“Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves.”
Lao Tzu
Category: Quotes to Consider
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Quote to Consider: Leadership Reimagined (2500 Years Ago)
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Quote to Consider: Criteria for Quitting
“Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don’t think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.”Samuel Johnson
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Quote to Consider: Jump On In
“The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.”Robert Cushing
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Teddy Roosevelt on Getting Off the Sidelines
“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the 
great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”Theodore Roosevelt
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“Strange” Insight from John Steinbeck
“It has always seemed strange to me,” said Doc. “The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.”Doc from Cannery Row
John Steinbeck
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Quote to Consider: Leaders Are About Everyone Else
Great leaders are obsessed with recognizing, resourcing and advancing the ideas of others in the organization, not their own.How do you go about…
- Recognizing
- Resourcing
- Advancing
the ideas of others?
Pick one and let us know what you do.
If you feel stuck in a “control others to enact your own ideas” model of leadership, let’s talk. There’s an exhilarating world of enterprising teams, engaged employees and explosive creativity waiting to be unleashed in your firm.
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Writing Encouragement
My buddy reminds me to write a little bit each day. Even if only for five minutes.
The finish line is reached by taking every step, not by trying to sprout wings.
– Karl Edwards
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25 Words That Connect Us: Group Writing Project
I see you.
Not for what you might do for me…
or to me.
I see you…
want to know you…
change the world together.
This post is part of Liz Strauss’ 25 Words That Connect Us Project. Thanks Liz for another inspirational project.
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In~Verse: Rilke’s Book of Hours
I am, you anxious one.
Don’t you sense me, ready to break
into being at your touch?
My murmurings surround you like shadowy wings.
Can’t you see me standing before you
cloaked in stillness?
Hasn’t my longing ripened in you
from the beginning
as fruit ripens on a branch?I am the dream you are dreaming.
When you want to awaken, I am that wanting:
I grow strong in the beauty you behold.
And with the silence of stars I enfold
your cities made by time.
Rainer Maria Rilke
Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
Riverhead Books, New York, 2005
(I, 19; p. 81) -
25 Words of Work / Life Wisdom
Who will give my gift if I don’t?
In vain do I blame others
for not yet seeing
what has been given me to create.Thank you, Liz Strauss, for initiating this writing project, 25 Words of Work/Life Wisdom.
Be sure to visit her site, not only to read the other insightful entries, but to add your own!
On your side,
– Karl
