Students of leadership know that every failure holds the seed of turnaround and potential success. History offers few better examples than Julius Caesar. True, he came to a dead end on March 15, 44 B.C. – the Ides of March – when he was assassinated. Yet for the previous 40 years Caesar built a career in politics and war, but …
L-E-A-D
I learned something as a parent of teenagers. The worst way to get your kid to do something is to tell them to do it. That is almost guaranteed to fail. The best way is to get them to want to do it on their own. But how do you do that? Sometimes, if you are lucky, you can plant …
A LEADER LOOKS WHERE NO ONE ELSE DOES
“Others follow their own lead and their own emotions. Don’t be distracted but go straight on.” — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations You’re in a large room. Everyone is looking in one direction, following reports from the media. Mainstream media, social media, and alternate media – all are pointing the same way, and everyone follows. Everyone, that is, except the one person …
CROSSING THE RUBICON IS EASY – MARKETING IT AFTERWARDS IS HARD
“Crossing the Rubicon” is an expression that shows off a little polish and education. But the history behind it offers a master class in marketing. That’s right, marketing. Read on. “Crossing the Rubicon” means making a difficult decision that can’t be reversed. It comes from a turning point in Roman history. It saw the rise of Julius Caesar and the …
How to Network: a Present on Cicero’s Birthday
January 1 is the birth of a new year and January 3 is the birthday of an old classic — Cicero. One of the greatest of history’s statesmen and speakers, as well as a brilliant writer and a penetrating philosopher, Cicero was born in Italy on that day in 106 B.C. Put Cicero on your list of reading resolutions …
A LEADERSHIP LESSON FROM CICERO
December was a month of glory and ruin for Cicero, one of ancient Rome’s greatest statesmen. As consul in 63 BC he stopped a violent revolutionary plot. In December of that year he pushed through the execution without trial of Roman citizens who were caught red handed. That was a turning point. It might have saved Rome but it earned …
For Veterans’ Day, a Tale of Rome and Leadership
On Veterans’ Day, November 11, public and politicians will thank the men and women who serve and sacrifice for our country – and rightly so. Some of it will be posturing, some of it just talk. The thing is, though, where leadership is concerned, talk is never just talk. A good leader never loses an opportunity to thank people for …
A Monument and an Election
I have the privilege of spending a month living on a hill above one of the most beautiful cities in the world – Rome. My apartment window shows the dawn breaking on marble monuments, bronze chariots and winged victories, with the mountains as a backdrop. Around the corner stands one of the capital’s most beautiful fountains, built in 1612. The …
“I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”
I arrived in Rome on a sunny and broiling hot late summer Sunday. Sunday is everybody’s favorite day in Rome because most Romans have the day off work. The city quiets down and in the summer much of it empties out. You hear the old-fashioned greeting, Buona domenica, “Good Sunday.” Today was a holy day for two faiths in Rome. …
Won’t You Come Home, Bill Windsor?
About this whole presidential election thing…couldn’t it all be somehow less fraught? As William Seward, Lincoln’s Secretary of State once said, “We elect a king for four years.” Some of our presidents have been giants but most, not so much. Well, what if we didn’t need to elect a king because we had a king? Imagine if America were …