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Did you wait up like I did?  Did you get to hear President-elect Barack Obama give his winning speech? I did. Mind you, the following day I was busted!

Although, I am not American and although President Obama may implement laws that may disadvantage Bermuda as a tax haven, this in no way deterred me from joining with many others in witnessing this history-making moment.

This is amazing! An Afro-American (for real) is the President of the United States. The key element in Obama's campaign was that of the need for change. He emphasized this change with the supportive phrase, "Yes, we can."

Let us understand this. In order for there to be lasting change of any system, organization or nation, there must be the buy-in of the people. Obama could not look back at the past horrific experiences of his ancestors, park there and expect the general American public to "buy-in" to his ideology of change. Obama had a goal and he fully focused on that goal, no matter what the McCain camp was saying.

If you followed the race at all, you are probably aware that there were many attempts by the Republican Party to draw Obama into a conversation or into a mode of retaliation, to try and get him to shift his focus from where he wanted to go, to where they wanted him to go. The Obama camp was brilliant and remained focused.

You know what? When you understand that the ultimate victory is yours, you spend less time on frustration and more time on preparation for that which has been written by God as your destination. They said he was too young, too skinny, too inexperienced, too this and too that. But guess what. He will be the next President of the United States of America.

What others think

One of the downfalls of those who would be leaders of a company, an organization or a country, is that they often become emotionally entangled in the web of woe, and concern themselves with what others think of them. The opposition will always oppose you. That's why they are called opposition. The opposition could actually agree with you on certain points, but in order to carry out their title, they will find something to complain about.

I am sure that successful leadership focuses less on opposition and more on proposition. That is, rather than seeing where they were or even where they are, true leaders look ahead and run towards what they see. That is called vision.

As we look at Obama, we see that even while he is yet President-elect, he is making his choice of team players - his presidential cabinet. Qualities that he may lack, he finds in another, and he delegates certain responsibilities to them. Together the Team accomplishes the goals.

Now let us in our mode of celebration understand that the immediate onset of such celebration is nothing short of euphoric. However, the truth of the matter is that change brings about more change, which brings about more change. While many are prepared for the initial change, there will come a time when the subsequent changes are not celebrated or tolerated. All of a sudden, what was a great moment turns into a momentous debate.

We must follow the advice of the Apostle Paul, who spoke in Philippians 3:13-14, "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

In any position of leadership, the pressure is on. The question becomes, "Can you handle the pressure?" The press will become stress. The question is will you turn that stress into eustress, which is a positive form of stress, usually related to desirable events in a person's life.

The prefix "eu" comes from the Latin word for "good". True leaders know how to turn what was meant to be stress into eustress. Hence, today we see a man who overcame many a trap meant to take him back to historically negative moments, now moving forward to hopefully create a new legacy of positive moments for the American people.

Bermuda, let us hope that our home-grown Obama-like persons, begin to use all of the resources available to bring about change in this island and cause our challenges to simply become choices to use our stumbling blocks as stepping stones. Bermuda, the bottom line here is this, "Yes, we can!"[[In-content Ad]]

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