I know I could achieve more. But I haven’t. And won’t. I know why. Will you suffer my fate?
I am so grateful for what I’ve managed to do and achieve in my little career to date. Yet I am plagued with a sense I missed the boat. It’s entirely my own doing. What shackles me, and continues to do so, is my obsession with an Aussie expression and attitude that has helped me – and through emotion and arrogance, has held me back. Here it is.
Three men. One woman. Separately. Talking to me over coffee tables. Each did something inspiring. Surprising. Their actions oozed courage. And epitomize a habit critical to coping in tough times, at work and in life. Are you up for it?
Four conversations. Four very different relationships. In each, something rare happened. You see, each told me of something causing them sadness, pain, anxiety, stress, fear. I was privileged. They exposed vulnerability to me. And I know felt better and stronger for having taken that step, and for talking about it. And here’s the point- it’s about something I am getting better at doing, and encourage anyone who will listen to do so as well. Do you do this?
Wow! The year has started with a breathtaking avalanche of change, challenge, opportunity. It’s intense. To cope with this tsunami of uncharted waters, we need one thing constantly by our side. Without it, we simply won’t make it. Here it is.
Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating is passionate about the power of confidence.
“Confidence,” he says. ‘is not something you can’t get by swallowing every now and then a can of ‘confidence’ spinach. It has to be continually with you.” He believes confidence comes from experience. That’s true. And confidence also comes from something every one of us has within our grasp. You have it. I have it. I do it. Always. Do you? I hope so. Here it is.
They say cream rises to the top. Must also be true of sour cream, because inevitably I have ended up a key leader in whatever I have done- throughout my life. Bizarre. How could that be? Why me? Last week I found out why. It shocked me by its simplicity, and deep truth. Here it is.
I’ll never forget being appointed ‘Leader’ of the ‘Life of An Ant’ project team, aged 8, at Camps Bay Primary School in 1967. I can still hear the sound of my feet hitting the floorboards as I walked, 10 feet tall, across the room to the corner where my team was to group. And it’s been that way ever since. Throughout my life, whether at school, sports teams, and for the past 30 years in business, I have been asked or just kind of ended up as either the leader, or a key leader. Why?
Why do leaders end up leading? I don’t believe people are ‘born leaders.’ So what is it they do that sees them end up leading? Well- I found out the other day when I read a quote on a bus ticket, which said this:
