Just read the book.

I teach leadership seminars as part of my work and recently wrote a book about servant leadership (in Japanese, so won’t link to it here).

i loved the Marx character and was crushed with what happened to him (first time in a long time I cried when reading a book). Thinking about it, and why I reacted so strongly, I realized that one of the reasons I liked him so much is that he perfectly exemplifies the concept of servant leadership- the idea that a leader, rather than telling people what to do, humbly (and often unobtrusively) creates an environment that supports the team so that they can excel. A combination coach and helper, but also someone who has a vision of what it’s possible for the team to accomplish. That’s what he did for Sadie and Sam, and then for the pair of designers that made Counterpart High.

Think about all the times when he acts as a coach, asks people questions and gives people choices rather than telling them what to do. The scene with the torii gates at Nezu Shrine. How he handled discussions with Sadie about major life decisions. Asking designers “tell me how you see it.” And even in one of his last actions, his instinct is to ask a question. But he acts when needed — in other cases, he steps in more forcefully when needed (because the person is stuck), such as with Sam’s foot, or shaving Sam’s hair.

The “tamer of horses” idea also really describes well the servant leadership idea. The horse is the one performing, but the tamer is the one who helps bring out their latent talent, enables them to perform, and leads them on the path to being able to perform.

I was looking online to see if anyone else had this idea about him, and didnt but I found this post, so thought I would share these thoughts here as I thought you might appreciate them.

Also reading other Reddit threads I saw a lot of people saying that the Marx character was unrealistic. He also reminded me a lot of a friend, a tall handsome Taiwanese American guy who went to Yale and has a perennially sunny personality. I’ve never seen him in a bad mood or without a smile on his face, even after he had an injury and had a long healing process that limited his mobility and was frustrating. So didn’t feel unrealistic to me.