Tis the Season...

It's hard to imagine but we are about to begin the final month of the year. If you are like me, you wonder where the year has gone. It seems that each year comes and goes even quicker than the one before. How was your 2007? Did you accomplish all you hoped for? How did you do against your plan? Now is a great time to take a look at how you are doing and what final adjustments you need to make during the next month to make this the best year possible. Taking time for self-reflection and adjusting your activities to get you to your goals is a great practice to get in to. Take some time this week to check how you are doing and decide what you can do to make this year as successful as possible.

Gratitude and Attitude

The Holidays are here - and depending upon your current work load or stress level - this time of year is either one you greatly enjoy or a time of additional stress. And yet like everything else in life our viewpoint is a matter of choice.

I had an interesting visit with a couple from Australia last weekend who were here visiting our family during a 'pre-Thanksgiving' gathering. They had never been to the States before so of course this was their first American Thanksgiving and they were very intrigued and wanted to learn more about why we reserve a day for 'giving thanks...'

The most interesting part of our conversation was how our Aussie friends were so taken by the fact that we choose to set aside a day to give Thanks for all we have and enjoy it with the people most important to us. They were aware of Thanksgiving in the States but presumed that it was simply a national holiday that was created to give people time off work or an excuse to go shopping (which is sadly too often the case these days...) And yet they picked up from the conversation through the afternoon and evening that we really do make it a point to express our gratitude for what we have. Their wonderment at our Thanksgiving tradition makes it even more special for me this year.

Certainly there are years when it is difficult to be thankful and filled with gratitude when things in our lives don't go the way we desired or planned. Yet even in those times we can look around and see others who are much less fortunate than ourselves.

Will you choose to be Thankful this Thanksgiving? Will you express it to your family, your co-workers, your friends?

Make it a Thankful day!

The Price of Leadership

Speaking with a business owner the other day reminded me of an article I saw a while back about the challenges of leadership...


So often leaders are envied for the fact that they are leaders and the perceived perks that come with the role - and yet leadership comes with a price. It isn't all accolades and "atta boys;" being a leader - or a business owner - can be downright difficult. And yet I believe there is real truth in the saying "To whom much is given much is expected." As a leader you may be given many rewards yet you must be prepared for significant effort and challenges. Read the information below and let me know if it doesn't strike a chord with you. (By the way, check out the date this was first published at the bottom...)

In every field of endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be visited in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at war – in art, in literature, in music, in industry - the reward and punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction.

When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If the work is merely mediocre, he will be left entirely alone. If he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write or paint or play or sing or build, no one will strive to surpass or slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.

Long, long after a great work or good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a Mountebank - long after the big world had acclaimed him a genius.

Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat while the big world flocked to the riverbanks to see his boat steam by.

The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy, but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant.

There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions - envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And, it all avails to nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains the leader.

Master poet, master painter, master worker - each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial.

That which deserves to live - lives.

- Cadillac Motor Car Division, advertising in The Saturday Evening Post, January 1926.

By the way, join us at Firestone Country Club on November 15 and 16 for BusinessRICH, a two-day workshop for business owners and executives. More details here: