In the background..........................

 

..............................The American Flyer album

Leading....................

 

     Leadership isn't a burden—it is an opportunity and obligation.  It affords us power and influence and, as much as is possible, control.  It gives us what we all want most—freedom.  We gain freedom to make decisions, and to determine in every way possible the outcomes of our lives.  Leadership prevents us from being victims.  It's how we mitigate the risks caused by external forces and pressures.  It's how we avoid lying face down in the dirt waiting to die. It's how we win.

     On that day in Iraq, I was lucky.  But relying on luck or hoping circumstances will change on their own is not a good business plan, not a solid approach to leading a team.  And it's definitely not a good way to build a marriage or raise a family.  Your luck will run out at some point, and you will end up a victim to your situation.  The check engine light in your car won't go off on its own—you have to do something to fix it.  The same is true everywhere.  You need a strategy, some plan of action, when the external threats arise.  You need to be leading through each aspect of life,

     So, lead in every situation, under every circumstance, no matter how mild or severe or routine a problem appears.  Don't wait, don't sit back, don't assume you have no course of action and become a victim of the world around you.  Lead.

-Dave Berke, The Need to Lead: A TOPGUN Instructor's Lessons on How Leadership Solves Every Challenge

focus on creation.......................

 

     Debates over wealth differentials and inequality are important for every society as we seek to reduce poverty and guarantee opportunity for all citizens.  Yet capitalism is much like what Winston Churchill said of democracy: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."  Capitalism does produce wealth inequalities but has also proven to be the most successful system at wealth creation and opportunity in history.  The focus should not be on wealth concentration alone but economic and social barriers to wealth creation.

-Jonathan Turley, Rage and The Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution

As experiments go................

 

     How Tocqueville settled on this plan is unclear, but there was a widespread sense in Restoration intellectual circles that the Old World could learn from the grand American "experiment" of democratic governance.  George Washington was revered in France as a virtuous general who lived humbly, fought only when necessary, and relinquished his power at the end of his term—a kind of anti-Napoleon.  Nobody drew the contrast better than Chateaubriand in his Voyage en Amerique, published in 1827 and widely excerpted in the French press.  "Washington and Buonaparte both emerged from the republic's bosom; both were the children of freedom," Chateaubriand remarked but added, "Washington remained loyal to freedom, but Buonaparte betrayed it.

-Olivier Zunz, The Man Who Understood Democracy: The Life of Alexis de Tocqueville

maybe.................

 

     She stepped outside, wondering whether a life could really be judged from just a few minutes after midnight on a Tuesday.  Or maybe that was all you needed.

-Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

On being you-ish.............

 

Your life’s goal should be to become the most improbable person you can be. Your path, your character, your life, should be the most unlikely, the most unexpected, the least predictable version you can make. Improbable lives have fewer competitors, more unique rewards, and are harder to replace with AIs, since AIs run on the predictable. . . .

The more you-ish you become, the less competition you have, because you are occupying your own niche. Less competition means you don’t have to be in a race; you can relax and focus on your strengths. You have the space to become even more you, and even less likely.

-Kevin Kelly, from this substack

And fairly rare, too.................

 

It’s easy to make any case, no matter how absurd, by misrepresenting reality and hoping that your audience won’t notice – that is, by resorting to unfair intellectual practices. It’s a bit more difficult, yet vastly more productive – and honorable – to actually consult and report the data even when they fail to tell the tale that you wish to be told.

-Donald J. Boudreaux, from this post