With the exception of John Wayne, who many younger people may not have seen, no one did ‘cowboy’ like Clint Eastwood. His iconic portrayal of the Man with No Name in a string of low budget westerns, later called “Spaghetti westerns” launched him to superstardom and created one of the most endearing franchises in movie history. Later in such classics as The Outlaw Jose Wales, Pale Rider and the Unforgiven he continued to entertain us while delivering some classic lessons in leadership.

1. By Andrew Wood

2. ”Bout time this town had a new
sheriff.”
With the exception of John Wayne, who many younger people may not have seen,
no one did ‘cowboy’ like Clint Eastwood.
His iconic portrayal of the Man with No Name in a string of low budget westerns,
later called “Spaghetti westerns” launched him to superstardom and created one of
the most endearing franchises in movie history.
Later in such classics as The Outlaw Jose Wales, Pale Rider and the Unforgiven he
continued to entertain us while delivering some classic lessons in leadership.

3. #1 Never Volunteer Information That
Does Not Advance Your Cause
A stranger rides into town with a black hat and a poncho, ties his horse to the
pole. The man says, “I didn’t catch your name.” The stranger looks back at him,
strikes a match, lights a cigar, and says quietly, “I didn’t give it.” No one in
movie history made more money saying less on screen than the man with no
name, Clint Eastwood.
In these days of social media—Facebook Twitter, YouTube live video—in
constant use, sometimes it’s better, as the Chinese say, to keep the tiger behind
the bamboo and say little about yourself while finding out more about your
advisory.

4. #2 Always Stick Up for Your Gang
In a Fistful of Dollars, Clint rides into town
and is taunted by a gang of thugs shooting
around his mules hoofs and laughing a she
bolts off. Clint grabs a pole above his head
and walks back to the men. "My mule don't
like people laughing. He gets the crazy idea
people are laughing at him,"
As a leader, you must stand up for yourself
and the organization you lead. Be stubborn
about it.

6. #3 Don’t Be Afraid to Take Control
In High Plains Drifter, Clint immediately takes control of the town cowering in
the face of an outlaw gang about to be released from jail. In one memorable
scene Clint pins a badge on his pint-sized friend "Bout time this town had a
new sheriff."
Leaders must take the lead, take charge and set the direction which Clint
quickly does as he marshals town people and defenses.

8. #4 Think Strategically
Whether it’s painting the town red and changing
the name to Hell as he did in High Plains Drifter,
blowing up the bridge in the Good, the Bad and
The Ugly to save lives or the clever use of game
strategy, at the end of the move to win the prize,
Clint was always thinking strategically.

10. #5 Always Act Decisively
In all of Clint’s movies he acts decisively usually
with devastating effect.
Never one to look for trouble but nor does he shy
away from it. He knows instinctively that a
situation deferred will only fester and grow and
that acting decisively now will be the best course
in the long run. As exemplified in the Outlaw Jose
Wales when a street vendor recognizes him and
blurts out his name in front of four Yankee soldiers,
all aware theirs a large bounty on his head. Wales
stares them down as they ponder what to do next,
“Well, you gonna pull those pistols or whistle
Dixie?” Seconds later all four are dead.

12. #6 Use Icons to Build Your Brand
As the man with no name, had his poncho and ever-present cigar. In one of the few
tender moments in the classic Spaghetti Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,
Clint Eastwood’s hard-bitten, unnamed bounty hunter comforts a dying Confederate
soldier. Having covered the young man with his coat, the Man With No Name takes
the soldier’s poncho, which becomes an iconic prop in the rest of Eastwood’s
“Dollar” Westerns with director Sergio Leone. Eastwood bought the poncho other
wardrobe essentials in California before shooting the movies in Italy and Spain and
apparently never washed it once though the following three movies.
You might not know the name Ennio Morricone, but he was in a big way part of Clint
Eastwood’s rise to stardom, with his haunting soundtrack for the spaghetti western
series. With just a few notes of its twangy tones— “wha wha wah”—instantly Clint
springs to mind, even fifty years later.

