This ad for Cadillac first appeared in The Saturday Evening Post on January 2, 1915.
Elvis first saw this ad in 1967 and he loved it so much that he placed a framed copy on the wall in his office at
THE PENALTY OF LEADERSHIP
In every field of human endeavor,
he that is first must perpetually live
in the white light of publicity.
Whether the leadership be vested in a
man or in a manufactured product,
emulation and envy are ever at work.
In art, in literature, in music, in
industry, the reward and the punish-
ment are always the same.
The reward is widespread recognition;
the punishment, fierce denial and
detraction.
When a man’s work becomes a stand-
ard for the whole world, it also be-
comes a target for the shafts of the
envious few.
If his work be merely mediocre, he
will be left severely alone -- if he
achieves a masterpiece, it will set a
million tongues a-wagging.
Jealousy does not protrude its forked
tongue at the artist who produces a
commonplace painting.
Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play,
or sing, or build, no one will strive to
surpass or to slander you, unless your
work be stamped with the seal of genius.
Long, long after a great work or a good
work has been done, those who are dis-
appointed or envious continue to cry
out that it cannot be done.
Spiteful little voices in the domain of
art were raised against our own Whistler
as a mountebank, long after the big
world had acclaimed him its greatest genius.
Multitudes flocked to
worship at the musical shrine of
Wagner, while the little group of those
whom he had dethroned and displaced
argued angrily that he was no musician
at all.
The little world continued to protest
that
boat, while the big world flocked to
the river to see his boat steam by.
The leader is assailed because he is a
leader, and the effort to equal him is
merely added proof of that leadership.
Failing to equal or to excel, the follower
seeks to depreciate and to destroy -- but
only confirms once more the superiority
of that which he strives to supplant.
There is nothing new in this.
It is as old as the world and as old as
the human passions -- envy, fear, greed,
ambition, and the desire to surpass.
And it all avails nothing.
If the leader truly leads, he remains --
the leader.
Master-poet, master-painter, master-
workman, each in his turn is assailed,
and each holds his laurels through the ages.
That which is good or great makes
itself known, no matter how loud
the clamor of denial.
That which deserves to live -- lives.
