Richard Leakey Interview (page: 4 / 7) Paleoanthropologist and Conservationist	Print Interview

What are the personal characteristics that are important or necessary to do what you have done with your life?

Richard Leakey: We've talked about the work in prehistory, and my life has ventured into other areas: conservation, government and politics, and advocacy. I think it takes a certain self-confidence that you have an experience or a range of experience. You have a position that is legitimate and that lends itself to a better understanding of a particular set of issues. Perhaps your voice, my voice, can change people's positions on important issues that are more than personal. Perhaps one can stimulate discussion that will lead to solution to a range of problems. I think it takes a degree of self-confidence based on what you have done. I think it requires a willingness to listen and a willingness to give, back off, to postulate, to be remodeled in one's thinking. I think it's a flexibility of the mind.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I think it's important to have a sense of fun and a sense of amusement, to minimize one's tendency to think of one's self as somehow important. To make fun of one's self and to be able to accept that one was totally wrong on some issues and laugh about it, I think it's a very healthy thing. I think being wrong is never a bad thing, particularly if you can be the first to discover you were wrong. It is a little galling when others tell you you're wrong and they're right, but if you can say," I was wrong," before they get there, that's good for you.

I don't think anyone can come up with a formula, but I do think it's important to remember that none of us really could do what we have done without a host of other people participating in more than obvious ways. An idea comes to you, but the germ of that idea probably was dropped by somebody else, or a certain circumstance, so you have nothing to do with it. I think one needs to be a little bit humble about recognizing that we are not the real drivers. We are mouthpieces for movements, ideas, thoughts.

Does it take a sense of adventure?

Richard Leakey: Oh, yes. I would hate a day to go by without something that is adventurous in some form or the other. There is so much you can get out of just standing on a street corner and watching interactions between people, and people and cars, and animals and people. There is just so much amusement every day of your life if you open your eyes and watch and listen.

You have been an activist in Kenya with the National Museum, as a conservationist, in politics. What gives you your greatest sense of satisfaction?

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Richard Leakey: I think one of the things I've always enjoyed doing was doing things that people largely said couldn't be done. Turning the Kenya Museum into a first-rate world center for the study of human origins, as opposed to a venue where some interesting stuff periodically happened, was a great challenge. Turning it into a big, well-financed scientific institution in a period of 15 years gave me a lot of satisfaction. Going into conservation, took over an extremely corrupt government department, the most corrupt in Kenya. Wildlife in Kenya was total disaster, poaching of elephants rampant, wildlife people being killed. Turning that around into an absolutely clean, fast-moving, well-funded, high-morale wildlife authority in a couple of years was very exciting. It was something nobody thought could be done. I didn't know it could be done, but tried it, and it worked.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Getting into politics as a white Kenyan, quite late in the day, and doing it by forming an opposition to the incumbent president and demanding that there be constitutional reform and demanding that there be greater sensitivity to human rights and democracy, and leading a movement of young and people of other color -- I was a minority -- but being part of the fray, being attacked, being whipped and cars burnt, being beaten up, being tear-gassed, being locked up, chained up, this was all tremendously exciting. They said you couldn't do it, but we did it.

[ Key to Success ] Courage

We got a political party in place. We've got constitutional reform moving.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. There is far better democracy today in Kenya than there ever was. And then to move out of being anti the President and getting involved with the President again, having been accused by him of treason and sedition, and a year or two later being invited by him to head the government under him as head of the public service in charge of military, the police, the entire structure -- who in their right mind would think you could do that and do it well? So that was great fun, very challenging and hugely exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed that.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

So, you know, I'm always looking for things to do.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. I wanted to grow grapes and start a vineyard, and people said, "You can't grow a vineyard in your area. It's six-and-a-half feet above sea level. You're on the Equator. The days are too short. How are you going to grow grapes that make good wine?" So, I said, "Well, why can't I?" and they said, "Well, it can't be done, and you'll have to think of something else." Well, we're producing very good wine today, pinot noir and chardonnay, very drinkable. First time it's been grown. In fact, a wag friend of mine wrote a book and said, "He's growing the best wine in a region twice the size of France." The fact that nobody else is growing any doesn't matter. It's a great sense of achievement, and we serve the wine now to all our friends, and they prefer it to a lot of the wine that is available commercially in Kenya. This is the challenge. If you want something done by me, suggest it can't be done, and then I will engage. I enjoy that very much.

[ Key to Success ] Vision

It sounds to me that part of this equation is courage, at least a courage of one's convictions.

Richard Leakey: I think courage of one's own convictions is a very important part of it.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. It sounds like a cliché, but I think it actually does capture a spirit of why a number of women and men are successful, because they grasp onto something, if you like, a belief in themselves and their ability to make an impact. Once you have that as part of you, there really are very few things you can't attempt to tackle and push through in one way or the other.

For me, and for many others who have reached a position where other people at least think they are successful...

Get the Flash Player to see this video. You do so knowing full well that you can be successful by failing thoroughly. At least you can prove that something wasn't possible. It doesn't always have to end well, provided what you did was done with sincerity and thorough effort. I guess that is in part the essence of science. You have an idea, you set it up, you set out to prove it, and if you work hard enough at it, you either do prove it, or you prove it utterly is wrong. That's not quite as satisfying, but it's also satisfying to get to the truth, and the truth doesn't always have to fit with what your preconceived concept was, and I think that's important.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

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