When A Leader, Manager or Commander Apologizes Is It A Sign Of Weakness?

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

I once had the honor of recruiting a chairman for a company which I later joined (as a member of the board of directors) and which later became publicly-traded through my successful efforts with an investment banking firm.


That chairman was a contemptible, know-it-all type of ornery son-of-a-gun, but he had COMMAND. Everyone respected him. Everyone was intimidated by him. Everyone wanted his praise, which was rare.


He was manipulative, I grew to dislike him as time went by, but I LEARNED from him. He told me a thousand truths, but he also told me two things that turned out to either be "conditional" truths or out and out lies.


Here they are:


1. "Lose your sense of humor. People don't respect someone who isn't dead serious." - My sense of humor has enabled to befriend some important people, de-fuse some politically volatile situations, and to get the truth from people who would ordinarily hesitate to confide in someone of a higher rank, or in a position of authority over them.


2. "Never apologize. Never. It's a sign of weakness." - I have the respect of my colleagues not because I beg forgiveness, and palliate, and assuage them, but because I have the self-confidence and the integrity to own up to my actions, and their consequences.


That chairman is not a friend of mine. But I learned from him. And I eventually learned more from my own experiences and observations than he had taught me.  -DC

Now for the post:

Dear Readers (Entrepreneurs, TNNWC Members, Colleagues, Business Leaders, Innovators, Project Managers, Commanders of Growing Companies, Braintenancers, Global Futurists, Internationalists, Marketers, Trend-Watchers, Trend-Setters, and Friends):

Subject: Douglas Castle Apologies for An Annoying Technical Glitch.

Q: Conspiracy or Catastrophic Compound Error? It's simple. I am not certain whether it was due to a deadly conspiracy involving a collaborative effort among Twitterfeed, Hellotxt and Ping, or whether it was the result of an extremely unlikely catastrophic compound error (Do I sound paranoid? Are you talkin' to me?), but my status updates have been prodigiously posting themselves to many of my blogs without my knowledge or consent. Since this began two days ago, I have had a "Blue Ribbon Panel" of "experts" working on solving the problem, and after much debate (mostly over who would be responsible to pay for lunches, and how much of a gratuity we should give the delivery kid), they have assured me that the mechanism has been repaired. I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience that this may have caused you, and I thank you for your patience and for reading me and my guest contributors. Faithfully, and in the spirit of friendship, Douglas Castle http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com http://www.linkedin.com/in/douglascastle http://www.linkedin.com/company/TNNWC http://www.TNNWC.com (the official website, soon to be released in Visionary Version 3.0 – please stay tuned!) Douglas Castle’s Blogs And RSS Feeds  For a complete list, click on the RSS icon.

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/

Management And Leadership Skills - Strength And Flexibility

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

In my assignment to structure, build and develop TNNWC Group, LLC, I have confronted virtually every situation ordinarily faced by an entrepreneur, a leader, a laborer, a team member, a mediator, a moderator, a motivational speaker and a CFO.

In a small enterprise which is comprised of entrepreneurial individuals (both left-brain oriented and right-brained oriented; both concept-driven and protocol-driven; both creators and critics; both bench-warmers and warriors; both ego-dominated and ego-in-check), each participant is forced to do a great deal more than just those functions which represent the highest and best use of his or her time - there are areas that are deficient and underaddresssed, and there are areas where team members almost literally trip over each other's efforts.

My role is to coordinate this whole mass of cells and to make it function as an organism focused on achieving a goal. I have to encourage synergy and cooperation in between breaking up petty battles and straightening out misunderstandings.

As a commander, or a leader, you must be a very, very good communicator, and on many levels. But there are two other qualities that play a tug-of-war inside of every successful leader.

Douglas Castle
http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/
http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/company/TNNWC


Management And Leadership Skills - Strength And Flexibility 

My question is a simple one. Which attribute is more important in a leader: Strength or Flexibility?

