The disease of me🦠

The resignation of role and glory

It’s rather normal that today we look back on World War 2 as a clear confrontation in which good aligned selflessly against evil, though reality is far more disappointing.

As with any other major historical event, World War 2 was filled with backstabbing, spotlight coveting, greed and lies among the Allies who fought so “purely” to vanquish evil. And among those who played major roles in this affair, there was one who’s actions were pretty uncommon even by today´s standards.

While other generals aspired for greatness and were determined to find their moment of fame so they could set their footprint on history books, there was one to which said behavior was virtually absent.

His name: General George Marshall.

What’s more impressive is that despite his lack of aspiration, or at least to show it publicly, he managed to outperform all of major generals regarding the magnitude of his accomplishments.

And let’s just say there was no scarcity of proper war generals at that time considering among the Allied generals you had names such as: Patton, Bradley, Montgomery, Eissenhower, MacArthur and Zhukov.

So what was Marshall’s secret?

He remained clean of the so-called “disease of me”.

The innocent climb

According to highly successful American basketball coach Pat Riley, who led the Los Angeles Lakers to four NBA championships as well as help define the “showtime era” with stars like Magic Johnsons, there’s a certain trajectory that teams tend to follow.

See, when teams start - before having a glimpse of what sucess is - they are innocent.

They haven’t been exposed yet to the toxic environment that success drags within.

Thus, if the conditions are right, they work together to achieve a collective goal.

This is the stage Pat calls “The Innocent Climb”.

But as soon as success makes its appearance, the bonds and common goal that brought the team together begin to fray and suddenly they’re replaced with ego and jealousy.

Players start to over-estimate their importance and chests start to swell now that the spotlight has been turned on.

Hence, the Innocent Climb is almost always followed by the “disease of me”.

Megalomania

At this stage, jealousy has become a common trait and everyone is fighting to stay in the spotlight, nowadays more than ever since apparently the only way to remain “relevant” is to prevail in the public eye.

This is an attitude that has sunk people, teams and even countries throughout history, though general Marshal was an exception to this trend.

Marshall never caught this disease and even went as far as shame it out on those who did.

While other Generals regularly lobbied for promotions, Marshall actively discouraged it.

When others pushed him to be chief of staff, he avoided it by saying:

“It makes me conspicuous in the army. Too conspicuous in fact.”

His balanced and healthy relationship with his rank took him as far as too discourage an effort by the House to pass a bill which would make him Field Marshal.

He said that he had no desire for it, as well as not wanting to outrank his mentor General Pershing.

He also mentioned he disliked the idea of being called Field Marhsal Marshall which sounds quite reasonable to me.

It’s not like he had no aspirations nor dreams, nor did he hated himself, but he knew ego needs honors to be validated, and he was confident enough in his skills which allowed him to stay on path for a bigger purpose.

Humility and seflessness

It’s safe to say that opportunities for Marshall to become “famous” weren’t rare, and he still declined them knowing that he had a path to follow. But one stood among the rest.

The year was 1944 and a job he’d been training for his entire life was up for grabs.

The job?

To command the troops on D-Day.

If you know something about history then you’ve probably heard about D-Day but here’s a refreshener just in case.

D-Day was the largest amphibious invasion in history, and marked a pivotal moment in World War 2, as the day in which Allied forces landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, to begin the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control.

So why did Marshall declined this?

He had his ego in check.

Even though Roosevelt personally told Marshall that the job was his if he wanted, he still turned it down, handing it over to a certain gentleman named Eisenhower who, by all intents and purposes, performed magnificently and took all the role and glory.

Deserved off course.

When Roosevelt wanted an answer frorm Marshall, he clearly stated:

“The decision is yours Mr. President. My wishes have nothing to do with the matter.”

Can you imagine?

The control this guy had??

The confidence he had??

And this is not a rare sight from him.

There’s another story where Marshal was sitting for one of the many office protraits that was required of him.

After a couple of hours of remaining silent and still, the artist signaled him that he had finished, so Marshall stood up and exited the room.

When the artist asked if he wanted to see the painting, he answered:

“No, thank you.”

This was a men with a clear vision, with a purpose to follow and no ego to get in his way.

He knew the biggest irony of success: That ultimately makes us someone we never wanted to be in the first place.

Magnanimous.

That’s how people described him.

President Truman went as far as to say that:

“Never did General Marshall think about himself.”

And as later pointed out by his wife:

Marshall was no unique man. He had the same traits as everyone else - ego, self-interest, pride, dignity, ambition - but they were “tempered by a sense of humility and seflessness.”

He knew that if he fought for his country, his success would speak louder than his words.

As soccer coach Tony Adams famously said: