The John Wesley Hardin draw

Doing things unconventional might bring you onto a path where you find yourself walking alone or only a few walks with you. Being unconventional makes you become somewhat of an outsider, though not in your eyes..It is in the eyes of the beholder.

In the streamlined beholders view, the unconventional walker is something strange, unknown or even dangerous. The unknown is something that most people fear, the unknown is the unpredictable factor where you will never know what is coming around the corner.

JWHs draw was unconventional, he had developed an unusual cross-draw method of pulling the guns. With one swift move, he crossed his arms and yanked out his revolvers, shooting in the motion, high accuracy, always lethal. It was considered to be the fastest and most lethal draw in the West. Known as the Hardin’s draw.

Yesterday I met a woman who has been traveling within Africa for more than 15 years, over 24 countries. She was determined to give Africa solar power before she died. She had been in Tanzania to sign one deal, and then off to Entebbe to sign another one. Determined. She told me she would rather live one day as a Lion than 100 as a lamb. Once she uttered the words, flashbacks came over me. That was my mother talking to me when I was a kid; ”Robertino, meglio un giorno da leone che 100 da pecora". Meaning, better die a hero than live a coward.

My mother was a ”crossdrawer” herself, unconventional.

Swedish Ebola aid workers returning to Stockholm, are treated like something that the cat dragged in. Their kids has been banned to return to the schools. Landlords wants to evict them and so forth. Education anyone?

The streamlined beholders show their fear. It is OK to be afraid, but it is not OK to be ignorant. With brains comes common sense, with common sense comes knowledge, with knowledge comes responsibilities, with responsibilities comes obligations. Obligations to use your brain.

JWH was not a psychopath or mentally unstable, he was a gentleman, well educated, literate and intelligent. Gifted with an abnormal ability of fast reflexes. Calm, cool and  collected when it came to stand offs.

Leaders has to be unconventional and ice cold, collected when the moment has come. The moment where you need to make a difference.

You can spot a ”crossdrawer” yourself. There a few out there, unconventional in their draw, yanking their revolvers in one motion, and firing at the same time, never missing their target. You spot them by watching how their hands are slightly leaning towards the body, thumbs inwards, always ready to draw, a dreamy look into their eyes, a look beyond the horizon.

To one ”crossdrawer” to another; in loving memory of my mother and  JWH, fastest man in the West.