My other questions which spring forth from the first are a bit more complex:

1. Does flexibility detract from strength?

2. Does strength detract from flexibility?

3. Which attribute do teammates generally respect more or gravitate toward more readily?

4. In a very dynamic, rapidly-changing environment, which attribute is actually more important?

5. In a situation where the path ahead is reasonably clear, but the team needs to be kept together and "herded in," which attribute is actually more important?

If you want to message, manage, build, or achieve anything in your life, or through your emerging enterprise as a vehicle, you had better give some very, very serious thought to both attributes, and some every greater thought to why it might be best to be overt about your strength and seeming inflexibility, while it might be prudent to be musch more subtle about your willingness to be adaptible and flexible. - DC


***


For the best management and leadership tools in the real-world, join TNNWC now. There is no charge to become a Member. Simply visit http://www.TNNWC.com, look around the page a bit, and then click on the "JOIN US" button.

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

Command: Who Rules The World...And How? Douglas Castle, Speaking Plainly.

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

This article, written by Douglas Castle, was originally
published in TAKING COMMAND! at http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/.
Capital On Call at TNNWC

Command: "Who Rules The World...And How?" Douglas Castle, Speaking Plainly.

Dear Readers, Leaders, Commanders and Frustrated (But Bold) Realists:

I am neither making a moral judgment nor a poitical statement in this article. I am merely speaking the truth, as I know it, in its succinct essence.

The actual question, at the start, is "What controls the world?" There are several forces at work in answer to that question:

1) The Laws of Physics;
2) The Laws of Human Physiology;
3) The Tendencies of Behavioral Psychology (i.e., fear, greed, lust, hunger and many others);
4) Financial Strength;
5) Superior Weaponry.

The persons (and there are a shockingly small number of them at the top of the pyramidal heirarchy which controls the world) are those who command and understand the five things listed above. The recipe for the "control cocktail" is a mixture of knowledge, finances and armament.

These persons exploit the thin veneer of civilization and propagandized morality in order to master their unprepared quarry (most of us), who live in a hypnotized sort of state of denial seasoned with a fair dose of escapism. Ironically, these persons would be seen or categorized by most of us (at least initially) as amoral and sociopathic. They may indeed be -- but they have the advantages of having no romantic delusions to interfere with their carrying out of their actions.

And we fear them most of all because we know that we cannot appeal to their Humanity (with its mercy, charity, reason, et cetera), because an increasing number of us have come to the realization that "Humanity" as it is envisioned, is a multigenerationally promulgated and embellished fiction. Wishful thinking does not prepare you for batttle with real adversaries, real weapons and genuine intent to use them.

Let's stop speaking of this. I find it frighteneing.

Faithfully,

Douglas Castle

p.s. There are times when I believe that Machiavelli was a gentle optimist...

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

Crisis Management, Communications and Control

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

Crisis Management and Communications.

This article written by Douglas Castle and originally published in Expert Advice And Insights From TNNWC, a publication of TNNWC and The National Networker Companies.

Every leader and team participant who plays an integral role in your company has an obligation to every colleague. If you are in an entrepreneurial enterprise or small business this obligation is all the more critical, in how it is handled and it involves observation, communication, messaging, problem-solving and reporting on the status of any anticipated or actualized crisis. While we'd all prefer to follow a strategic business plan and make incremental, expedient organized progress toward achieving our objectives, crises arise -- it is the nature of business (i.e., problem-solving to achieve an objective) to throw us the occasional crisis or catastrophe. Each one is a test.

If you either recognize or anticipate a crisis that you cannot immediately resolve yourself, you must:

1) Determine all parties within your company who may be affected, and how they may be affected;

2) Immediately notify the parties whose efforts could be a) damaged the most, and b) who are best equipped to handle the crisis so that those parties can make alternative arrangements, or attend to the critical issue. Information and intelligent, reasoned action can contain a small problem and keep it from being catapulted into a catastrophe. If the water is going to be turned off, if your web server is acting up, if the email system isn't going to be working, if payroll is going to tight, if a vendor is no longer qualified to supply your company or if an employee has been terminated, this message must be sent out to everybody affected with efficiency and immediacy;

