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What is the most important thing, now that Hawaii’s primary election is over? 

The answer is responsibility.

Every single candidate advancing to the general election should take seriously the possibility that they may very soon hold the title of elected office and be prepared to take responsibility for Hawaii’s future.

Right now, Hawaii is a mess. We may have different ideological views about how to fix the Aloha State, but fix it we must. Corruption and crime are rampant. People are barely able to afford living here, and many are fleeing to the mainland. We talk about reform, but it almost never comes.

I like to think that anyone who has the courage to run for office does so because they want to serve a cause that is greater than themselves and help the people in their community overcome adversities. 

Responsibility means we make ourselves accountable and take ownership. And right now, as we prepare to elect a new government, I admonish both those advancing to the general election and the public who will be voting for them to stop making excuses for why we can’t fix things and start working for a better Hawaii.

Here’s how:

Be A Policy Rascal And Take Initiative

Tech unicorn entrepreneur Naval Ravikant famously said, “If you want to make the wrong decision, ask everyone.” The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs also observed, “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

The No. 1 thing that Hawaii needs is people who are willing to take initiative. Initiative is what breaks a pattern of stagnation. Initiative changes the status quo. Initiative overcomes fear and shows others what is possible even when they think it is not possible. Initiative means we see something needs to be done, we just act, and we don’t wait for consensus or approval to do what we already know is right.

One of the problems I’ve noticed in Hawaii is that many people here, particularly in elected government, have a conformist mindset. They say they support reform but in practice what we see is stagnation. 

We go to endless conferences so that everyone in a policy alliance or coalition can have an excuse of saying, “we looked at it; that ought to fix it,” without actually doing anything. Naturally, no one who sees that group’s findings or policy report wants to do anything either.

We appoint 10 subject matter experts to tackle an imminent crisis, and all 10 people waste their mandate self-handicapping each other. “I didn’t want to act without asking so-and-so what they thought. Did you check with so-and-so? Did they email you back? I don’t want to do anything without first seeing what the others think. Make sure you ask the group what they think first!” 

No matter who came before you, when you’re there, you must figure out how things work and be accountable for when they don’t work 

If everyone operates this way, we’re always going to be waiting for opportunities that never manifest, seeking approval from people who themselves don’t know anything, and failing to do in a timely manner what the public is expecting us to do. 

How do you overcome this? By being a rascal. We need people in elected office who can be told by committee, caucus or executive leadership the word “no” and still have the persistence to keep trying. Can you imagine what the United States would look like if the ruling establishment’s “no” was accepted as the final answer? Most of the amendments to the U.S. Constitution as well as the freedoms we enjoy today were once considered taboo, controversial for discussion, and off-limits. 

Democracy has a crisis in 2024 not because people don’t like freedom. Democracy is in crisis because people refuse to step out of their comfort zones to exercise their freedom. Admiral Arleigh Burke, one of America’s most aggressive destroyer commanders in WWII, famously said “the difference between a good officer and a poor one is about 10 seconds.” 

What does that mean? It means the ability to think fast and act fast without fear is the secret to winning in life. Hawaii government — and its voters — needs to learn to act without asking and stand without shaking.

Seek Out Difficulty And Fail

The largest obstacle to getting anything done in Hawaii is fear of failure. Remember in high school and earlier when classmates of yours told you they didn’t want to do something, because they might get laughed at if they didn’t do it right or failed in the process?

Many people secretly delegate or defer to others so they don’t have to fail. Failure is actually a great thing. Yes, people may disapprove or laugh at you. But developing problem-solving skills as well as creativity requires constant exposure to problems in order to know what works and what doesn’t work.

You signed up to be an elected official, not an Instagram influencer. Lead, follow, or get out of the way of progress.

It also builds character, because if you’ve been exposed to failure and the punishment or inconveniences that come with failure, you will be more credible telling people what to do and what not to do. 

Again, the conformist nature of Hawaii often raises its head here. I get it. There are many people who only support you when you’ve won, and until then, they want to seize every excuse to laugh at you or point out where you’ve failed so they can get you to back down.

We’re just going to have to get past that and say to ourselves, we have a short time on this Earth and the 15 minutes of fame or spotlight that we have been given will not be wasted on being a coward that follows the crowd off a cliff to hell.

Focus On Administration

When all is said and done and you’re elected to office, you own what you’re put in charge of. No matter who came before you, when you’re there, you must figure out how things work and be accountable for when they don’t work. And your job, at the end of the day, is to give people something that works because you work – we call that “administration.”

In a graduate leadership course, I was once given the task of leading a group to build the tallest tower possible, made only of marshmallows and spaghetti noodles, and we had to create directions that would allow a person over Zoom to build it remotely. (The hidden purpose of this task was to see how well you can instruct someone to do something that you yourself don’t like doing or aren’t good at.)

The approach I used was to first experiment with it myself, so I could discover every possible screw-up and frustration imaginable, then I developed the blueprints and instructions and gave it to my group. We succeeded in building an impressive array tower that took minimal thought and was absolutely massive in the end.

The point of this weird lesson is simple – take ownership, find out what works, find out what doesn’t work, and get it done.

Putting It All Together

Everyone reading this has been called by destiny for such a time as this. Forget about the past, the future is now and we all have a chance to show ourselves courageous and bold for the challenges in front of us.

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave, not the land of the wait-and-seers and the safe players. 

Whoever wins in November needs to understand this. You signed up to be an elected official, not an Instagram influencer. Lead, follow, or get out of the way of progress.