Comments

Not to be AR...but even though Andy (Tim Robbins) does say the quote in Shawshank...it's originally Red's (Morgan Freeman) quote.

Another great quote in that film:
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things. And no good thing ever dies."

Great stuff.

Posted by Chris Houchens at September 23, 2005 4:01 PM

"Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself." Doesnt this get to the heart of the matter? Isnt it true of anything you hope to inspire-- honesty, excellence, enthusiasm, service, love?

And isnt the disconnect from this realization the cause of so much mediocrity. The source of hollow PR campaigns.... The source of "organizational revolutions" that go nowhere... The source of shrugged shoulders and cynical sneers?

Ask every so-called "leader" and they will tell you they PROMOTE passion, excellence, quality, enthusiasm, hard work, dedication, blah blah blah.

But how many actually EMBODY those traits? How many feel them in their gut, heart, and bones?

Posted by AJ Hoge at September 24, 2005 3:13 AM

Thanks Arun - and that I guess you can see why I never became an accountant :-) ... I have never been a detail man ... sorry about that Tom .. it should of course read 2705BTP!!!

Posted by Trevor at September 24, 2005 3:40 AM

Chris, nice catch. Trevor ... fabulous!

Posted by tom peters at September 24, 2005 5:51 AM

Love the Shawshank memory of freedom and ending up in Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo which for some reason I visited in 1985 - watch for the Cayman [alligator] on the Robert Trent Jones golf course!

Posted by Sean at September 24, 2005 9:56 AM

No comments on the James Yorke "Plan B" quote? I especially loved it. (G Patton offered a kin-quote, something like this: "A 'good' plan execued right now beats a 'perfect' plan executed next week.")

Posted by tom peters at September 25, 2005 9:16 AM

Tom - May be a slight diversion from the plan B quote but I love John Lennon's quote "Life is what happens while we are busy making other plans"

Posted by Trevor at September 25, 2005 10:30 AM

I think Lennon is a perfect fit!

Posted by tom peters at September 25, 2005 11:54 AM

Trevor, that Lao Tsu quote is one of my all-time faves, which I use with senior managers who are addicted to command-and-control models! (I also like Lao Tsu's more cryptic line: "Ruling a country is like cooking a small fish.") Lao Tsu - now that you've got me going - was a truly revolutionary thinker (and a mystic and a transcendentalist) who turned the common sense Confucian wisdom upside down. Lao Tsu delighted in using paradoxical/oxymoronic pronouncements to break open people's belief systems. I recommend his entire Tao Te Ching, which is online at: http://www.nokama.com/tao/
One more of my favorite Lao Tsu lines is "Soft and weak overcome hard and strong" - written at least 600 years before the Sermon on the Mount.

Posted by John O'Leary at September 25, 2005 11:01 PM

Just found another one of my favorite Lao Tsu quotes:
"When the great Tao is forgotten, kindness and morality arise.
When wisdom and intelligence are born, the great pretence begins.
When there is no peace within the family, filial piety and devotion arise.
When the country is confused and in chaos, loyal ministers appear." Chapter 18, Tao Te Ching

This has got to be one of the most subversive texts in the enlightenment literature. It could have been titled "Re-imagine! Spiritual excellence in Disruptive Times."

Posted by John O'Leary at September 25, 2005 11:53 PM

Thanks for that feedback John - I too use the Lao Tsu quote in team development or leadership workshops I run. Simplicity is the key my friend :-) It was 2700 years ago! What I like most about the quote is the first six lines and I get more than a little annoyed when pretentious managers/leaders like to quote only the last five

"But with the best leaders
When the work is done
The task accomplished
The people will say
”We have done this ourselves.”

I think those lines when reproduced in isolation miss the most important stuff about being a leader which I have always believed is contained in the first six lines:

“Go to the people
Live with them
Learn from them
Love them
Start with what they know
Build with what they have"

No one can claim to be a leader without doing that stuff in my opinion and I would be suspicious of any leader who is not firmly grounded in those issues.