14. #7 Pick Your Battles
In The Outlaw Josey Wales, a bounty hunter walks into a dark saloon in a small, dusty town
and confronts Josey Wales.
“Are you a bounty hunter?” asks Wales, with a hint of contempt. “A man’s got to make a
living,” says the bounty hunter, almost apologetically. Wales replies, “Dying ain’t much of a
living, boy!”
Wales suggests that they don’t have to fight, that he can just ride on out, and for a minute
he does turn and walk out of the saloon. But a few seconds later, he’s back, says he just had
to come, Wells acknowledges the inevitable, and they both draw, with Wells shooting him
dead with a single shot!
How many of us react just like the bounty hunter—out of pride, misplaced duty, self-
justification, rules, anger, fear, or revenge? Picking battles, we simply don’t have to fight.
Battles that consume our time, money energy, emotions, good senses, and even our lives.

16. #8 Use Game Strategy to Increase
Your Odds of Winning
The final scene of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly brilliantly demonstrates
game strategy. There are three men in a triangle in a graveyard, each with a
gun, and a rock at the center of the three. Clint has supposedly put a name
under the rock that holds the key to a buried cache of confederate gold, but
can the other two trust him? Has he actually written the correct answer?
As Lee van Clief and Eli Wallach look around, they realize they can’t be sure
that Clint has written the correct answer on the rock; therefore, neither of
them can shoot Clint if they want to be sure of getting the gold—which means
they will shoot each other.

17. Continued…
What they don’t know is that Clint has given one an unloaded gun. Clint can ignore this
one. The one Clint has to worry about will try to kill the one with the unloaded gun.
Neither will fire at Clint. Clint will fire at the one with the loaded gun.
The situation is tense. The camera pans back and forth slowly from long shots to tension-
filled close ups of their eyes. Then, as Clint has figured, the guy with the loaded gun
shoots at the guy with the unloaded gun, and Clint shoots the guy with the loaded gun.
Game over. The game was actually over before it started.
Clint sets up a situation where each evaluates his possible moves, but in reality, Clint has
already won the game. The players made the best decisions based on the information
available to them, and somebody manipulated the information available to them.

19. #9 Do Whatever it Takes to Get The
Job Done
Near the end of the Outlaw Josey Wales, he is holed up
in a small cabin and surrounded by twenty men. Wales
tells his handful ragtag followers, “Now remember,
things look bad and it looks like you're not gonna make
it, then you gotta get mean. I mean plumb, mad-dog
mean. 'Cause if you lose your head and you give up
then you neither live nor win. That's just the way it is."
A leader must be ready to do whatever it takes to get
the job done. It's a leader's job to ensure that this,
readiness, motivation and clarity of purpose
permeates the entire organization.

21. #10 Know When it’s Time to Ride Out
of Town and on to a New Opportunity
The job is done, the bad guys are dead, the good guys free to carry on living in
peace and now it’s time to ride into the sunset in search of new adventures.
This is a theme in many of Clint’s movies like High Plains Drifter and it’s a great
metaphor for life. Cowboys instinctively know in their gut when it’s time to ride
away from a town, a job, a woman, or a fight. People, in general, do not. They
continue to work in jobs they hate, stay involved personal relationships that
have long since soured, and live in towns that have entered a slow, agonizing
decline. People just hate to admit it’s over. The marriage, the job, the business,
or the town—yet all would be far happier six months from now if they had the
courage to move to the next phase of their life.

22. Andrew Wood is the co-author of Cowboy
Wisdom- Classic Lessons in Leadership
and Life. Despite being born in Oxford,
England, Wood always had a love of
everything Western and studied the
biographies of all the West’s famous
characters.
Partnering with world-renowned horse
trainer and former rodeo cowboy, Pat Parelli
the two mix their experience of building
multi-million dollar companies with classic
lessons from famous Western movies. The
result is a thought-provoking, insightful and
entertaining look into the leadership and life
skills that matter.
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www.classiccowboywisdom.com
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