3) Get the message out directly (yourself, without waiting for a committee meeting, or any other bureaucratic waste of precious time) via email, telephone, or text to all parties who will be affected or may be affected -- it is important, before a crisis ever emerges, that you have established multiple lines of communication to each member of your organization in case of emergency, and that you have a means of signalling that a crisis is in process, or that a crisis is anticipated;

4) Update all affected personnel of what actions are being taken to resolve the critical issue, what they can expect, and an estimated (conservative) timeframe for repair. This is what those folks in Human Resources refer to as "expectation management;"

5) Remember - early, honest notice of a crisis, and updates until it is resolved minimize the organizational and emotional trauma of the crisis, the ancillary damage that might otherwise be caused by a lack of information or by misinformation. A crisis should not be a big secret - it should be competently contained until it can be remedied and business can go back to "work as usual." [ahhh.....]

---------------

The better that you manage a crisis, the less that it will pull you and your team or organization off course. In fact, well-handled crisis management doesn't create the desperation and/or confusion associated with negative surprises or exponentialized rumors -- it is more analogous to improvising lines in a play when you've forgotten part of the script.

How you handle a critical situation will determine if you are meant to lead, or merely menat to attend to the limited scope of your job. Going further, leaders are made because of how they have handled critical situations. For those of you who appreciate silver linings, a crisis represents an opportunity for leaders to develop and to be recognized. Now onward with your mission, captains, commanders and leaders of growing companies, both existing and to be recognized.


Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
Chairman and CEO
TNNWC Group, LLC

http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com
http://www.TheNationalNetworkerWeblog.blogspot.com
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com.
http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/DouglasCastle


Tags, Labels, Keywords, Terms: crisis, leadership, blogs by Douglas E. Castle, communication, emergencies, messaging, alerts, problem-solving, goal-attainment, conflict resolution, communications applications, expectation management, crisis containment, Taking Command Blog, command and control, cooperation, collaboration, early warning systems, challenges that create leaders, The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter, The Blue Tuesday Report, TNNWC Business Services, management consulting services, business turnarounds, taking action, tools and services for preventing and handling crises, business success, goal-attainment by increments, Internal Energy Plus, Images by Douglas Castle Blog...  

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

Crisis Management And Communications.

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

Crisis Management and Communications.

This article written by Douglas Castle and originally published in Expert Advice And Insights From TNNWC, a publication of TNNWC and The National Networker Companies.

Every leader and team participant who plays an integral role in your company has an obligation to every colleague. If you are in an entrepreneurial enterprise or small business this obligation is all the more critical, in how it is handled and it involves observation, communication, messaging, problem-solving and reporting on the status of any anticipated or actualized crisis. While we'd all prefer to follow a strategic business plan and make incremental, expedient organized progress toward achieving our objectives, crises arise -- it is the nature of business (i.e., problem-solving to achieve an objective) to throw us the occasional crisis or catastrophe. Each one is a test.

If you either recognize or anticipate a crisis that you cannot immediately resolve yourself, you must:

1) Determine all parties within your company who may be affected, and how they may be affected;

2) Immediately notify the parties whose efforts could be a) damaged the most, and b) who are best equipped to handle the crisis so that those parties can make alternative arrangements, or attend to the critical issue. Information and intelligent, reasoned action can contain a small problem and keep it from being catapulted into a catastrophe. If the water is going to be turned off, if your web server is acting up, if the email system isn't going to be working, if payroll is going to tight, if a vendor is no longer qualified to supply your company or if an employee has been terminated, this message must be sent out to everybody affected with efficiency and immediacy;

3) Get the message out directly (yourself, without waiting for a committee meeting, or any other bureaucratic waste of precious time) via email, telephone, or text to all parties who will be affected or may be affected -- it is important, before a crisis ever emerges, that you have established multiple lines of communication to each member of your organization in case of emergency, and that you have a means of signalling that a crisis is in process, or that a crisis is anticipated;

4) Update all affected personnel of what actions are being taken to resolve the critical issue, what they can expect, and an estimated (conservative) timeframe for repair. This is what those folks in Human Resources refer to as "expectation management;"

5) Remember - early, honest notice of a crisis, and updates until it is resolved minimize the organizational and emotional trauma of the crisis, the ancillary damage that might otherwise be caused by a lack of information or by misinformation. A crisis should not be a big secret - it should be competently contained until it can be remedied and business can go back to "work as usual." [ahhh.....]

