Lessons in Leadership from Hearst Castle

Neptune Pool. Photo courtesy of Karen Daniel

Just recently I had the opportunity to extend a trip associated with my role here for a few days to enjoy that virtual Eden that is California. My wife and I spent a couple of days in Disneyland, of course, but also took a couple of days to drive up to central California where we experienced Cambria and San Simeon for the first, and hopefully not the last, time. While there we toured the Hearst Castle—basically, the West Coast equivalent of the Biltmore Mansion. This incredible manor, built by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, has an incredibly rich history and story. During the tour and in subsequent conversations I’ve picked up on several leadership lessons that can be gleaned.

Partnership. For such a special project Hearst had to seek out the most gifted architect of the day. He found Julia Morgan. Julia completed hundreds of projects in her life but is probably most famous for her role with Hearst. The Hearst Castle took 15 years to complete and it necessitated a give-and-take partnership between visionary and builder, each most likely at times serving these roles alternately. There were probably moments of tension and exasperation, but in the final analysis both were well aware that they had crossed the Rubicon into the point of no return. As we say, they were “in it.” This sort of devotion comes right out of Acts 2 and is foundational to redemptive community.

Beauty Is Worth The Wait. There are little details everywhere you look on the tour we were on. The indoor pool Hearst referred to as the Roman Baths has thousands of tiles made of 22 karat gold. The marble implemented in creating the outdoor pool was imported from Italy. The art collection amassed painstakingly over the course of a lifetime. The story behind the furniture and paintings in the guest houses. Like a true redemptive community, not only was the resulting beauty worth the wait, but it remained a work in progress until Hearst’s death. True beauty is the work of a lifetime.

Work In Progress. The house sits atop  hill that’s 5 miles away from the coast. I mean it’s way up there—practically above the clouds. These circumstances required that the work site become a small-city where builders could actually live, supplies stored, and materials warehoused. In many of the pictures we saw it is an absolute mess. But in order to get where he wanted to be, Hearst and Morgan had to tolerate—dare I say encourage—the mess on the way to the destination.

Willing to Scrap. The outdoor pool, known as Neptune Pool (pictured), was originally designed to accommodate Hearts’s family and a few others. After it was completed, however, it was decided to scrap the whole thing to make it bigger—and grander. Similarly, the Casa Grande originally had just one spire. Because of the threat of earthquakes, all construction utilized re-enforced, fortified concrete making any sort of “re-do” a task of Ruthian proportions. But for all practical purposes they tore down the entire house so they could build in a second spire … just because. Taking this in I remember concluding, when creating something significant we’ve got to be willing to scrap our original plan if the occasion calls for it. To be a great builder often requires our willingness to scrap what we’ve already built.

Become Art Collectors. In the case of William Hearst, collecting art was a zillion-dollar habit that included roaming the entire planet in a quest for the most beautiful, rare, and wonderful finds. In our case, the “art” we collect translates into the stories being told and lived in and through group life. As a group member we must be willing to contribute the “art” that results from our own lives. As leaders we must become art collectors in the same sense.

Yeah It May Be Hard But …. Not once on the tour did I hear the guide refer to a moment when something wasn’t done because it was too hard. (Disclaimer: Seeming endless resources does contribute in this case.) Hearst had a zoo on site. (He owned a polar bear.) He made substantial changes in construction and planning as a result of art acquisitions. Building on the hill posed enormous challenges given the technology of the day. Instead of seeing the obstacles, he chose instead to “live” in a yet-to-be-seen reality and plot every push of the fly-wheel in that direction—sometimes in small, hand-carved increments. I would refer to this as a form of romanticism. The process of building true redemptive community may be hard, but …

The journey to redemptive community may be daunting—moreso if we choose to look at all the reasons we shouldn’t be able to do it—but this only provides the impetus to look beyond the challenges and directly into what God is going to do. We must work together in community with the various architects God has brought into our lives, willing to scrap and re-direct with each new piece of “art” we fortunate enough to encounter. But in the end we’re building not only something beautiful, but something to stand the test of time.

 

No Redemption in Disneyland

I love Disneyland. I love Disney World. During a recent trip I had the opportunity to visit Disneyland for the first time. Watching a street party on Main Street during which the cast member/performers sang the chorus to “Celebrate You” over and over again, my older daughter said—half out loud, half to herself—”that’s kind of selfish.” And so in the middle of the self-proclaimed “Greatest Celebration on Earth” there was slightest touch of sadness. The exhortation to celebrate in-and-of-itself is fine. Even though I’ve enjoyed every book I’ve read about Walt and each visit to the parks, the chorus “Celebrate You” over and over again began to ring more and more false and empty. Ernest Hemingway once wrote that there’s death in every joke. Sadly, I found something akin to the same death, even if just for a moment, there on Main Street, Disneyland USA. For that moment there was no depth. The stakes of life were not high—which is what so many find so appealing about theme parks. That is to say for these the confines of the park are insular and womb-like. For most of us Disney World is a respite from the battles of life—an en hakkore of sorts. But for others, I’m afraid, it represents a permanent abdication of the great battle between ultimate good and ultimate evil to which noble hearts are called. The irony, of course, is that the great Disney animated features almost all tap into this aspect of who we are. The poet Tennyson charged us in the Ulysses: “to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.” Redemptive community challenges us to “stand in the breach” and not abdicate the good fight.

 

Wonderland

Given my daughter’s Alice in  Wonderland ballet recital, a recent trip to Disneyland, and a little buzz surrounding the new Alice in Wonderland movie, I thought it might be a good time to give Alice a little bit of a “shout-out” here at The Gypsy Road.  I can only conclude that Walt Disney was accurate when he said, after being asked about Alice in Wonderland‘s lackluster reception: “When we got down to it we realized that it was just a bunch of weird characters.”

I read the Lewis Carroll story back in the fall after putting it off for many many years. As a result of that experience I will add that Alice is a very enlightened character in a postmodern sense. Since we need to become comfortable with the mysteries of the world if we’re going to be serious about traveling the gypsy road, I thought this quote from Alice in Wonderland would serve to connect us to the fairy tale we all find ourselves in—the spiritual journey. We’re also using it in the first Small Group Life release.

“I almost wish I hadn’t gone down that rabbit hole—and yet—it’s rather curious, you know, this sort of life! I do wonder what can have happened to me! When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!”