“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~Winston Churchill

This post has been sitting in my draft box for quite some time now. Honestly, I find it hard to ‘bounce-back’ coming from almost two weeks of sickness. Work filed up, and tons of commitment needing my immediate attention. Again, I feel the need to rise-up to this occasion and take charge, and I think that is how good business leaders will do. They consider setbacks, failures, and frustrations as allies. These do not discourage them, but rather they rise to the occasion. They put their hands, heads, and hearts to the tasks until they accomplished their objectives. Who would forget Winston Churchill, ‘who brought England to its finest hour’ and put an end to World War 2 with his resiliency when the other nations’ leaders failed to act to stop the Nazis: Never give in –never , never, never, never, never…never give in! Or when he addressed the British people in a BBC radio broadcast (February 1941) and at the same time sending his message to the American political leaders of that time: We shall not fail or falter; we shall not weaken or tire…Give us the tools and we will finish the job. The rest is history.

Okey, sounds like I had an overdose of the book (huh ^^) –A Leader Becomes A Leader: Inspirational Leadership for a New Generation by J. Kevin Sheenan.

This book comes out in an age where most of us prefer to browse the web than sit down in the comfy of our favorite couch to read. Albeit, it captures best the need to reawaken our generation on the fundamentals of leadership extraordinaire.

This book supports my treatise, that you cannot take leadership apart from management. Sheehan will convince us in each page that you cannot simply manage without leading. You have to do both. He exhaustively covered all types of leaderships in different areas: from the sports arena to the spiritual, the likes of Michael Jordan, Gandhi and Mother Theresa; from the social activist to the scientists, the like of Martin Luther King Jr and Einstein; from the military to politics, the like of General George Marshall and JFK; from music and the arts like John Lennon and Bob Marley; from the business leaders of the past and present like Walt Disney and Bill gates; among others.

The book draws principles and values from the lives and leadership of these known people, some even unknown, like the Unknown Rebel of China, and throws them to us for inspiration and easy reflection. It made me reflect on the important issues in both my business and personal affairs, and I came out inspired, ready to rectify my mistakes and strive more to give my best at what I do now.

Let me say this honest disclaimer, this is not only a book about inspired corporate leadership, but it is also about effective personal leadership and being the best that you can be wherever and whenever you are.

My take and yours

I will always be student of management and business leadership, in spite of leaving the corporate world. Though I lead and manage now in a different arena, I will always carry own with this in mind:

I learned this, at least, by my own experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined; he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. HE will put some things behind; will pass an invisible boundary… [And] he will live with the license of a higher order of beings. In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.

If you have built castle in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. ~Henry David Thoreau as quoted from A leader Becomes A Leader.

Related Posts:

• When A Leader Becomes A Leader: A Young Professional’s Perspective (Part 1)
• Know Thyself: Foundation of Corporate Leadership
• Starting Low, Hitting High