Hamilton: Right Hand Man

Spoiler alert: if you haven't watched the Broadway show Hamilton yet, you spoil the play yourself by reading this.

After my friend got me into Hamilton fandom, I have never been the same. :wink:  I have so much I want to talk about it, so I see it necessary to start a new blog series.

In the song “Right Hand Man”, Aaron Burr introduced himself to George Washington.  He tried to flatter Washington: “I admire how you keep firing to the British from a distance.”  Washington responded with a scoff.

Then Alexander Hamilton walked in upon the summon of Washington.  The first thing Hamilton asked after Burr walked out was, "Have I done something wrong, sir?”  Washington countered it and told him, “Your reputation precedes you.”

I really really love this bit.  It tells how it is like to succeed in the workplace.  Notice that at the beginning of this number, Hamilton was working with Marquis de Lafayette to steal supplies from the British troops.  He actually DID something that was of value.  That’s why Washington knew Hamilton without any face-to-face encounter.  Burr instead resorted to flattery, which fell flat in front of a capable leader like Washington.  And from what we knew in “The World Was Wide Enough”, he even was a terrible shot—a shortcoming when it comes to war.

When you create something of value, your work will speak for itself.  Of course there will be people who may steal your credit, and it's always up on us to prevent that from happening.  However that makes another topic and I'm not going to discuss that here.

Just a disclaimer here I am making all my judgements based on the play, and so what I said may not apply to the actual historical figures.

Plus, when Hamilton got summoned, the first thing in his mind was whether he screwed something up.  Hamilton was quite full of himself as a character, but when it came to what mattered he actually was quite humble (in a good way).  He was just very in touch with both what he was very good at and bad at.  In “My Shot” he realised “sometimes I’m talking too loud”, but he resolved to “I’ll make you proud”.

I think Lin-Manuel Marinda made a fantastic job in making Hamilton a good role model.  Deeply flawed, and did a handful of stupid things.  But overall he presented what it means to be the best version of yourself, to your best ability.