Chapter 69.
Don’t Forget to Breathe

In war, as in peace, a man needs all the brains he can get. Nobody ever had too many brains. Brains come from oxygen. Oxygen comes from the lungs where the air goes when we breathe. The oxygen in the air gets into the blood and travels to the brain. Any fool can double the size of his lungs.

—George Patton

Scott Richardson recalls the role breathing plays in achieving success as a leader. Yes, breathing, as in, “Don’t forget to breathe.”

Scott recalls: My first mentor and music coach, Rodney Mercado, never actually mentioned it. We never spoke about it, and yet I noticed it, and I copied him and modeled him.

Because when Mercado played an instrument, he was taking some of the most extraordinarily deep breaths that I’d ever heard a human being take. And so even though he never mentioned it, I figured, if it works for him, I’m going to do the same thing. And since then, I’ve learned how important breath is to our energy, our focus, and our concentration.

So, I would take a deep breath inward right before I started to play the violin, and then I would breathe out as I was bowing. And then as I changed the bow stroke, I would take another breath, and so I would breathe in unison with the music I was performing. I still do this to this day.

Putting so much energy and intensity (Mercado’s favorite word) into the performance was what produced the result that would move people who heard it.

As leaders, our own energy and intensity are monitored by our people. They take many of their own subtle psychological cues from how we look—our movements and expressions (or lack of them).

This is why we must learn to breathe deeply and lead. To really get out there and lead with enthusiasm. To generate excitement, and then breathe again, even more deeply. The word inspire literally means “to breathe in.”

We don’t want to stagnate all day breathing shallowly behind our desk or in front of our computer. That won’t inspire anyone.