A very good friend of mine sent me a wonderful quote that I think would be fitting for everyone in this group to reflect on:

 “It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause, who at best knows achievement and who at the worst if he fails at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

Your thoughts and comments….

Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine,
we consciously give other people permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

– Marianne Williamson “A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles”

A group of frogs were traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the two frogs that they were as good as dead. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit with all of their might. The other frogs kept yelling them to stop, that they were as good as dead.

Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were shouting and gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out.

When he got out, the other frogs said, “Didn’t you hear us?”

The frog explained to them that he was hard of hearing and thought they were cheering him on the whole time.

This story teaches two lessons:

1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day.
2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. It’s sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can lift people to once thought unreachable height.

Although the advertisement only ran once, I don’t think that anyone who read it the first time knew what they were part of. On the 2nd of January, 1915, The Saturday Evening Post ran a copy of “The Penalty of Leadership,” which even today holds great knowledge and advice for us. To give you some background, during the time that the ad was first run, Cadillac’s brand image was dependability. But when the 1915 V8 Touring model hit the market, numerous defects began to show and the brand image became tarnished. Cadillac’s main competitor, Packard, was using their brand image against them in their advertisements and was winning the sales battle. Cadillac’s answer was “The Penalty of Leadership.” Since its first publishing, Cadillac salespeople have requested copies for themselves and customer. In 1945, “The Penalty of Leadership” was voted the best ad of all time by the advertising industry, and according to Advertising Age (1998), this campaign is ranked 49th out of the top 100 ad campaigns of all time.

The popularity of the campaign was revived in 1967, when Cadillac mailed out scrolls of “The Penalty of Leadership” to its customer list. Elvis happened to be on that list. When he read it, he said that even though the piece of paper had been written before he was born, the author could have just as well been writing about him. Elvis framed the scroll and hung it near the desk in his office at the mansion. It still hangs in Graceland today for visitors to see.

In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition, the punishment fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a standard for the whole world, it also becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work is merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone. If he achieve a masterpiece it will set a million tongues awagging. Jealousy does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a common-place painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build; no one will strive to surpass or to slander you unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius.

Long after a great work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his boat steam by.

The Leader is assailed because he is a Leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or to excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy, but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this, it is as old as the world and as old as the human passions of envy, fear, greed, ambition, and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains the leader. Master Poet, Master Painter, Master Workman; each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages.

That which is great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live, Lives.

As we enter a new year, filled with hopes and dreams for a better future and a better world, I urge you to take these words to heart. Let it be your resolution for the year: Stop listening to the peanut gallery. Be great and do something great. Do something that you can brag to your kids about!