---------------

The better that you manage a crisis, the less that it will pull you and your team or organization off course. In fact, well-handled crisis management doesn't create the desperation and/or confusion associated with negative surprises or exponentialized rumors -- it is more analogous to improvising lines in a play when you've forgotten part of the script.

How you handle a critical situation will determine if you are meant to lead, or merely menat to attend to the limited scope of your job. Going further, leaders are made because of how they have handled critical situations. For those of you who appreciate silver linings, a crisis represents an opportunity for leaders to develop and to be recognized. Now onward with your mission, captains, commanders and leaders of growing companies, both existing and to be recognized.


Faithfully,

Douglas Castle
Chairman and CEO
TNNWC Group, LLC

http://www.TheNationalNetworker.com
http://www.TheNationalNetworkerWeblog.blogspot.com
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com.
http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/DouglasCastle


Tags, Labels, Keywords, Terms: crisis, leadership, blogs by Douglas E. Castle, communication, emergencies, messaging, alerts, problem-solving, goal-attainment, conflict resolution, communications applications, expectation management, crisis containment, Taking Command Blog, command and control, cooperation, collaboration, early warning systems, challenges that create leaders, The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter, The Blue Tuesday Report, TNNWC Business Services, management consulting services, business turnarounds, taking action, tools and services for preventing and handling crises, business success, goal-attainment by increments, Internal Energy Plus, Images by Douglas Castle Blog...  

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Self-Growth, Professional Growth and Corporate Growth.

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

You ask me why I chose to become the Chairman and CEO of an entrepreneurial enterprise -- specifically The National Networker Companies/ TNNWC Group, LLC. It might not be what you were thinking.

Entrepreneurial Leadership: Self-Growth, Professional Growth and Corporate Growth.

Being an effective and successful entrepreneurial leader is one of the most difficult challenges any individual can confront.

It involves self-growth (painful introspection, being aware of your own gifts and shortcomings, re-programming yourself with a future vision of your "best self" firmly set in your every thought, changing habits, learning to focus, learning to listen, exercising your memory and cognitive facilities and exercising constant self-assessment and self-control); professional growth ( learning how to 'read others,' learning how to communicate to different types of individuals in different sets of circumstances, developing mastery in several fields, learning how to lead as a moderator and a commander, but without being a dictator and alienating all of those whose cooperation you will ultimately need); and company growth -- using all of the skills developed in your self-growth and professional growth to become an organizational engineer, and to assess each Human Asset on your team in terms of his or her greatest strengths, highest and best application within the organization, and to attend to the optimal positioning of all of these individuals like the players in an orchestra.

Every day is opening night for you.

And there you stand, with your baton raised as soon as the curtains have gone up. It will be a live performance - and no matter what surprises lay in store each night of your "command in concert" series, you must somehow create beautiful harmony. You must keep the objective in sight, advance in meaningful, measurable increments, and must somehow maintain adaptive skills and flexibility in case any of the roads along the clearest path to your organizational vision are washed out or closed off. The challenge of entrepreneurial leadership will either make you into a success, or exhaust you and leave you deflated. It is all dependent upon your attitude, your sheer tenacity (the game's never over until you decide that it is) and your belief in yourself and your mission.

I joined TNNWC Group because I believed in the mission, and in my ability to carry it forward. What I never realized was just how difficult it would be to get from idea to actualization of objective. 

Within these past three years, I have experienced more personal growth, professional growth and organizational growth than ever in my earlier careers as a director, officer or advisor to companies.

The ultimate challenge is to be able to clone improved versions of yourself by training those who follow you to become leaders themselves. Your level of success in that will determine the longevity of your enterprise and legacy to all of those whom you've mentored, instructed, trained and cared for.

