Category: BOOK TWO: LEADERSHIP FORMED IN THE WILDERNESS

WHY VIRTUOSO?

So where did the idea of VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP come from? It all began when I realized that character was a critical component in living the life of significance that had eluded me. Once I learned the importance of character, and that character is only grown in adversity, I had to take a hard look at my own. That’s when I realized that my weak character was a major cause of my wilderness journey.

What I discovered about my own character was painful. I learned I was a self-focused leader lacking the primary trait of a VIRTUOSO LEADER, an outward mindset, which is the ability to see life from the perspective of others.

I didn’t have an outward mindset and as a result my perspective was inward, selfish, self-protecting, but also self-limiting. It prevented me from experiencing abundant life. I also learned, character is the “fruit” not the “root”, it occurs as a result of something else, such as your identity, your attachment, or your maturity.

When I began coaching, I had a fantasy, of being invited to coach winning teams, helping them become champions. Reality quickly exposed my fantasy. While everyone can benefit from a coach, it is when adversity comes, that a leader is open to hiring one. More often than not, coaching means stepping into someone’s pain, and helping them to gain perspective and get unstuck.

My wilderness journey took me through a deep look at my own inner life, and getting unstuck was my first fruit. As a coach, I needed to be able to quickly assess what was limiting a leader, and I realized I cannot take people any deeper than I have gone myself.

My search for an assessment tool led me to develop the VIRTUOSO LEADER EQUASTION:

IDENTITY = ATTACHMENT + MATURITY + CHARACTER

The assessment starts with CHARACTER because it defines everyone, strong or weak, good, or bad. It is a “fruit” not a “root”, a presenting symptom, underneath it are maturity and attachment. Identity is the foundation on which they stand.

All of us were created to have an anchored identity, a secure attachment, maturity to handle hardship well, and character that gives life, not only to ourselves, but also to others. The problem is, our life, our past, our traumas and our experiences can result in unanchored identity, insecure attachment, holes in our maturity, all contributing to weak character.

But I found the answer on the journey of VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP, and you can find it too.

Virtuoso, is barrowed from Return on Character, by Fred Kiel. Kiel was an iconic industrial psychologist, who pioneered the use of character analysis as a method of leadership development. In his insightful work, Kiel proves the role of character in adding to or detracting from the value of an enterprise, both financially and culturally. His firm’s (KRW International) research and the results, clearly demonstrate the real reason leaders and their companies win.

From 2006-2013 KRW followed 121 CEOs from the largest and most prominent companies around the United States, gathering data from surveys completed by thousands of managers and leaders who worked with, for and reported to the 121 CEOs.

The research measured four individual character traits: Integrity, forgiveness, responsibility, and compassion. Dividing the leaders into two groups, they tagged those who demonstrated low character, as “self-focused,” while those who demonstrated high character, “virtuoso.”

Next, each company’s performance was analyzed and compared over the seven-year period of the study. The results were compelling and telling. Two of the most persuasive were: companies led by “virtuoso” leaders had a Return on Assets, nearly five-times greater than the companies led by the members of the “self-focused” cohort. A second finding, Employee Engagement, was 26% greater for companies lead by “virtuoso” CEOs. WOW!

One final thought on the Return on Character study: KRW extended an offer to sit down, one on one, with each participating CEO, to review their company’s results. None of the “self-focused” CEOs accepted the offer; all of the “virtuoso” CEOs did, saying they desired to improve for the benefit of their teams and their organizations (that is an “outward mindset” in practice).

Who wouldn’t want to be a VIRTUOSO?

Are you ready to take the next step?

Then join me on the JOURNEY.

Until we next time,

LIVE INSIDE OUT,

Andy Wyatt

July 24, 2025

BASE CAMP

First, some background; where are we, and how did we get here:

I am an experiential learner, I learn on the field not in the laboratory. Experience is not the best teacher, but sometimes, and for some personalities, like mine, it’s the only teacher.

My wilderness journey felt like a mountain climb, when I looked down I got scared when I looked up I got discouraged. But the pain of my former captivity motivated me for the climb and gave me the resolve not to turn back.

