8 Lessons 'Learnable' From President Obama's Political Success

This article is apolitical. It is also not a stamp of approval or disapproval on the moral or ethical values of President Obama. It is simply an insight into the life of one of the most prominent men in the world today. Someone who achieved a feat, that was thought practically impossible four (4) years ago. An African-American, who through his genius and communication skills literally blew open 200yrs of the American Political establishment.

I have watched and read excerpts from various political leading minds in America and no one gave him a chance at the onset. He was written off completely. His vision, faith and strategy stands as one of the greatest feats so far in this generation. What laws can we learn from his life? What were the forces at play that he might not even have been conscious of nor was enacted by his intellect that helped him accomplish something so monumental? Here are some lessons that I have gleaned...

Lesson 1 is one of forgiveness

President Obama by all natural standards should be an offended man. He experienced emotional abandonment, first from his father at a very early age when he left home and abandoned him with his mother who later on also left him with her parents (his grandparents) to pursue another relationship with someone else.

He should have been bitter, but somehow he let go of all the pain and bitterness he could have held on to and still showed enormous respect and honour for his father in particular and his mother. He travelled all the way to the village his father was born in Kenya as a senator to discover his roots. He also wrote a book entitled the ‘dreams of my father’. He didn’t build his life around the offense that would probably have been created but rose above that challenge. He once said the not having his father at home made him lack a sense of identity and direction which he found only when he committed himself to the service of others as a community organiser in the South-Side of Chicago.

The truth about life is this: an offended heart cuts your productivity and creativity by at least 50%. At worst case it can ruin your life altogether. Your heart is the life force within you. It is the production centre of your life, the place where ideas beyond the range of your consciousness float in. This is the place where great composers have heard the music their fingers later played, great architects saw the buildings within their imaginations, Scientists cried out Eureka in a flash of a moment, the seat where great dreams are born can get contaminated and ruined by hate.

The exercise of the spiritual muscle called your heart is in forgiveness. As we get stronger naturally through physical exercise our hearts grow in its capacity to produce and we exercise ourselves in the act of forgiving. Scripture commands us to break up the fallow ground of our lives. This is through letting go of all hurts from our pasts and reconciling ourselves with those we dislike within our hearts so that our intent towards them is one of peace. Life would be difficult if you harbour an unforgiving attitude towards members of your first cell on the earth, your family.

Lesson 2: He is a great communicator

President Obama was a man of the people. He has the ability to speak both to you and for you. This art of communication can only be discovered and developed through intellectual and emotional honesty. What do I mean by this? That one is honest with one’s self about where one really is in life and to understand that all real lessons can only be truly learnt in the context of your own personal experience. 

In communicating, the other party must feel one’s emotional honesty and this can only happen if one is able to speak to the feelings the other has, due to what they are experiencing in their lives at that present moment. The ability to do that only occurs when you speak truthfully from your own personal experiences. It has been said that one can lack any of the qualities as an organizing leader with one exception and still be effective and successful. That exception is the art of communication. It does not matter what you know about anything if you cannot communicate to your people. In that event you are not even a failure. You’re just not there. You create your presence by being able to build a powerful narrative from your own personal experience that gives insight to others about what they are experiencing themselves.

Insight always goes viral.

Lesson 3: He believed in Education

President Obama believed that education was the tool through which he would achieve his dream. Nothing is more powerful than a disciplined, intelligent and compassionate mind. He believed that knowledge is power and sought the path of knowledge. What too many people of faith lack is an educated mind. They lack the knowledge of temporal things and a clear understanding of how the world truly works.

The Jews have a saying that the greatest investment you can make is in yourself; educating yourself. They say if you take a loan to get an education, it is an asset that can never be repossessed. It lives in you. It is the most powerful investment. Scripture teaches to your faith add virtue (character) and to that knowledge. It takes hardwork and discipline to acquire knowledge and to be educationally sound but if you do the hardwork life becomes easy through the application of knowledge. If you don’t do the work to acquire knowledge then life becomes laborious.

Many African-Americans in his generation saw sports or music as their ladder out of poverty, he embraced education. Make having an educated mind your goal in life and with that develop a pleasant personality. I once did a recording in a studio in New York; President Obama had used it during his campaigns. I asked the owner of the studio what struck him most about him? He said he just seemed to know much more about life than the regular guy. Five (5) minutes with him showed him as a man of knowledge.

Lesson 4: He was true to himself (A disciple of his own convictions)

Whatever you think about the ideological slant of President Obama he has demonstrated himself to be a true disciple of his convictions. How the belief system was formed is not the point of this article or even whether they are right but that he has demonstrated oneness with himself.

Through proper mentorship and his ability to interpret the events of his life into a narrative discovering the essence of his personal experiences was to be of service, he committed himself with a singleness of purpose to public service. A graduate of Harvard Law School, he could have chosen to the join the wealthy insider world of corporate America, rather he chose the path of service earning $12,000 (dollars) a year with a $2,000(dollar) allowance for a car for 5years.

