Define objectives. You want to be the leader. Leadership planning. Cuban style. Simple but effective. Knock down the existing leader in a coup. Rule the country with an iron fist for almost 50 years (while you survive to hundreds of assassination attempts). Hold on to the job for as long as it is physically possible. With your teeth if you have to. When, at last, you can`t walk propely (because you fall); you can`t keep on going with your endless speeches (because you faint); you can barely lift your head from your hospital pillow to breathe fire into the face of your comrades... Succesion planing. You deliver the keys of your kingdom to the best man for the job - your loving younger brother, Raúl.
It is quite logical. You already have a certain age, more than 80. So, you delegate your power to your "successor in blood". With more vitality than you. After all, he`s only 76 years old. Oh! But he doesn`t look like. He seems to have only 73. A child, comparing to you.
It is unquestionable that the cigar-loving dictator has his own inimitable style of leadership. He is a character, with a questionable strategy. Because of it, many tried to topple him (topple=kill_Fidel`s dictionnary). And also started to use strategies. ´Acme-like` inventions, more suitable to Bugs Bunny` cartoons. He`s right when says that if surviving assassination attempts were an Olympic event, he would win the gold medal.
I have to admite that I`ve read that the Cubans have a longer life expectancy than many european countries. I was even more surprised to learn that they achieved 99.8% literacy in the country. You want to try to compare it to Europe and America? But then, poverty, lack of liberty. What`s it worth it for. To have a long life, but live it like shit. To know a lot about lots of things and be abble to read about another countries, but aren`t allowed to do what they feel like and go wherever they wish to go. Conversation: the doctor in medicin to Fidel - Hola señor Castro. Yo he ganado un bueno dinero salvando la vida de las personas. Así que ahora puedo comprarme un coche. Usted me lo permite? Fidel answers to him - Cuantas vidas as salvado? A ver... No! Todavia no es suficiente. Te quedan 600 enfermos hasta que puedas comprarlo. Y 200 dellos tienen que padecer de lepra, vale? Venga, chico, mientras tienes tu bici, para llevar tus hijos a la escuela, para que un dia puedan ser medicos como tu!
So what can we learn from Castro's leadership experiences? Work hard to get to the top. Then, work even harder to stay there.
So, if Fidel is reading this from his hospital sick bed, perhaps he should sit up (well, maybe not) and take notice, you're never too old to learn something new: you should never mix family and business. The best man for the job isn't necessarily your brother. Nor is it your best friend, and possibly not even your deputy. Nor your golden fish, or your guinea pig. Nor your canary or your dwarfed rabbit.
(I can say this, because my uncle put his cousin replacing him at the bookstore and it was no good... Went bankrupt. This cousin always new that the uncle sold books. The thing is that what the Cousin really loved to do was japanese origamis. So he saw another purpose to such an amount of paper.)
And when you say you are going, you do need to go. Not to keep your self in the parliement, waiting to be elected to the council of state. Hanging on for longer than is necessary, promising to go, then hanging on some more. And even after the handover, lingering like a bad smell, watching over the shoulder of your successor and sticking your nose in where you no longer should. At this point, you really should GET A LIFE. Or take up golf. (The two are mutually exclusive.)
A good leader will know when the time is right to go. When to give up, stand down, make way for someone younger, smarter, more energetic. And the very best leaders will have selflessly sought the one person that can do the job better than themselves.
Probably, ahead of his own eyes, Fidel was/is a great leader. For him, his little brother surelly fills all the requests above. Well, he certainly assures the most important: younger brothers always listen the older ones.
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