Great Quotes – Effort, Execution and Leadership in troubled times

Each day begins with newspapers reporting despondent news on economic downturn – and a general feeling of despair surrounds us.  Some inspiration was needed before I start my week and I sought help from my friend – the feed reader. This friend never lets me down – it searches effectively from some 100 odd good blogs and dishes out some great content – that is not only relevant but also very lifting.

Seth Godin writes a very interesting piece on effort versus luck. Luck comes in easy while effort means some real hard work. He writes –

And that’s the key to the paradox of effort: While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time.

There is an old post from Lisa Haneberg’s Management Craft  – where she emphasizes on importance of execution in troubled times. In the post, she refers to a song from Mark Knopfler called “Why Worry?”

“Why worry, there should be laughter after pain
There should be sunshine after rain
These things have always been the same
So why worry now”

I thanked my friend – the feed reader and went to another faithful friend – the books. I recently read Subroto Bagchi’s “Go  Kiss the World”. Each chapter in the book ends with some profound lesson. I decided that I will just skim through some concluding paragraphs and gain some inspiration. Here is an important lesson – straight from the book.

“Faced with crisis, the job of a leader is to take charge and broadcast his or her intent. It is not the time for self-pity, not a time to ask “Why me?” One has to be brave enough to try and, sometimes fail.

Mother Teresa once said, “God does not require us to succeed, He only asks us to try.”

Finally, in the worst of times, the job of a leader is to let his or her people know that there is a tomorrow.”

Great thoughts to stir up positivity and kick start the week! Have a great week ahead!