The Penalty of Leadership

“In every field of human endeavour, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man's work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be mediocre, he will be left severely alone  —  if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious, continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big would had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy  —  but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as human passions  —  envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains  —  the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live  —  lives.”

That was the text of an ad called "The Penalty of Leadership," which was printed in the Saturday Evening Post in January 1915. The ad was from General Motors, and was written by Theodore F. MacManus under the direction of the CEO, Henry Leland. Leland founded Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902. In 1909, he sold Cadillac to General Motors, and a few years later he became CEO and saved GM from bankruptcy. 

The ad was a response to a competitor's accusation that GM's  new water-cooled V8 engine was unreliable. GM has reused the ad several times over the years to promote its products. The ideas behind the ad apply to more than automobiles — they apply to the front-runners and the visionaries in any field.