While all his friends and classmates were heading to the Walls Street he headed to the South-Side of Chicago, one of the poorest and most dangerous  areas in America. What could have led to that “crazy” decision? Just one thing; Clarity of Purpose and the Strength of Character to pursue your dream; demonstrated by his ability to break with the “pack”. This is what true leaders are made of and this is where they are born.

He knew where he was going and all the ships in his being were sailing in the same direction.

Greatness will start when in your actions and the choices you make; you are one with yourself and not denying yourself to be one with others.

Lesson 5: Make use of everything you go through; the best lessons for your life are wrapped in crisis

President Obama never walked in the pain of the past. He somehow found the strength to do that. Learning how to deal with pain is very crucial to your success. It’s an emotion we all experience and we must learn its significance and be disciplined enough to channel its energy. Words spoken in thoughtless emotional pain have been found to be some of the most impactful things that negatively affect the cycle of an individual’s existence. They can upset the rhythms of your life. When you walk in the pain of a past experience ever conscious of it, you simply recreate it in your now.

Patricia Saunders, a clinical psychologist who works with children in New York City says “Obama dealt with his family situation by understanding it. He put his ego aside. This maturity has served him well throughout his life”.

Too many people relate to the situations that cause pain on the basis of whether or not they deserved to go through such an experience. Change your paradigm. It has come to prepare you for something ahead so embrace it. Learn from it and most importantly share with others the lessons you gained from the experience and the cycle of total emotional healing will be complete.

Lesson 6: He was a community organiser at heart

If you can’t seem to achieve something there is a chance you haven’t built the relationships to make it work. A community organiser by training is a team player. He is taught to listen not just to the logic in the words spoken by the community but what they are feeling which sometimes might be irrational but deep. A community organiser learns to create a community around his purpose and to give individuals strength by integrating them into a community in order to achieve a purpose that they could never have as individuals.

They are strategic thinkers when it to comes to building power from the grass roots. Community organisation is a method of operation that teaches how the “have-nots” in the society can wrest power from the “haves” through proper organisation. They are grass root mobilisers. In creating a community the people work for a cause rather than for money.

President Obama is a team player by training. He is a consensus builder. A person if you spend time with, you will want to work for and with him just because of who he is. A likeable personality is a great asset and you can cultivate it once you recognise the role relationships play in life. Respecting people becomes part of your make up.

Learn to listen to others. You gain more by listening than when you talk. Those who always seek to dominate the conversation never last.

Lesson 7: Persistence

Barrack Obama had a few advantages as a child but decided to fight the good fight. That is, he got up when knocked down. In 2000, when he was still a state legislator (a member of the state house of assembly) he couldn’t get a ticket to attend Vice President Gore’s acceptance ball at the national Convention of the Democratic Party. Eight (8) years later he was the man everyone wanted to be seen with. He didn’t allow temporal setbacks defeat him. That same year he lost his run for the congress in Illinois. He could have given up and gone into the private sector and earned a lot. Just four (4) years later he tried again, this time winning the United States senate seat.

Psychologist Ruth Peters, who counsels children, believes that the hard knocks Obama took in his young life prepared him for both defeat and victory. Too many people are prepared for victory not defeat. In the virtual world of day dreaming this is fine but reality is not so. There will be tough days, days of disappointment and discouragement and you must be prepared for them too.

Parents learn to teach your children to handle setbacks. Don’t throw tantrums when things go wrong as though all is lost. Manage defeat in their eyes and model how to rejoice in victory and be courageous in failure. Ruth Peters goes further to say “Some people shrink when they are faced with adversity, others seem to gain momentum and are challenged when they fail”. The President did not use his difficulties as an excuse to quit; he used them as motivators to persevere.

But determination must be coupled with a very specific discipline in order to succeed in life. And this is our last lesson.

Lesson 8: Hard Work and Family Life

Barrack Obama understood the big picture early. He is a man of foresight. By his choice in marriage and work ethic he made his intents clear early. Another thing about this man is that he allowed himself to be underestimated while he quietly did the tough work. Early in his campaign when others underestimated him he was already merging online and offline strategies running models of turning out voters using technology tools quietly.

A child doesn’t go from taking English lessons in Indonesia to editing the Harvard Law Reviews without doing some tough work. The President earned his present job by performing excellently, in his various jobs. He was smart enough to lay a foundation for success by hardwork at every stage.

In order to succeed you must be ready to work and to understand that your work will ultimately define your life.

We can’t go into details here but the role Michelle Obama played in shaping her husband’s future is without question. One of the greatest things Barrack Obama did was to marry Michelle and listen to her.

 Barrack Obama ultimately is a family man.                                                      -(CREDIT: Poju Oyemade)