Thought Tweet #706 Leadership grit grinds & grows.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

John Wayne is one of my heroes. Every time I hear the word 'grit' I think of Rooster Cogburn, the character John Wayne played when he won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in 'True Grit'. More specifically, I think of the scene where he single-handedly took on all the bad guys and won. The above picture shows Rooster charging at the bad guys...guns a blazin'...the perfect hero.

Grit - firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger

John Wayne had true grit.

We need more leaders with true grit.

When I was a young boy I had a small group of very close buddies. We played together. We played sports like baseball and football. We fought now and again. And we play-fought all the time. We played pirates. We played Cowboys and Indians. We played army games. Bang, bang…you’re dead.

One Friday afternoon, when I was in Grade 3, our teacher told us the President of the United States had been shot and killed.

I remember walking home with my buddies. Laughing and playing as usual…bang, bang…you’re dead.

When I got home, I headed for the refrigerator and I found my Mom in the kitchen…crying like I had never seen before. I remember that afternoon like it was yesterday. I remember my Mom sobbing, unable to talk clearly. I panicked, not understanding what was wrong.  When she could talk she explained she was heartbroken over the death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the President of the United States.

I remember exactly how I felt that afternoon, including the joy I had playing with my friends, the panic about my Mom, and the guilt over my ignorance.

Later, I understood why my Mom and all my friends’ Moms cried that day.

That was the day the Vision known as ‘Camelot’ died.

The death of that Vision shook my world and took a big piece of my childish innocence.

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.”

This saying is attributed to Les Brown [motivational speaker] and Brian Littrell [lead singer - Backstreet Boys].

This is absolutely horrible advice.

I'm no physicist, but...if you miss the moon then the chances of landing among the stars is infinitesimal. There's a greater chance of hitting our Sun, which is of course a star, than there is escaping our solar system and landing among all those other trillions of stars. But, even with this nearest-star there's a hitch. You will burn up before you can land.

I'm no philosopher, but...there's an argument to be made: you have already landed among the stars. Fortunately, you have landed here on Earth where the nearest star does you much more good than harm and the rest of the stars, at least those visible to us, provide an awe-inspiring view at night. There is little to be gained in trying to re-position oneself among the stars.

I'm no rocket scientist, but...if you shoot for the moon then you just might hit it or, if you plan properly, you just might land on it. When I was a boy the Americans used to do that every once in a while. Yes - in the early 1960's President Kennedy spearheaded a space race to the moon. Kennedy began the race with one of the greatest motivational speeches of all time.

Here, thanks to Wikipedia, is a transcript of his words: