I receive daily emails from the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Institute and they sent this quote out late December.  I have been thinking about it quite a lot.

The criterion for measuring the success of our leaders should be how well they serve everyone that has a vested interest in the success of the enterprise.

Bill George

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My Thoughts

• We are being measured, whether we want to be measured or not.  Are we helping set how we believe we should be measured?
• How well are we serving those with a vested interest?  Who has a vested interest?  I can think of a number of people in large corporations that have forgotten that we are here to serve….
• We are here to ensure success.  Not to stroke your ego Mr. Colleague / Boss /  ……………………………..  <- place for you to add title / name

If you don’t know Bill George, here is a link to his bio.

Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future

– Deepak Chopra –

“Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.”

-Henry Ford-

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

-Martin Luther King Jr.-

Leadership becomes necessary to business and communities when have tough challenges to tackle, when they have to change theirs ways in order to thrive or survive, when continuing to operate according to current structures, procedures and processes no longer will suffice.

-Ronald Heifetz-

What’s the point of talking to anyone if you don’t tell ‘em what you think?

- Jon Krakauer -

It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.
If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that.

- Lewis Carroll -

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

- Eleanor Roosevelt -

Careful, I am on my soapbox on this one!

I am still astounded by the number of people that are always looking for the silver bullet.  The magic pill that will make them lose weight, the one job that will make them rich and of the course the magic software that will solve this problem overnight.  Come on folks. after looking for the silver bullet for so many years, have you considered that it does not exist?

It seems that this behavior has been prevalent through the ages.  Vincent van Gogh gave us the following advice and he died in 1890.

Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of
small things brought together.

A quote from Conan O’Brien’s farewell speech.

“if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen”

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Conan O’Brien

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The full transcrpt can be found here:  http://freedomeden.blogspot.com/2010/01/conan-obrien-last-tonight-show-january.html

Here are some well known folks that Through the ages there have been numerous instances of this rule.

• Abraham Lincoln suffered a nervous breakdown and was defeated numerous times in his political career.
• Henry Ford’s first automobile company was a failure.
• Thomas Edison failed with his phonograph company.
• Albert Einstein suffered from speech difficulties as a young child.
• Babe Ruth held the #1 spot as the best slugger from 1918 to 1928.  during this period, he was either in either the #1 or #2 position for strikeouts during these years too.

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. – Thomas Edison

Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense – Winston Churchill

There are no short-cuts, it takes a life time of hard work, preparation, and continuous learning!

- Warren Buffet -

by Cherie Carter-Scott

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it’s yours to keep for the entire period.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, “life.”
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The “failed” experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately “work.”
4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There’s no part of life that doesn’t contain its lessons. If you’re alive, that means there are still lessons to be learned.
6. There” is no better a place than “here.” When your “there” has become a “here”, you will simply obtain another “there” that will again look better than “here.
7. Other people are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie within you. The answers to life’s questions lie within you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

you can’t just sit there and wait

for people to give you that golden dream;

you’ve get out there and make it happen for yourself

- Diana Ross -

If you are irritated by every rub, how will your mirror be polished?

- Rumi (1207–1273) -

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.

- Will Rogers (1879–1935) -

don’t just stand there,

make it happen

- lee lacocca -

I recently listened to a talk given by Vinod Khosla from Khosla Ventures I was struck by how frankly he answered questions and by the depth of his knowledge on the subject matter.  Very impressive.

Then he said something that really struck a cord with me, mainly because I have a similar opinion and therefore it is always good to get some personal reinforcement:

Try and fail but never fail to try

This is very similar to my personal mantra

you cannot win the race if you are not in the race

Overall, if you ever get the opportunity to hear him talk I would highly recommend it.

man must cease attributing his problems to his environment,

and learn again to exercise his will and his personal responsibility

- albert schwitzer -

don’t let what you cannot do

interfere with what you can do

- john wooden -