With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

You don’t have to be a superhero to have great power, or have the responsibility of using that power wisely.

—

“With great power comes great responsibility.” 
The quote above is from a famous uncle, Ben Parker, actual (in the literary sense) Uncle and surrogate father to Peter Parker. Yes, the uncle of Spider-Man who died at the hands of a senseless act of violence, and our young hero, could have made a difference, but didn’t.

I’m talking about, yes, comic book characters; Spider-Man and Peter Parker. You know what? All the best stories or allegories or tales of our time are told by great storytellers, and writer and comics legend Stan Lee was no exception.

As a young man growing up, I didn’t realize what the phrase truly meant, until I walked into the corporate world, and even then, I think I wielded it a little bit like young Peter Parker and was careless and reckless. I made mistakes, I hurt people. I didn’t learn until …  well one of those incidents really touched me. It really brought home the reality that I have a responsibility to individuals.

Paul was a bike assembler during the 10 years I worked for a large retail organization in a management capacity. I started with a group of individuals that I worked with at the bottom, and I worked my way into a higher position. I’m a high-energy guy, running from pillar to post, running down my list, moving on to the next thing. One day, Paul, literally stopped me in mid stride and said, “Sean, you can’t even stop to have a conversation anymore. The person I knew, that I respected so deeply, he’s not there. Where did he go?”

That hit home. I had a responsibility to use the role that I had been given, the power of my position, to make sure that these employees, as well as their outcomes, were handled properly. I didn’t.

From that day forward, that stuck with me, and I stopped to talk. From time to time, I don’t — I’m not perfect. I don’t always stop. Sometimes I run around, still to this day, like a man with my head cut off. But I always try to remember Paul, the bike assembler, and how he said, “Sean, you’re not present.”

With great power comes great responsibility. We all need to remember that. I don’t want to try to oversimplify this but as a manager, as a parent, as a husband, we’re all granted gifts in life. Those gifts are responsibilities for our own actions, as well as sometimes the actions of others. Don’t take those for granted. Make sure that what you’re doing is driven by your purpose, and that you are caring for those that follow and support you.

With The Power Of These Words, I Have Great Responsibility, I’ve chosen to use them wisely.