Category Archives: Leadership

Famous personality, Guardian, Leadership

Sick and Tired of this Nonsense

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She was “tired of giving in” — because she was sick and tired of this nonsense.

“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Enough.

“It didn’t make sense”

She was sick and tired of the nonsense of segregation.

“It didn’t make sense at all, being treated so unfairly”

The Montgomery Bus Boycott was on.  For they knew they had someone who could stick it through thick and thin.

The fox knows many things,
but the hedgehog knows one big thing.
–Archilochus

They could depend on her…

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Famous personality, Leadership, Rational

Lincoln

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Steven Speilberg’s biopic Lincoln starring Daniel Day Lewis dropped it’s first trailer this week and let’s be honest, that guy can act.  And that other guy can direct.  The “somber” epic is rightfully generating a lot of Oscar buzz, and depicts the last four months of Lincoln’s life.  The trailer indicates Day-Lewis used leading historical thought to guide his portrayal, as his speaking voice was noticeably higher pitch than one would imagine, which is apparently how it actually was.  Despite not sounding like Rambo, Lincoln was said to have won over crowds with his sense of ease and the thrust of his ideas.

“It’s not just a feel-good bio pic. I mean it feels great, I think it feels better because it actually delves into something. It’s not just patriotism and icon worship. It really examines him as a human being and all of his imperfections and both his virtues and his flaws. It is a fascinating script. I can’t wait to see it. It is such a brave take. Steven Spielberg, he’s the biggest filmmaker in the world. There would be a lot pressure on him to make a more watered-down version of the story and I think it’s so brave of him to have really done something provocative and interesting.”

So let’s look more closely at Lincoln, from Leadership and Temperament perspective.

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Famous personality, Guardian, Leadership

As a Father

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“over his children”

That’s how he was going to treat everybody under his command.

MAKE NO MISTAKE, by God he meant it.

“A tough, sturdy, valiant, weather-beaten, mettlesome, obstinate, leathern-sided, lion-hearted, generous-spirited old governor” was his description.

And they, “his children,” wouldn’t lift a hand in the end. No appreciation for his service — yeah, he wasn’t the nicest stern taskmaster around.  He had made too many enemies.  Ok, he was a downright Serious Jerk — but who doesn’t have some kind of fault.

Even though he essentially SINGLE-HANDILY had turned the colony around from a backwater, third rate fur trading post to a thriving jewel of a port, rich from the slave trade, such that the British couldn’t resist — they had to have that colony:  New Amsterdam.

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Artisan, Famous personality, Leadership

It’s been a long time coming

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It’s been a long time coming 
It’s going to be a long time gone 
And it appears to be a long 
Appears to be a long 
Appears to be a long time 
It’s a long, long, long, long time 
Before the dawn
–Crosby, Stills, and Nash

What if you had a rock star run a country?

It would be a disaster.

Unless —

Unless  — maybe —

IT WAS AN UNMITIGATED DISASTER BEFORE….

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In Memoriam, Leadership, Rational

In Memoriam: Thomas Szasz

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Thomas Szasz died September 11th 2012. In Memoriam.

Dr. Szasz wrote “The Myth of Mental Illness,” a book that questioned the legitimacy of his field and made enemies of many fellow doctors.

Szasz first presented his attack on “mental illness” as a legal term in 1958 in the Columbia Law Review. In his article he argued that mental illness was no more a fact bearing on a suspect’s guilt than is possession by the devil.

Famous personality, In Memoriam, Leadership, Rational

No Hero, just an engineer.

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It was seconds to running out of fuel.

But, he had an outward calm about him.

Yes, the Eagle has landed.

No doubt, the Crafter Artisan, Chuck Yeager, another test pilot, the first to break sound barrier, might have been impressed, although Yeager being very competitive in nature, he might not have openly expressed it.  Why give that “engineer,” any credit?
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Guardian, Leadership, Personality

The Stand

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“Don’t Stand Idly By”

That is what it says.  Simply, it’s a matter of fact.

It’s on a badge that he has attached to his coat — the coat he wears as he administers to his patients.

Yep.  He stands and delivers.  He doesn’t “stand idly by”.  He works hard, all the while, standing.

“The teenagers started hugging me and saying they had heard that my life was in danger. They explained that they had come to defend me. I had tears in my eyes. These handicapped girls wanted to help me, a big burly man. This is what I feel all the time from those who come to the hospital – the desire to keep loving, to keep giving, even when someone has tried to strip you of all your dignity and values. You cannot abandon people like that.”

No, he takes the stand: do something useful, something tangible, do something helpful.

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Artisan, Entertainment, Famous personality, In Memoriam, Leadership

The Single Girl

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She attempted to have the book censored or banned in the United States.

No, she wasn’t your socially conservative female.

Yes, in 1962 it was viewed as a scandalous book:  Sex and the Single Girl advocated having sex before marriage, and gave advice on how to have an affair.

And she was married.

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Dyads, Leadership, out of the box, Personality, Rational

Conversations

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With the eyes of a child
You must come out and see
That your world’s spinning ’round
— Moody Blues

She wrote it in plain and clear language, so, even a child understand.

However, I doubt many adults could understand it, even now: most adults are too stupid to understand.

No, not ignorant, just stupid.  Adults:  too naturally not interested, too busy, too lazy, too “know it all,” too impatient to really see  — and to learn.

Danger lies not in what we don’t know,
but in what we think we know that just ain’t so
– Mark Twain

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Idealist, Leadership, Personality

Thousands

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“I am sorry, I am trying to take the youngest first, I want to save a nation.”

He failed to save a nation.  But he did save thousands, ten thousands, maybe even up to one hundred thousand.

“He was the most tireless, persistent, stubborn person — he was single minded in his determination for his mission.”

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