While I feel the crush of the responsibilities today (allocations of limited resources, coordinating conflicting agendas, teaching and inspiring people, keeping enthusiasm high even through discipline born of necessity), I live with hopes of feeling the exhilaration of magnificent accomplishment when my team has ascended past the timber line in a group victory. And victory, I have learned, is the greatest gift to share.

To your success,

Douglas Castle
http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com
http://TakingCommand.blogspot.com   

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

POWERED BY TNNWC GROUP...

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

---

Powered By TNNWC Group™

For complete tactical and strategic business planning, marketing, media, lead-generation, technological and capital resources, scalable solutions and tools to support every entrepreneurial start-up, young enterprise, small- to medium-sized business and emerging high-growth company, talk to The National Networker Companies™/ TNNWC Group, LLC.

We are a collaborative entrepreneurial, creative organization offering you hands-on, personalized assistance in every aspect of achieving your monetization, profitability and financial sustainability objectives, domestically and globally.

We don’t just coach you or offer you pre-packaged, push-button solutions – we listen to you, analyze your exact needs, and work within your budget to: 1) create your tool kit and 2) work as your partner to implement your plan by supporting you in the most efficient and productive use of every tool.

Visit our website, which is located at http://www.TNNWC.com .

To receive our newsletters, publications, information bulletins and alerts, simply join us as a Member. Membership is free and the benefits are unequalled anywhere.

Just go to our home page, and click on the “JOIN US” button.

---------------

TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED

YOUR LIFE: Entrepreneurial Inspiration And Brilliant Advice

Share this ARTICLE with your colleagues on LinkedIn .

---

YOUR LIFE: Entrepreneurial Inspiration And Brilliant Advice Dear Readers, Colleagues, TNNWC Members, Thought-Leaders and Entrepreneurs: My wife brought the quote which follows to my attention yesterday. It was taken from a commencement address given by Steve Jobs (the visionary leader of Apple Computer) to students at Stanford University several years ago. As you likely already know, Steve Jobs has had to contend with some tremendous health challenges. He chose to strengthen himself because of his battle with adversity, instead of becoming a cynic or a pessimist. The essence of the message is to "live each and every moment of every single day as if it were your last." For most of us, we take far too much for granted until we are threatened with serious loss. Jobs' message is not wasted on anyone who is still alive. For while we are still alive, the possibilities are limitless -- unless we chose to resign ourselves to a very small, mundane world, and a routine life of not making a difference. Yes. It's true. Most men live their lives in quiet desperation. Women do too. Desperation is the dark side of ourselves, while dreams, ambitions and action, with a sense of urgency, are overwhelming evidence of the bright side. Make a choice, leaders, entrepreneurs, would-be activists -- choose to heed Steve Jobs' advice and do not fear the mission ahead. Instead of living with regret, or with wasting time on endless critical introspection, move ahead with your plans. The plans that your heart tells you are truly meant for you. Proceed with passion. Faithfully, Douglas Castle http://aboutdouglascastle.blogspot.com/ http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/douglascastle http://www.TNNWC.com Steve Jobs, commencement address, Stanford University 2005:

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”

*****

Tags, Labels, Keywords, Terms: inspiration, Steve Jobs, Apple Computer, entrepreneur, leadership, management, dreams, ambition, passion, planning, taking action, following your heart, overcoming fear, NLP, scripting, philosophy, behavioral psychology, Blogs by Douglas Castle, TNNWC Membership, emerging enterprises, small business advice, encouragement, mission statements, progress planning, BuzzBaristas, TNNWC Buzzworks, Rene Derme, health, perspective, persuasion, power personalities, anti-depressants, desperation, limitless possibilities, building business, celebrating life, The BLUE TUESDAY Report, The National Networker (TNNWC) Weekly Newsletter, The Global Futurist, Braintenance, The Internationalist Page, monetizing in the moment... ----- Douglas Castle - THE DAILY BURST OF BRILLIANCE .001™ http://aboutDouglasCastle.blogspot.com TAKING COMMAND! - http://takingcommand.blogspot.com/



***


News Ticker: TNNWC NEWS RELEASES

News Ticker: TNNWC RSS AND DAILY EMAIL FEED