Monday, January 27, 2014

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Inspired today by press and a film documentary about the tragedy of Aaron Swartz (who has changed the world and could have done so much more given his gifts). (See The New Yorker and Boston Magazine)

How long can fear-mongering, greed and power rule our lives? Found the following worth thinking about as guiding principles that could give leaders qualities most of us would appreciate. Too often it seems they have mindlessly ignored their own reputations, value systems and the lives of those they serve.

Wondering what do we teach out children?

Random Quotes:

"What are boundaries? They are made up of two essential things: what you create and what you allow." 
"... leaders (directly responsible people) own it (their enterprise). They are the ones who define and create the boundaries that drive the behavior that forms the identity of teams and culture and sets the standards of performance. Leaders define the direction and are responsible for making it happen. And they are responsible for the accountability systems that ensure that it does happen. It always comes back to leadership and the boundaries they allow to exist on their property."
 ― Henry Cloud, PhD [Leadercast Network] 

“I sincerely believe that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“I have a higher and grander standard of principle than George Washington. He could not lie; I can, but I won't.”
― Mark Twain

“Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.“
[Special Message to the Congress on the Internal Security of the United States,
August 8, 1950]
― Harry S. Truman

“Trust is the glue of life. It's the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It's the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”
― Stephen R. Covey

Basketball coach legend Rick Pitino
captured the principle of honesty 
simply and profoundly:
Lying makes a problem part of the future;
truth makes a problem part of the past.
―quoted by Stephen R. Covey

Seven Dangers Of Human Virtue:
  1.  Wealth without Work
  2.  Pleasure without conscience
  3.  Knowledge without character
  4. Business without ethics
  5. Science without Humanity
  6. Religion without sacrifice
  7. Politics without Principles
― Mahatma Gandhi

“Sometimes facing reality is difficult, especially when hearing it from others. But we demean and insult other people when we treat them as anyone other than accountable, responsible, choice-making individuals. If, in the name of being nice and kind, we start protecting them, we begin the process of the codependency and silent conspiracy that eventually results in the lowest level of initiative – Wait until told.
― Steven R. Covey

“The last of human freedoms - the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.” 
― Viktor E. Frankl

Finally, let's never forget this:
“It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.” 
― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning