On Leadership

Mr. Yeonas, the chairman of the Leadership 100 featured in this issue, by all standards a successful man, says his fellow members, all successful, have a major responsibility to show leadership that includes “philanthropy in support of our Church, our clergy, our community and our heritage.”

The ancient Greeks themselves considered any man who didn’t perform these acts of public service as not quite a man. So the eminent men and women of Leadership 100 are carrying on a proud tradition by giving back and it’s to their credit and honor.

I remember being involved with my own Chian Federation here in New York more than thirty years ago and meeting with George P. Livanos, who at the time was one of the leading ship owners in the world, with interests around the world, and who had no business spending his nights sitting in our-then makeshift offices with the folding table upstairs that served as our conference table and the folding chairs that served as stadium seating. Over paper cups of coffee with the omnipresent Parthenon logo we all sat a little stunned and listened to the great man talk about the efforts we could all make and he would support to establish our organization and help the Greek cause and how each of us could contribute. His Greek was halting, his oratory wasn’t very inspiring, but the great man was sitting right there in our converted storefront in Astoria and talking to us (the air conditioning and refrigeration repairmen, the short order cooks, the donut men and painters and countermen (and students, like me), when he could have been anywhere in the world taking care of business, and we felt flattered and energized. He even offered my father and me a ride home to Brooklyn after our meeting, but we were too proud (and we had heard rumors about his suspended license and numerous speeding tickets, the one flaw in the great man). He did extend an invitation to us to meet him at his offices at the World Trade Center, which we accepted, and where we sat around a table which might have been the biggest slab of marble in the world and where the building shook in the wind as we talked. “You have been wonderful,” he said to me directly, because I had written him a letter detailing how in my seasoned judgment (I was barely in college) we could recruit the young people to get more involved with the organization and its causes. “Keep it up, tell me more,” he said eagerly, and I couldn’t believe my ears that the great man was actually listening to me. He even offered berths on his ships to any youths who wanted to spend the summer experiencing the seafaring life that was their ancestry.

Mr. Livanos was an inspiration and he put his money where his mouth was. We worked very hard in the Chian Federation in those years and I never felt more proud to be a Chian or a Greek. It was part of my heritage and of the values that my parents and grandparents had taught me. But it was also from the simple motivating act of a man who wanted to give back and who provided the example of his own commitment, which is the true mark of leadership.

Dimitri C. Michalakis

©2009 NEOCORP MEDIA

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