History shows us the role of accelerators. An accelerator is something that takes a precedent and transforms it into something much bigger, enduring, perpetual, and longer-lasting. An accelerator produces shadows of great length. Accelerators are key factors in your leadership. You can’t afford to ignore or overlook them.

Example: Darwinism began a shift in the thinking of many people. We date this shift as starting in the latter half of the nineteenth century. But, I would suggest, it’s not until the horrors of World War I of 1914-1918 and the Influenza Pandemic of 1918 that we really see the principles and beliefs embedded in Darwinism explode in the broader minds of various publics, such as Americans, British, French, and so on. The deaths and suffering of these two events–one made by people and one spread by people–accelerate the effects of Darwinism across much of Western life in general. We’re still dealing with the shadow of this accelerator.

That’s an accelerator at work. A precedent or fundamentally originating event interacts with an accelerator. The interaction produces a transformation that unfolds, unfolds, and unfolds.