Gary Quehl and William Bergquist
I’ve always felt the need to be involved and I’ve always enjoyed it, working with right-thinking people who appreciate our community. Senior Sage Leader
While emerging sage leaders identify with all five motivations, most senior sages are chiefly motivated by altruism and self-interest—and a few by power. The altruism motivation focuses on three activities: community improvement, wanting to giving back, and helping others.
Community Improvement
The motivation of wanting to improve the quality of community life is one of the greatest motivators for senior sage leaders. This has to do with grabbing any important situation by the neck and providing specific leadership that is needed; they want to leave a legacy for their children and grandchildren, influence the various sectors of the community to work collaboratively, and fulfill long-held dreams during retirement years:
There are things as a county or city leader that if you don’t take charge, initiate and get some enthusiasm going, nothing will get done. I guess this has to do with leading by example.
The best thing I ever did, besides marrying my wife, was having the opportunity to come here to live, raise a family, and somehow scratch out a living when we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. I always felt this country was founded on the principal of people becoming involved in their community. Back then we didn’t have professional politicians here. Instead, business and other leaders would come together to run this community, then leave and someone else would come and do the job. We’ve screwed that up so it doesn’t happen much anymore.
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