Before my climb could begin, I had some work to do, because “what got me here, wouldn’t get me there”. I had to learn some things and I had to unlearn some things. That’s what I did in my “Base Camp”

Base Camp is where you prepare for your climb. Base Camp is where I learned the LIVE INSIDE OUT principle and the answers to three key questions:

1. Who I was?
2. How was I made?
3. How do I work.?

The LIVE INSIDE OUT principle is simply that you cannot be effective on the outside until you are clear about what’s on the inside.

As my friend and coach, Johnny Parker writes in Frontstage Backstage: External Success Requires Internal Health, you will not be able to handle the bright lights of your front stage if you don’t first do your work backstage. My backstage was a mess!

I needed a new way to operate, a new operating system, but before I could accept the fact that my inner life was not clear, before I could answer the three Base Camp questions, I had to know the answer to the three questions every human being longs to know:

1. Am I accepted?
2. Am I secure?
3. Am I significant?

I call these, the “in the mirror” questions, because no one can answer them for you. And unless and until your answer is yes to all, you will not be able to freely become all you were created to be.

Once I had metabolized the answers to these three questions, I could then answer the three base camp questions: who am I, how was I made, and what was I created to do?

My answers formed my philosophy, system, and leadership framework that this new book explains. It is a philosophy from my heart, from the inside out. It is guided by my faith and it is driven by my purpose which is to build big people, not a big company.

I call my new operating system: ASW 2.0. The climb has been both transformative and life giving for me.

It can be for you too. If you are looking for more from this life, this philosophy, system and framework can help you find what you are searching for.

The Virtuoso Leader Philosophy is the foundation on which THE 4 CORNERSTONES OF A PROSPEROUS BUSINESSsystem is built. It was born out of my experience as an entrepreneur, leader, CEO, and coach, and it took a journey through a wilderness for it to be fully formed.

While the philosophy is the foundation of the four cornerstones, the framework is a distillation of the wisdom that came out of my “wilderness years.” These years were the seed stock of LEADERSHIP FORMED IN THE WILDERNESS; The Forging of a Virtuoso Leader, the second book in the PRO LEADERSHIP Series.

The first Book, PRO LEADERSHIP, Establishing Credibility, Building Your Following & Leading With Impact. Andrew Wyatt (Morgan James, 2021), is being revised and republished under the title, LEARNING LEADERSHIP, Confronting Every Leaders Three Big Challenges. This book was the result of 25 years of business experience, building and leading an enterprise. It contains 24 leadership principles taken from the yellow legal pad that tracked all my steps and occupied the top-drawer of my desk for the first 25-years of my career.

It’s been said, adversity builds character, but prosperity reveals it. I know this is true because I lived it. The company I founded, lead and helped to build grew big, fast, but it didn’t last. My piece: many reasons, but a large contributor; my character could not carry abundance, so my company eventually came to a painful end.

And I stepped from the corner office, into the wilderness, and began the journey to VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP.

I lost my CAREER, but I gained a CALLING.

Like Israel in bible times, I left the prosperity of my “Egypt” and stepped into an unknown wilderness, not knowing where I was going or how long the journey to the promised land would take. Fortune and position had disappeared, but that was not the greatest loss, no, the greatest loss was my identity and with it, the courage to lead.

My first operating system, ASW 1.0 was driven by the 3-Bs: my Business, my Balance Sheet, my Bank Account. That operating system was exchanged for something much more valuable and lasting. I was given WISDOM born from adversity.

The bible says, “wisdom is better than silver or gold”. I didn’t want to believe it, now I do.

The Virtuoso Leader Philosophy is the outcome of hundreds of wilderness hours, the metabolization of vast amounts of wisdom and experience, gathered and consumed like manna, one day at a time. The answers to hard questions.

It all came out of what looked like a defeat, a failure. And as so often is the case with business struggles, it comes down to “the people” and leads to a person, often whose character is not ready to carry abundance, so what is built will not last.

