren, Television Producer

“Insightful, intelligent, informative and entertaining…like a good mentor. Gene Landrum’s Empowerment succinctly demonstrates that you cannot shrink to greatness! One of the most utilitarian business books that I have ever read proving that the difference between success and failure is energy.”
–Bernard E. DeOre, President
Elevation Group of Companies

Dr. Gene Landrum, founder of the Chuck E. Cheese chain of restaurants, and an authority in the psychology of success.

The following article has been exerpted from Dr. Gene Landrum's newest book,

Empowerment: The Competitive Edge in Sports, Business & Life.

Have you ever felt that you didn’t fit in? When you were in high school or college, did you feel excluded from the “in group”–that inner circle of people at the center of a social microcosm around whom everyone else was in orbit? Have you sometimes wondered why you weren’t accorded by your colleagues a level of respect that you deserve? Have your opinions and perspectives often been at odds with those around you? If your answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then you are in good company. Most of the world’s eminent in all walks of life, were significantly different from others. They were different in their personalities, beliefs, behaviors and perspectives, and it was this difference that spawned their exceptionality. The superstars in the human cosmos who revolutionized science, technology, business and sports were virtually all renegades who differed dramatically from the norm, destroying accepted beliefs and creating new paradigms that changed forever the nature of their enterprise. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche acknowledging this truth asserted in Thus Spake Zarathustra, “Whoever wants to be the creator of good and evil must first be an annihilator and break values…but that is being creative.”

In most cases, the potential of these superstars was not recognized until they reached exceptional levels of achievement; in many cases their opinions and aspirations were ridiculed, and in some cases they, themselves, were persecuted for their difference. En route to eminence, these renegades faced opposition, discrimination and denigration. Their ability to persevere was empowered by regarding their difference as an asset, rather than a liability. They trusted their instincts and marched to the tune of their own drummer. Valuing their difference from others enabled them to push through adversity and reach new heights never before imagined. In so doing, they blazed the trail for the generations to follow, leaving their footprints in the sands of time.

What Drives Us to Fit In?

From the time we are born, society gives us guidelines to follow, indicating which behaviors are acceptable and which are unacceptable. Ralph Waldo Emerson explained in his Essays: First Series:

Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood [and womanhood] of every one of its members…The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. [Society] loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.

A system of rewards and punishments are established to encourage us to serve and support the existing social order. This structured indoctrination is a necessary part of building a social order that allows for a stable and sustainable civilization. Without this structure, anarchy would prevail. Indeed, it is the indoctrinated multitude who form the backbone of a society, maintaining the social structure and perpetuating its values. However, this pervasive indoctrination exacts a toll on the autonomy of the individual that becomes evident early in a child’s life.

Childhood educator and psychologist Paul Torrance said, “Most kids begin life with a creative spark, but have it knocked out of them by the 4th grade.” Schools, like most institutions, promote the status quo. Don’t rock the boat. Sit and do what I say. Don’t be different. If you aren’t prepared to program your own journey, it will be programmed for you and that program is for journeys into orthodoxy and conventionality.

By the time they reach puberty, most children have become accustomed to surrendering their individuality to the collective will. We see this most transparently in the behavior of adolescents in their peer group. Insecure in their quest to assert their independence from the adult world, these youngsters follow slavishly the behaviors and fashion dictates of a harshly judgmental and ruthless peer group. It’s a mini-society, not unlike that depicted in Goldring’s Lord of the Flies, that punishes difference with ostracism, ridicule and sometimes violence. These pre-teens and teenagers learn quickly what brand names are acceptable in clothing and what behaviors are considered “cool.” Individuals violate these norms at their own peril.

Submission to group norms follows these adolescents into adulthood, residing quietly beneath a veneer of confidence as they age. The workplace reinforces the importance of fitting in. Those who are not perceived as team players are regarded as mavericks and either purged from the staff or passed over for promotion. The contestants on Donald Trump’s television production The Apprentice who are not regarded as team players are shown the door and told, “You’re fired!” Similarly the individualists on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart are dismissed with the tagline, “You just don’t fit in.” Such are the punishments that encourage us to conform.