Posted by Trevor at September 26, 2005 4:55 AM

Trevor, that reminds me of a sour chapter in my life. We did a TV show on my second book, A Passion for Excellence. It had four parts, as I recall. Among them were "chapters" on People and Customers. Some buyers only chose to buy parts of the film, which my distributor allowed. The connective material made it clear as day that the great customer outcomes could only occur if you did the people stuff first. Nonetheless, Eastern Airlines (or should I say the late Eastern Airlines) bought a ton of copies of the customer bit, while pointedly ignoring the people chapter.

Posted by tom peters at September 26, 2005 5:31 AM

Thanks tom - I guess the moral is if Eastern Airlines had bought the entire book they would just maybe still be 'alive.' I get really frustrated when people want short cuts to 'instant success' when we all know that doing our homework is the most imporant ingredient of any real and lasting success. I have written elsewhere; "Always do your homework - I do not believe there is any such person as an 'overnight success.' It may take 40 years or longer to become an overnight success"

Posted by Trevor at September 26, 2005 10:12 AM

Tom, you fool, the only chapter that you should have allowed to be purchase seprately IS The People Chapter.

Posted by Dave Holland at September 26, 2005 2:17 PM

Dave, Dave you are sooooooooooooo right; but I was young then! (And of course I can maintain the conceit of thinking that if they'd bought "the other chapter," they wouldn't have subsequently evaporated!)

Posted by tom peters at September 26, 2005 5:43 PM

Great bit of poetry Trevor. I've been teaching this same thing for a long time, but never had it put so beautifully and succinctly. It has now entered my course series--predominantly to remind the prima dona managers (leaders--not) I deal with sometimes, but mostly to fire up the followers!

What would a leader be without followers? I use a slide in my courses that shows one man running with a crowd of people chasing him. The next slide puts a flag in the hands of the first man, turning him into a leader! The juxtaposition is a truly amazing visual. It always gets a reaction--sometimes laughs, sometimes gasps, sometimes both. And then it usually starts a good discussion about leadership and "followership."

Posted by Mike at September 26, 2005 7:57 PM

The Grand Theft goes on! Lao Tsu made it into my Campinas/Brazil speech tonight! (Check out the slides Post.) Thanks, Trevor! PS, it worked, big time.

Posted by tom peters at September 26, 2005 9:48 PM

Lao Tsu must have had a great publisher aye Tom? :-) - maybe 'Re-Imagine' will still be selling in the year 4705 AD

Posted by Trevor at September 27, 2005 12:58 AM

Another Tao Te Ching quote:

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[The great leader] does not show greatness, and is therefore truly great.

If there is a Tao of Leadership, surely Gandhi would be its most perfect example.... Leading without leading, placing himself always BELOW, humble and simple, soft and non-violent...

He not only helped defeat the British Empire and inspird outrageous loyalty and sacrifice from Indians, he also gained the love and respect of most of his "enemies". I cant say I know of a similar leader in the fields of education or business.

Does anyone?

Posted by AJ Hoge at September 27, 2005 5:47 AM

I guess if Trevor thinks Lao Tsu was both 700BC and 700BTP, then I guess it is evident who he believes Tom to be. Maybe not in a literal sense, eh?

Posted by Dustin at September 27, 2005 12:17 PM

I have mixed emotions about the JQA quote:
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. —John Quincy Adams"

I LOVE the references to inspirations, dreamweaving, learning, and achieving. To become more, though? I think the wording is misleading. I don't think we inspire people to become more, I think we help them discover who they really are. In a way, we help them become who they already are. Who they were created to be. We don't take them BEYOND their being, we help remove unnatural obstacles that keep them from being.

The principal of this quote I wholeheartedly endorse.

Posted by Dustin at September 27, 2005 12:26 PM

Jsus christ Dustin!!!- I didn't realise!!! :-) ...forgive me all fellow christians I was only joking

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Don't mind me for interrupting, but as to your JQA remark, Dustin, it's a lovely "quibble"--in fact, no quibble at all, but a crucial point!

Posted by tom peters at October 2, 2005 12:52 PM

Thanks Tom.

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