But what has come as the result of the death of ASW 1.0 is greater than I could ever imagine. In its place a virtuoso leader philosophy was born, and a system has been developed: THE 4 CORNERSTONES OF A PROSPEROUS BUSINESS. This system together with its framework, game plans and playbooks are the guideposts to guide anyone who desires to join the journey to VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP.

Until we next time,

LIVE INSIDE OUT,

Andy Wyatt

June 5, 2025

IN THE BEGINNING

When I was young, we had a phonograph in our basement, and I would play Bach and Beethoven. pretending I was conducting a grand orchestra. I aspired to be a virtuoso, even in my youth!

It wasn’t long before I realized that if my virtuoso dream was to become reality, it would not be in music, because, as they say, “you cannot put in what GOD left out.”

Thankfully, being a virtuoso is not limited to the arts. In fact, anyone can be a virtuoso, to be one, you only need to discover: who you are, what you were made to do, and what you’re called to do. Once you’ve answered these three questions, the virtuoso journey begins.

But here is the journey’s first principle: becoming a VIRTUOSO is not a destination, it is, a lifestyle.

A second principle is even more vital: you must be able to lead yourself. Why? Because becoming a virtuoso is an individual sport. No one can do it for you. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t say you have to do it alone, you cannot, it requires a community to help you develop your maturity and your character. Your part is to act.

Leadership is my calling, and business is the field where I answered it. My journey from CAPTIVITY, through a WILDERNESS, into my PROMISED LAND, taught me two things: 1) I didn’t want to retire or stop leading. 2) I wasn’t saved to think small. I THINK BIG and I have a BIG DREAM/VISION.  A journey to VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP requires both.  

Do you think BIG? Do you have a BIG VISION?

If you don’t, that’s the first work you’ll need to do. You need to train yourself to think BIG, and to open yourself to a BIG VISION.

I’ve done both, and it’s not easy, but it is simple (more on that later). For now, pause and answer these:

1. Am I a BIG THINKER? If not, why not? If yes, how did I get here?
2. What is my vision of my future? Is it bigger than my past? If not, why not?
3. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?

My Vision is HUGE. It is way bigger and more than I can ever accomplish alone, but because it is, it gets me out of bed in the morning and fuels my days.

I didn’t say it wasn’t hard, because it is, but I have learned; just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s bad. When I add weight at the gym it is hard, but overtime it makes me stronger, so I keep adding weight and muscle.

The vision of your future must be bigger than your past, or you will stop growing.

Do you desire to grow? Keep reading and let the VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP philosophy and the 4 CORNERSTONES of a PROSPEROUS BUSINESS system and framework transform your life.

Okay, I told you I have a BIG VISION, now I’m going to share it with you, so that you can see what I mean by BIG VISION: My ambition is to champion, inspire, equip and encourage 25 million leaders annually to live inside out, and have Courageous Trust, to apply, Intentional Focused Agency so they will transform their lives, by changing the way they think, so they experience abundant life and move from striving for success to abiding in significance. 

That is a BIG DREAM a HUGE VISION, one that I could never do alone, because I don’t control outcomes, but I do control input and my input is my AGENCY. That is what I am called and responsible to apply.

The same is true for you.

CONTROL focuses on outcomes; AGENCY is all about input. Being focused on outcomes will waste time, cause anxiety, “brain damage”, and stress. I know this is universally true.

That is why being able to balance CONTROL and AGENCY is a central theme of any journey of VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP.

This is your invitation: join me on the journey of VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP.

The framework for VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP which will guide our journey is primarily a business one. I answered my call through business, that is where I learned to lead, add value to people and guide them on their journey.

But what if your call is not to business? The VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP philosophy applies not only to business but to life. If you learn and metabolize its principles, they will transform your life will adding value to your life wherever you’ve been called.

The VIRTUOSO LEADERSHIP philosophy is built on principles not tactics so it will last and be a ever flowing spring for those who choose to adopt it. Why principles, not tactics? Because tactics are temporary, but principles are permanent.

So, join the Virtuoso Leader community, follow along and enjoy the fruit of the journey. You won’t regret it.

Andy Wyatt

May 28, 2025