In addition to punishments for non-compliance, there are considerable rewards that society offers those who move with the current of accepted practice. Those who take this path of least resistance are less likely to become embroiled in a life of conflict with friends, associates and the establishment. Their lives are more predictable and less encumbered with struggle than the lives of those who march to their own tune. Monetary rewards, elevated status and social acceptability often accrue to those who perform well as part of the herd. Through these incentives, society gradually comes to own their soul the way that Mephistopheles bought the soul of Faust.

At What Price?

Hidden within these rewards is an insidious trap. With the gradual accumulation of relationships and material possessions comes an increased vulnerability that is felt as a deep-seated fear. It is a fear of losing the money and the material possessions that have become the surrogate for one’s original goals and aspirations. It is a fear that is gradually transformed into a dull pervasive ennui that is linked to the potential loss of the love of a spouse, parent, child or friend–and ultimately, the loss of self-esteem. This is the conundrum that Bernard Levin, columnist of the Times of London, expressed (as quoted in Ferguson, p. 40):

Countries like ours are full of people who have all the material comforts they desire, yet lead lives of quiet (and at times noisy) desperation, under-standing nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and that however much food and drink they pour into it, however many motorcars and television sets they stuff it with, however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around the edges of it…it aches.

The gradual surrender of one’s individuality brings with it a benign acceptance of imposed limitations and an abandonment of the hopes and dreams of youth. The idealism and optimism seen in early life eventually give way to the pessimism and cynicism evident in the later years, taking with it the passion that makes life exciting. The jaded and the disillusioned are the people Henry David Thoreau observed 150 years ago when he said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”1 In trading their individuality for comfort, the masses have lost the very passion for life that is needed for high achievement and, more importantly, the joy that psychologists call self-actualization. Very few people escape this enculturation and even fewer march to the tune of their own drummer. Why do so few people escape the early indoctrination that dooms them to an unfulfilled life? The answer is seen in the behavior of other animal species.

The Pike Syndrome

The high priests in every field of human endeavor speak about doing things “by the book.” Who wrote the book? In every endeavor, “the book” is in continuous revision, driven by breakthroughs made by those who actually play outside the book. The masses take the book as gospel. Slavish adherence to the book is referred to in business psychology as the Pike Syndrome. In an experiment with pike (a fresh-water fish), a glass barrier was placed between the fish and their food. When the fish tried to get to the food they hit the glass. After repeated failures, the fish stopped trying for the food. Surprisingly, when the barrier was removed they still refused to swim to the food. Early enculturation has led most of humanity to suffer from the Pike Syndrome –forever inhibited from the pursuit of their dreams by an invisible “glass” barrier of convention.

The Pike Syndrome molds us to believe we know what can and can’t be done. Before 1954, it was generally believed that running the mile in less than 4 minutes was not humanly possible. However, Roger Bannister, who had frequently run a quarter of a mile in less than one minute while a student at Oxford, visualized combining four such runs in succession. The result was his famous 3-minute-59-second mile. Once people realized it was possible, running the mile in less than 4 minutes became commonplace. Bannister’s triumph shows clearly that the greatest barriers we encounter in life are those that are self-imposed. Victims of the Pike Syndrome would rather starve than go where the glass barrier threatens failure. Such negative inner beliefs prove debilitating.

Abnormal Deeds Are Done by Abnormal People

Normal people achieve normally and abnormal people achieve abnormally. This is a fundamental truth: to be special, we must be different. Abnormal people are those who are abnormally driven, abnormally tenacious, abnormally competitive and abnormally passionate. If you aren’t willing to go where the pack isn’t, you are not likely to make your mark in the world and you will become part of the pack.

