Wake Up Running: Leadership Lessons from the top

From his office on the 53rd floor overlooking Times Square in New York City, it seems it would be easy to lose perspective. But James Barge is grateful for the opportunities he has had and humble about his success.

“You prove what your limits are by pushing yourself,” according to Barge, who finished the 2008 Boston Marathon 3 seconds faster than the average 40-year-old man.

Barge continued to give insightful wisdom to students participating in the Institute for Leadership Advancement certificate program Friday morning at University of Georgia’s main library. The 51 year old Georgia Alumnus was the first of four scheduled speakers for the Terry College of Business Leadership Speaker Series.

Now the Executive Vice President and Controller of Tax and Treasury of Viacom, the corporation that owns media entertainment companies such as MTV, BET, and Comedy Central, Barge has learned several pearls of leadership along his climb to the top of the corporate ladder.

“You must define success for yourself. You have to seek something out that makes you happy,” urged Barge. He insisted that climbing the corporate ladder is not a job for everyone and that true happiness is found only in identifying what makes a person tick.

Barge also stressed the importance of priorities in the business world. The priorities in his life are his beliefs, his family and then his career. “I was told that if I always take care of the first two that the third priority will take care of itself,” Barge told the crowd of about 100 students.

According to the US Department of Labor, the top ten most demanded jobs for graduates in 2009 did not exist in 2004. “It is now your turn to step up,” Barge told the students, “you have to walk to the edge and jump in.”

Barge closed the lecture by telling an old African parable about a lion and a gazelle. The story goes that every morning in Africa a lion and a gazelle both wake up. The lion knows he must outrun the slowest gazelle to survive. The gazelle knows he must outrun the fastest lion in to survive. So whether you are a gazelle or a lion, when you wake up in the morning, you better be running.

“I have faith in you all,” Barge congratulated students, “because I know you all can be either a lion or a gazelle and you will be leading the way.”