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Fear Not

“Fear not those who argue but those who dodge.”  — Marie von Ebner Eschenbach

Early in my Fortune 100 career, there was a new assignment which required that I move and inherit an existing, high-performing team.

And even though they knew much more about how things ran, they still wanted me to help them improve. They brought dozens of creative ideas.

I was on a huge learning curve and loving every minute of it. However, you know what happened?

Nothing.

Being insanely busy, and blindly disorganized, none of their ideas moved forward. I was overwhelmed and didn’t even know it.

Crazy thing though, I thought things were actually getting better, because their ideas started to dwindle, but not because things got better.

Even crazier, they thought, “Don’t go to Jeff, he won’t do anything.”

Wished they would have argued with me, “Why aren’t you helping us?” Instead, they dodged.

And who could blame them?

But The Bigger Question Is?

Yesterday I eloquently droned on about thinking like a failure, whatever that means, right?

Well guess what else?  I’d like to drone on about what does yesterday’s post mean to you today?  Because if it meant nothing to you, guess what?

Seriously, if I have to explain this (again) to you, you may not get it.

Hey, you do know I’m only talking to myself and none of this is meant to make you feel uncomfortable (yes it is).  Having tough conversations with myself is the most effective way to push the limits of my abilities.

What do you do to push the limits of your abilities?  You do push yourself, right?

Think Like a Failure?

Cybrarian.  Never heard of this person, probably.  No worries.  I had never heard of it until this month.

Librarian.  Everyone’s heard of this person, probably.  The librarian is in charge of the library – the place where books are kept.

How many of you can see it coming?  The day when books will be relics on display in museums. It may not happen in the next 10-20 years, but it will happen.  And it may even happen sooner.

The music industry never saw it coming. They should have led the revolution, instead, they were victims of it.

Free music file sharing over the Internet.  Preposterous!  Exactly.

Cybrarians can see it coming.  Amazon’s Kindle is the first ripple of the cybrarian tsunami.

Surf’s up, dude.  Catch a (digital) wave.

Leader Top Priorities?

Leadership priorities.  Probably the single most important “to do” on a great leader’s list.  Right?

At the top for me is a compelling vision.  Then acting with integrity. And thirdly, building trust.

But these aren’t the priorities I’m talking about.

I’m referring to personal, moral priorities.

A few months ago, I had the privilege to hear a Fortune 100 President give a speech. To my surprise he listed his as:

  1. Faith
  2. Family
  3. Career

Didn’t see that one coming.  Career was third.  As a Fortune 100 President. Wow.

Live authentically, serve humbly, live to make other’s dreams come true.

Don’t Blog

Not a Blogger?  Click Here (and then click upper right, “skip this ad”) for 11 payoffs if you blog, or if you ever want to start blogging.

Blogging won’t ever be important to you, if you won’t ever make blogging important.

Creating a great blog won’t ever be important to you, if being great isn’t important to you.

Same with exercise.

Exercise won’t ever be important to you, if you don’t ever make your health a top priority.

The list goes on and on.  But will you?  Go on and on, I mean. To do the hard work that has to be done to be great.

Only the mediocre are at their best every day.