What differentiates the superstar from the also-rans is freedom of thought and action. Superstars are less constrained by inner limits to their success. Jim Thorpe and Babe Didrikson Zaharias, two of the greatest athletes who ever lived, never questioned their ability or put any limit on their achievements. Both were free spirits who wandered unfettered and unsupervised as children. Thorpe ran away from home at a very young age and spent months alone in the wilderness. Who could have imagined that this solitary rebel who resisted structure and instruction would reach the highest levels of success in Olympic track and field? Babe Zaharias also grew up unfettered, running away from her Texas home for the circus in California when still a teen and indulging her appetite for risk by jumping off moving freight trains. The Texan Tornado bowled 200 the first time she tried because she saw no limits. When banned from playing amateur golf, she shrugged and went on tour playing exhibitions.
Superstars transcend the norm both mentally and emotionally. All have a prescient sense of destiny without limits. They don’t know they can’t, so consequently they do. Such a mental fix outside reality allowed Babe Ruth to hit not only more home runs than anyone ever thought possible but to hit more than almost every other entire team in the American League.

The Renegade Attitude

The eminent in almost every field of human endeavor are those who march to the tune of their own drummer. These superachievers are renegades who live life on the edge, energized and empowered by their unrelenting struggle toward their goals. They are never predictable. When it is noon, traditionalists want to eat; the eminent may eat if it fits their fancy. Sunday night is a time for rest and relaxation for most, but for the superstar, Sunday night is just one more opportunity to hone skills. When opportunity strikes, the superstar will be there, willing to play the game no matter the time or day.

Mavericks live outside convention. They seldom follow slavishly the instructions of a coach, preferring to take the coach’s instructions under advisement. Though they may masquerade as team players and may give credit to teammates, when it comes to crunch time they listen only to their own counsel. Though Michael Jordan’s coaches thought he listened intently to them, he confessed shortly after his retirement that he seldom listened to a coach in his life. He told biographer Bob Green (p. 231):

I never follow along. I'm never paying attention to what they are telling the team. I don't think the coaches are aware I'm not listening. I'm looking at them, but my mind is totally somewhere else. I don't want to hear it.

Off-the-wall Dennis Rodman of the champion Chicago Bulls is an iconoclast, actually pushing the envelope of eccentricity. A careful look at the demeanors of Rodman and Michael Jordan reveals that they march to the tunes of similar drummers. Neither listens to his coach. Neither drives within speed limits. Neither dresses conventionally. Both love to gamble. However, they differ from each other in their respect for other people. Rodman is radical and eccentric, appearing in drag and flouting the status quo. Jordan, in contrast, projects the flashy persona of Armani and Lamborghini. Rodman uses shock to get attention; Jordan uses winning and power to make his mark. Both are cocky, flamboyant and passionate about life.

The Inner Voice of the Individualist

In your quest to achieve excellence–athletic or otherwise–you will be advised, coached, denigrated and praised. Traditional beliefs will be used as a basis for the coaching and the advice will generally be given in good faith. However, the new breakthroughs will be made by those who move outside the accepted techniques and keep counsel with their instincts. These are the rugged individualists who become the superstars.

Individualists have a strong sense of self that psychologists call self-efficacy. (I will address this in more detail in Chapter 6.) Without such a strong inner belief system it is impossible to function effectively outside the mainstream. Operating outside convention, these visionaries tend to see what others do not, relying heavily on an inner voice that speaks without the prejudice of tradition. They seek opportunities and pursue life’s possibilities while others are following the well-trodden path of conventional thought. The visionary is willing to live life unfettered, avoiding the quagmire of the status quo. Traditionalists see visionaries as defiant or even eccentric because they see the world through a different lens.

Unfortunately in today’s lexicon, non-conformity is often associated with lawless rebellion and criminal behavior and hence portrayed in a negative light. Yet, it is the non-conformists who have spawned the ideas captured in great literature, brilliant science and powerful technologies. Most non-conformists are merely chasing their dreams and surfing the waves of triumph and defeat.
Self-empowerment begins with valuing your uniqueness–your difference from the masses. It’s not about being eccentric, perverse or different for the sake of being different, but rather, listening to your inner passions, your dreams and the motivations that give you goose bumps. It’s about risking failure, rebounding from defeat and persevering through your inner limits and external constraints.
Resistance to free thinking has been the norm since Socrates was poisoned for teaching the young to question traditional beliefs. Those who aspire to high achievement must value their difference–that is the hallmark of all high achievers.

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