"2) It’s dangerous to succeed. I’m most concerned for those who aren’t even 30 and are very gifted and successful. Sometimes God uses someone right out of youth, but usually he uses leaders who have been crushed.
6) Brokenness and failure are necessary."
I get the sense that I should be trying and failing more...
Interesting that 20-somethings and early 30-somethings (young, innovative entrepreneurs not tied down to tradition or family) have often been the ones succeeding in different ventures over the last ten years, even in Christendom.
British celebrity chef Jamie Oliver on men and women
“The key to life is to surround yourself with lots of women,” Oliver said. “Men would just lie to me. Girls say, ‘Give me half an hour and I’ll find out.’ They’re intelligent, more loyal and they make things happen. Everything I do is about team, really. So 90 percent of my team are women.”
Perhaps because men have a tendency to protect their fragile egos by pretending to know things rather than admitting they don't know and then getting things done?
Matt Moore on the Charlotte Bobcats and organizational makeovers
“The Bobcats are a playoff contender, and have been since Larry Brown decided to dump his best player (Jason Richardson) to Phoenix for jack-of-all-trades-master-of-awkward-spacing Boris Diaw and older than dirt Raja Bell. When that trade occurred, there was universal questioning of what in the carolina blue blazes Larry Brown was thinking. You don’t ditch your best player! But Brown understood a resounding principle of rebuilding/makeovers/reconfigurations. Whatever the core pillar is of the function that is not being successful, it is the first thing that must go."
Is this always true? Can a core pillar of one unsuccessful organization ever become a core pillar in a successful one?
Seth Godin on the Hierarchy of Success
"I think it looks like this:
Attitude
Approach
Goals
Strategy
Tactics
Execution
...
Tactics tell you what to execute. They're important, but dwarfed by strategy. Strategy determines which tactics might work.
But what's the point of a strategy if your goals aren't clear, or contradict?
Which leads the first two, the two we almost never hear about.
Approach determines how you look at the project (or your career). Do you read a lot of books? Ask a lot of questions? Use science and testing or go with your hunches? Are you imperious? A lifehacker? When was the last time you admitted an error and made a dramatic course correction? Most everyone has a style, and if you pick the wrong one, then all the strategy, tactics and execution in the world won't work nearly as well.
As far as I'm concerned, the most important of all, the top of the hierarchy is attitude. Why are you doing this at all? What's your bias in dealing with people and problems?"
When hiring, most organizations don't necessarily delve too much into the top two tiers of the hierarchy. I wonder if these can be measured in any way.
Shaun Groves on making celebrities of pastors
"I don’t want the Andies to love some speaker guy’s church so much that they stop loving their own. How many guys have developed ulcers and butchered community by trying to create the church they want to lead out of the church they have been given to lead?"
I guilty of the tendency to "celebritize" well-known leaders as well.
