happened between the 51-year-old photographer and Taylor Swift’s

I’m like a lot of American dads. I came to Taylor Swift through my daughter.

I mean, I liked Swift’s music but I never sought it out until my daughter made the musical introduction.

That’s also probably why I started paying attention to Swift’s parents — especially Scott Swift, better known as “Taylor Swift’s Dad” or else “Papa Swift,” who made headlines of his own last week.

It’s funny. You can do a lot in this world and still live a fairly anonymous life. Then you allegedly punch just one photographer in Australia, and the whole world notices!

I’m not here to tell you what happened between the 51-year-old photographer and Taylor Swift’s 71-year-old dad. I’m literally 10,000 miles away and all I have to go on is what’s been reported:

“In 23 years of doing this I’ve never been assaulted, let alone been punched in the face by a father,” said the photographer, Ben McDonald, who reported the incident to police. (“Mr. Swift did not say anything to Mr. McDonald during the alleged altercation,” according to an Australian news report.)
A spokesperson for Taylor Swift responded: “Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.”

But in the wake of all of this, I got to thinking about how actions can speak louder than words, especially when it comes to leadership and how to act like a leader when you realize you’re not the main character in the story.

That led me to consider how Taylor Swift and her parents — not just her dad but also her mother, Andrea Swift — seem to have been fully involved and on the same page with her plan since the beginning.

Maybe we need to compare it to the stories of other young stars of stage and screen who wound up in big feuds with their parents over management, money, and lack of leadership to understand. Consider: