By Timothy R. Clark, Deseret News, Published: Monday, July 25, 2011 10:18 a.m. MDT  

© 2011 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved 

Brigham Young, the American Moses, is a singular figure in modern history. He entered the Salt Lake valley with the first company of Mormon pioneers on July 24, 1847, commencing the exodus and westward migration of 70,000 pilgrims and refugees. He went on to establish 400 settlements across the Great Basin. He founded schools. He organized cooperatives. He built roads, canals, mail systems, mills and factories. The artifacts of the man and the vestiges of his impact live on all around us. In sheer magnitude, the breadth and depth of Brigham Young’s legacy is simply unmatched.

His influence travels through the generations. My ancestors heeded his call, left the old country and gathered to Zion. I grew up on the streets he surveyed, wore a football jersey bearing his name and graduated from two universities he established. And yet, to know Brigham Young on the basis of these things may in the final analysis miss the essence of who he was. As we commemorate the pioneers and their redoubtable leader, three things about the man stand out:

Field of Vision

First, Brigham Young possessed a different field of vision. What we call long-term strategic thinking today, Brigham Young would call stream of consciousness. I’m sure the contagion of short-termism that plagues our society would trouble him greatly. Our planning horizons stretch out five and sometimes 10 years. Brother Brigham added a zero and did things with centuries in mind. He did not enjoy the shade of trees he planted. The historian Leonard Arrington put it aptly when he said that Brigham Young “built beyond himself.” As a colonizer, and with almost every major project, his frame of reference looked beyond his life. I think of him dispatching Karl G. Maeser to start Brigham Young Academy. The school began as a classroom of ragged children learning basic literacy and numeracy. His planning mirrored his vision, and it was beside the point that the fulfillment of that vision did not include him.

Test of Reasonableness

Second, much of what Brigham Young did defied a basic standard of reasonableness. He stopped the wagon train in the desert. He could have gone on to the fertile fields and luxuriant crops of California and Oregon. Why not settle in Napa or Willamette Valley? Instead, he halted the migration in the middle of a forsaken, high-mountain desert with alkaline soil, little water and scorching sun. Talk about starting a company without funding or a highly skilled work force. To put it mildly, it wasn’t reasonable. But this wasn’t the exception; many of his major decisions would have failed a basic test of reasonableness. And there were many who made forlorn attempts to change his mind. He must have done a lot of polite listening in those days. The Jim Bridgers of the day thought him foolhardy, but the evidence of his success has had the last word. At all hazards, Brother Brigham did what he knew to be right, not reasonable.

Independence of Mind

Finally, to know Brother Brigham — to know his mind and lionheart — you must know what he said. When I first encountered the writings of Brigham Young, I was astounded. How could an unlettered man with 11 days of formal education write with such clarity and power? How could this carpenter and glazier wield the literary sword? His writings sliced through the vanity and corruption that threatened to engulf the society of his day. His lean, penetrating style reflects a bold independence of mind. He was beholden to no earthly constituency.

That Brigham Young was a great leader is not in question. We can talk about his organizational genius, his pragmatism and his breathtaking capacity. But until we understand his allegiance, we do not understand the man. In perhaps his most self-defining statement, he declares, “I care nothing about my character in this world. I do not care what men say about me. I want my character to stand fair in the eyes of my Heavenly Father."

Based on of the evidence of the past 164 years, you get the distinct feeling that he meant what he said.

Timothy R. Clark is the founder of TRClark Partners, a management consulting and training organization. He earned a doctorate from Oxford University and is the best-selling author of "Epic Change" and "The Leadership Test." E-mail: このメールアドレスは、スパムロボットから保護されています。アドレスを確認するにはJavaScriptを有効にしてください