“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”-John Adams
Plastered on the walls of the Robert’s leadership center in Seaverns, this quote however, is neither by John Quincy Adams, nor by anyone for that matter! Used by Ivanka Trump in her 2017 novel, “Women Who Work: Rewriting the Rules for Success.” It has a strange history, not just in making its way to her book, but to the KO campus.
The first appearance of a similar quote is in Dolly Parton’s 1997 book, “The Most Important Thing I Know:” “If your actions create a legacy that inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, then, you are an excellent leader.” This quote has also been highly used, but it is unclear whether or not it was the influence for a segment of former NFL quarterback, Peyton Manning’s AAU Sullivan award speech. The AAU Sullivan award, “Has been given out since 1930 to the nation’s best athlete at the Olympic, Collegiate, or similar elite level.” Other notable recipients include Tim Tebow and Michael Phelps. In his speech, Manning paraphrased the quote.
“If my actions on the field and having my name on this Sullivan Trophy inspires others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, as so many have said, I only hope they don’t limit that potential to sports,” Manning stated. While this shares a close similarity with Dolly’s words, due to his lack of attribution, we cannot be certain that he is quoting her.
The first time the quote was attributed to John Quincy Adams was in “The Paradox of Power: A Transforming View of Leadership,” a 2002 business book by former vice president of the Orlando Magic, Pat Williams. It stated,
“You must lead and motivate from the middle. The motivator in the middle is the motivator who truly inspires people to do and be their best. John Quincy Adams challenged all managers when he wrote, ‘If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.’”
The quote continued to be used, both in its Dolly Parton and JQA versions, for the next decade. It spread and gained fame, being cited in high school graduation speeches, books, and in inspirational posters across the US.
The next big usage was on April 16, 2015, by President of the United States Donald Trump when he tweeted:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” – John Quincy Adams.
This is likely the reason Ivanka used this quote, and the reason it was misattributed. Ivanka is Donald’s second child, and likely saw this quote when writing her book and took it. This doesn’t excuse her though, as she clearly didn’t do any research before slapping it in her book. Annalisa Quinn, an NPR book reviewer, compared reading her book to “eating scented cotton balls.”
One thing to note is that these words are not at all in the style of John Quincy Adams. Here is something John Quincy Adams actually wrote on Dec. 22, 1893: ““Perhaps the severest trial of righteousness is the patient fortitude which endures, without yielding to, the perverseness of mankind,”. H.W. Brands, a historian and author at the University of Texas at Austin, said. “I’ve never seen that from J. Q. Adams, It doesn’t sound like him. He wasn’t the dreamy type.” And here comes my favorite part: “Adams had a rather crimped view of human nature. He thought most people were rascals. He disliked democracy because he thought it fostered pandering to people’s baser instincts.” Adams was a diplomat for most of his life, and was extremely brilliant and strong willed. He strongly opposed slavery, and supported the rights of women and Native Americans. He is thought to have had an IQ of 165, the highest of any US president ever, he spoke nine languages, including Russian, Latin, and Greek. While he was a mediocre president, he was an incredible diplomat. He also didn’t share the optimism of this quote. He was a solitary and reserved man, who suffered from depression caused by the pressure of his parents. He was awkward and felt unhappy with his physical appearance. John Quincy Adams was definitely not the type to talk about inspiring others to dream big and become more.
If you didn’t notice it by now, the quote in Leadership doesn’t even reference J.Q. Adams as the quotee, but John Adams. Now these are not the same person, J. Q. Adams was the eldest son of John Adams, so not only did we put a quote on the wall that has no apparent creator, but we misattributed and wrote it down wrong. We misquoted a misquoted quote!
This whole situation relates to a current issue, as many seem to care less about the truth in recent years. Barring any political context, we as a society are trading accurate information for fast responses. AI is creating fake videos and stories all across social media. Clickbait is rampant across long-form content, such as Youtube videos. One study that looked at tweets from 2006 to 2016 saw that fake news traveled six times faster than the truth. Even at KO, someone found this quote and put it up on campus before doing any real fact-checking. One KO teacher said, “I don’t think we are all that interested in the truth that much anymore.” They continued, “And that’s sad, because John Quincy Adams would have seen the irony, and probably Dolly Parton would too.”
We live in a time of misinformation and gullibility. Our parents who told us not to trust what we read online are falling for AI videos and being scammed. But it also isn’t there fault. Before social media, there were few sources of news, and you weren’t being bombarded with constant information. We grew up with that, and have learned to second guess everything, they didn’t. Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels once said: “A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.” We can see that throughout the internet. People latch onto the exciting stories and they spread. If I see a one off Tik Tok, I will scroll by and think little of it, but if I keep seeing video after videos of one idea, it can latch on and become the truth. Another issue of the internet is algorithms and echo chambers.
Let’s say there’s an election between a mouse and a cat. You like the cat’s post and scroll past the mouse, if you repeat that a few times, you might start seeing more frequent and more radical cat posts. You may look up the information and see a biased article that confirms it. Maybe the mouse supposedly said all cats are killers, even if that isn’t true, you are more likely to believe that because you already don’t like the mouse. Now you can tell all your cat friends that the mice are attacking, this strengthens the cause, and polarizes the people. Now all cats are good and all mice are bad, and whoever wins the election will have a loyal and strong fanbase.
Kingswood Oxford is a mostly unbiased institution, and we try to allow the members of the community to think for themselves, unfortunately we still messed up that quote. One Google search would have prevented this whole fiasco, as an article from 2011, long before the quote was hastily copied onto our walls, finished with a clear and concise summary: “In conclusion, Dolly Parton crafted a version of this idea that was published in 1997… (We have) not yet found evidence for the existence of this quotation before 1997.” Kingswood Oxford prides itself on integrity, honesty, and intellectual curiosity; this mistake is the opposite of our ideals.
Unfortunately, I was fed misinformation and was told history teacher Peter Jones was the culprit, and that he led the quote committee per say, but he vehemently denied any part of this, and unfortunately, that is where the trail goes cold. Senior Sam Almeida was especially aghast: “Who committed this horrid crime that bears the burden of a distinct lack of research?” She lamented. “Who betrayed our ideals so? The truth… is lost to the wind.”
