A Good Leader Has the Humility to Obey

Insight from Greg Lindberg based on 633 days in prison

One of the most important leadership lessons is the art of obeying commands. Obeying and commanding are two sides of the same coin. ~ Greg Lindberg, 633 Days Inside

Once he was incarcerated at Federal Prison Camp in Montgomery, Alabama in 2020, highly successful businessman Greg Lindberg did not focus on being wrongfully convicted while trying to create an insurance conglomerate in North Carolina. He had lawyers to take care of his quest for justice, and his appeal was unanimously successful mid-2022. It took almost 21 months for the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals to vacate his sentence, so it was wise that he took the approach of focusing on day to day existence and mastering all the rules of the FCP Montgomery facility. He was astounded by how many rules there were.

“There's 1001 rules in prison,” he reflects in a new YouTube video. “And by the end of my nearly 21 months, I totally perfected a system of mastering the rules of prison. And… there's a rule for everything. When you can take your shirt off in the rec yard, when you can't, where you can walk. There's red lines all over the place, literally and figuratively. And so my process of prison was in learning how to obey.”

Once he was again living in the free world, Lindberg wrote his second book, 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life and Leadership. In the back of the 300-page memoir are mostly hand-written letters he received from fellow inmates that he helped when teaching prison-endorsed classes at FPC Montgomery.

Willie Colon, a Puerto-Rican American from Miami, Florida, said Lindberg taught inmates not only to become a success in business, but also how to be a successful citizen. “It has made me see life through different eyes,” Colon said. “I've always seen success through illegal means, but Mr. Lindbergh gives me hope that I can truly be a success through legal means.”

On the new video, Colon remembers that whatever he saw Greg Lindberg do, he was 1,000% about success in the task. “That's why he's successful, because of his discipline.”

Richard McDonald also took Lindberg’s classes, knowing full well that the man was “the janitor at the Education Department” yet went about cleaning toilets with a continually happy attitude. “How many people do you meet who do that?” McDonald says. “Like, do you think it's fun to clean a prisoner’s toilet?”

About the classes, McDonald wrote in a letter in the book: “Within a couple of months of listening to his lectures, I knew that I was in for a great hour of knowledge, engagement, and hope…. Greg's ability to plant seeds of success into inmates’ minds is truly inspirational, as inmates leave his class with the knowledge and conviction that they can be successful business people post-release. I am truly grateful for the opportunity to attend Greg's classes; it has been the highlight of my time here.”

It is a well-known axiom that leaders lead by example. Perhaps it is also true that followers respect a leader that they know is also humble. When Greg Lindberg was released, his company had 7500 employees worldwide. He did not defiantly proclaim he was back and ready to exact revenge on those who wronged him. He was humble.

“As a leader, you have to have the humility to obey,” he says. “You have to have the humility to be the servant that cleans the toilets. You have to have the humility to admit when you're wrong, to shut up, to say nothing, to step back, to be silent. All those things came from 21 months of obey.”

Another inmate took two of Lindberg’s classes at FCP Montgomery. William Green of Chattanooga, Tennessee was imprisoned for distribution of the toxic drug fentanyl.

“What impressed me about Greg was his attitude and his demeanor,” Green remembers. “He wasn't snobbish, he wasn't nothing. He was just like a plain old guy. I got a chance to know not just Greg Lindberg the billionaire. I got to know Greg Lindberg, the person.”

In a letter in 633 Days Inside, Green wrote: “He has the most positive mindset I have ever seen…. He has taken his adversity to help other inmates, and everyone here respects him for that. I am very proud to call him a friend. His perseverance and humbleness is what makes Mr. Lindbergh a good person.”

In his book, Lindberg is transparent about the process of self-assessment and adjustment that he went through while incarcerated.

“Prison teaches you to be humble…. I mean, what's more humble than being in a 4x8 cell, getting out, cleaning toilets, and going to the bathroom with 20 other men in a disgusting moldy, big bug-infested bathroom? I was grateful for that experience. It taught me what it means to be obedient. And it taught me, when you're not in charge, you're not in charge. Get used to it. If you're self-aware, it teaches you humility, and that humility teaches you strength when it comes time to command. It's a whole other level of strength.”

President Dwight D. Eisenhower once said: “Humility must always be the portion of any man who receives acclaim earned in blood of his followers and sacrifices of his friends.”

Some men adopt a war-like state of mind when incarcerated. The worst of these spend time in maximum security prison. Greg Lindberg knew one such prisoner, betrayed with false promises by his lawyer and the prosecutor, who battled with staff when sent to FCP Montgomery. That man was quickly sent to a hard-time “behind the wire” facility. This man did not have the chance to take one of Lindberg’s classes and thus have a change of attitude like fellow inmates Colon, McDonald, and Green.

These are reasons why Lindberg wrote his book and, through his website www.greglindberg.com, he is making digital copies available to any currently incarcerated inmate or their family member. Even more to the point, his company, Global Growth, has a stated policy of not turning away potential employees because of a criminal conviction. Lindberg knows how people can change, with humility.

Listen to Greg Lindberg and his former inmates here:

You can find the video version at this link.

The ebook of 633 Days Inside: Lessons on Life & Leadership can be found on Amazon, GooglePlay, Apple Books and many other major outlets. The paperback is available at Barnes & Noble and, via IngramSpark, around the world.