This year’s Oscar winner for best actor Matthew McConaughey said during his acceptance speech, “There’s three things, to my account, that I need each day: One of them is something to look up to, another is something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase.”
According to Inc. its not always someone would find leadership lesson during the Oscar ceremony, but three lessons could be found from McCogaughey’s speech; something to look up to I would put it as all leaders has to be accountable to someone, something to look forward to, I would interpret it as motivation and someone to chase, in my opinion it is to have a bigger goal for someone you care.
The movie Captain Philips is based on a true story of Captain Richard Philips, whose ship was seized by Somalian pirates. There are two characters, Captain Philips who is the captain of the U.S. cargo ship and Muse the leader of the Somalian Pirate group who seized the ship to kidnap its crew to earn ransom money. Both Philips and Muse had strong motivation to pursue their goals. One wanted money by keeping hostage the crews, and the other one wanted to save the money, cargo and his crews.
At one point in the movie Muse says, “I have come too far, I can’t give up,” it shows his determination as a leader. Captain Philips showed his determination to save the ship and his crews when he selflessly went with the pirates as hostage and saved his team in return.
They were also chasing something but of course their purpose was different. Philip was trying to chase away the armed pirates to save his unarmed crew and bring the ship and cargo to safety, while Muse was desperate to get into the ship and take the crews hostage for ransom.
“They don’t know the ship, but you do,” this says how strategic planner Philips. The Captain guided his team and kept them motivated. He was able to keep the team united, whereas Muse had to manage constant fight among his team mates.
Muse was not so much strategic and he underestimated the power of his enemy. It shows when at the end he said, “I thought it was easy,” which obviously was not.
The entire U.S. Navy was after the life boat to save Philips. In the end Muse lost all his friends and was caught by the U.S. Navy.
The movie displayed two different dynamism of leadership, sometimes Muse’s leadership style seemed to overpower Philips but in the end it was Phillips who outwitted Muse.
Wahida,
Great post! I like how you integrated Mathew McCogaughey’s acceptance speech into your blog – you related it well to the subject of your post and it was very relevant to the theme of our week! Your group did a great job presenting the leadership lessons from “Captain Phillips” and I think this post ties in well with the presentation
Nice analysis; I am most stroke by the quote from Mattew McConaughey in the fact of looking up, looking forward to and someone to chase. When you look at it closely you may find that we are all-it’s my case and I assume for the majority- been dealing with something hot actually, and we are thinking about how to overcome tomorrow’s obstacles and take example on the good designated people to do better to the interest of the majority, could be “someone to chase”
Nice way to inspire and serve people.
Thanks Issa and Emily!