Summary: With the current election happening, it doesn’t take long to realize that we are in the middle of a leadership problem. In fact, it has been the only election that has made me consider eventually running for office. No, this isn’t a podcast about this political election, but about leadership as a whole, so I won’t go into my thoughts on it here. But just know that I think this election has been an absolute circus. If you think that we are looking at the best candidates in Trump and Clinton, you are sadly mistaken. What we are looking at are the candidates with the deepest pockets; nothing more. Maybe the best candidates are holding out to run next time? I sure hope so.<br> <br> I’m now going to jump from talking about Trump and Clinton to the Kardashians, because there are two very important similarities between these individuals: attention and influence. I think it’s safe to say that the Kardashians are the most influential family in the world as of right now, which is sad, but true. And if leadership is controlled by the amount of influence one has and gives, then this further solidifies the fact that we have a leadership problem. If people are allowing the Kardashians to influence their lives more than anyone else, then this shows that they are learning from them, allowing their desires to be influenced by them, and also wanting to emulate them in some way. This is the reason that we have the current selfie generation, amongst other self-perception issues, but there’s a solution to this.<br> Once people stop paying attention to a particular story that is being shared, media moves on. Of course, this would take people to do this as a collective group, but if it happened, the overwhelming popularity of someone would cease to exist. Although it may now be too late to implement this idea in the presidential election, if it would have happened at the beginning, the popular candidates would be different than they are now, and no amount of money could have stopped it. What this doesn’t mean is to turn a blind eye to someone who is doing wrong, but if no one is paying attention to a presidential candidate or tv personality, a political party moves on, or ratings become so bad that a tv show is canceled. It’s the truth and it’s the way this world works.<br> Don’t like Trump? You should have stopped talking about him, good or bad, and stopped supporting his businesses long ago. Don’t like Clinton? You should have stopped talking about her, stopped funding the big businesses who fund her, and stopped commenting about her on Facebook long ago, as well. Don’t like the Kardashians? Stop watching their show and stop following their story. Attention of any kind will only continue to fuel the madness.<br> All of this is to say that we must be very careful as to who we allow to speak into our lives. Influence is a powerful thing, because it requires individuals to open their hearts and minds to receive the message that one is spreading. But the most important question in all of this is, what opens the door to influence? What creates the opportunity to influence people in 2016? The answer is attention. This is the single most important factor in both influence and leadership, and it will only become stronger as social media continues to become more popular. Media sees what is trending and then amplifies what is popular.<br> <br> By no means am I the best entrepreneur in the world, as I’ve come to find that the best entrepreneurs as far as wealth builders and operators are those who are able to devote their full time and attention to one thing. But, I can say that I’ve successfully garnered attention, which is the gatekeeper to leading in a specific area. This is the one thing that has allowed me to influence millions of people over the last ten years, but this doesn’t mean I know everything; it just means I know how to successfully grab ...
