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Courage - The Key Business Value

by Rick Baker
On May 10, 2008

Courage is our company’s Key Value.

In summary, we have chosen Courage for our Key Value because:

  1. Courage enables Self-Knowledge and

  2. When it is backed by Courage, Self-Knowledge can be the foundation of most, if not all, other major values, traits, qualities, and attributes that contribute to character.

If our personal value systems are like dominoes then Courage must be the first domino of desirable character. When it comes to personal character, no other domino can take the place of Courage.

 

Dominoes fall in sequence…

 

 Courage

Self-Knowledge

Self-Confidence

 

That domino sequence was simplified…in practice, it would be a more complicated sequence:

 

 Courage

Self-Knowledge

Self-Education

Self-Confidence

Here I mean ‘Self-Education’ in its broadest sense. It includes other dominoes like introspection and [if we want it to] autosuggestion [self-talk]. The main point is, when Courage is present Self-Confidence can grow. If we remove Courage then Self-Confidence cannot grow. Courage enables Self-Confidence. With dedication, Self-Confidence can be self-taught. Coaches can help us understand the dominoes but they cannot give them to us. We have to create our own dominoes and we have to use them regularly.

The process of developing Self-Confidence only works if it is backed by Courage.

 

***

Self-Confidence is a ‘great enabler’.

 

Courage is the ‘great enabler’. 

 

***

 

We may have different views about the routes the dominoes of personal character take.

But, we should agree Courage enables some very-positive things…

 

Action

 

Decisiveness

 

Enthusiasm

 

Faith

 

Hope

 

Inspiration

 

Leadership*

 

Optimism

 

Persistence

 

Self-Confidence

 

Self-Knowledge

 

 

 

*** 

 

Considering all these dominoes linked to Courage, it is easy to see...

Courage enables positive Change  

***

 

Footnote:  In his 1937 classic, ‘Think and Grow Rich’, Napoleon Hill selected ‘Unwavering Courage” as the #1 attribute of Leadership. 

Tags:

Marketing | Spirited Leaders | Values: Personal Values

Comments (24) -

Rick Baker Canada
1/8/2011 9:18:30 PM #

"With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity."

Mark Twain

Rick Baker Canada
10/23/2011 7:34:18 PM #

"Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others."

Aristotle

Rick Baker Canada
10/23/2011 9:34:10 PM #

“Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?”

Marie Antionette

Rick
2/5/2012 6:41:20 PM #

"Courage is the great invigorator."

Ralph Waldo Trine
'In Tune with the Infinite', (1942, 45th Anniversary Edition)

rick baker
3/13/2012 10:45:29 PM #

According to the Merriam-Webster on-line dictionary, GRIT is defined as - firmness of mind or spirit : unyielding courage in the face of hardship or danger.

Spirited Leaders place Value on GRIT.

rick baker
3/25/2012 7:21:28 PM #

“Courage is victory, timidity’s defeat.”

Orison Swett Marden
'Pushing to the Front', (1911)

rick baker
3/28/2012 7:20:32 PM #

"There is an animal courage which can calmly face the fire of an enemy in battle, or the fierce rage of wild beasts, but which fails in the battle of life, and breaks down when confronted with the beasts that rage within one's heart. It requires a higher, divine courage to remain calm in the hour of deprivation and calamity than in the heat of battle, to overcome self than to overcome another."

James Allen
'The Life Triumphant', (1907)

rick baker
4/20/2012 10:38:33 PM #

"Nothing that is of real worth can be achieved without courageous working."

Samuel Smiles
'Self-Help: with Illustrations of Character and Conduct', (1859)

rick baker
4/21/2012 3:45:48 PM #

"Courage and presence of mind mean the same thing. Presence of mind implies command of mind."

Prentice Mulford
'Thoughts are Things', (1889)

rick baker
5/4/2012 8:04:18 PM #

"Relentless pursuit of self-knowledge is the key to happiness, which derives from the successful use of a life."

Robert Collier
'The SECRET of The Ages', (1926)

rick baker
6/7/2012 11:32:49 PM #

"True courage is cool, calm and collected, and is never foolhardy, quarrelsome, ill-natured or contentious."

Charles F. Haanel
‘The Master Key’, (1912)

rick baker
10/5/2012 7:56:15 PM #

"Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute! What you can do - or dream you can - begin it! Courage has genius, power and magic in it."

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
German Writer, Politician, & Philosopher, (1749-1832)

rick baker
11/25/2012 7:34:07 PM #

“Courage: the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently.”

Maya Angelou,
American Author & Poet

rick baker
11/25/2012 7:35:57 PM #

“Courage isn't having the strength to go on - it is going on when you don't have strength.”

Napoleon Bonaparte

rick baker
5/25/2013 12:54:57 PM #

"To be like the rock that the waves keep crashing over. It stands unmoved and the raging of the sea falls still around it."

Marcus Aurelius
Roman Emperor

rick baker
8/12/2013 11:39:12 PM #

"You cannot build character and courage by taking away a man's initiative and independence."

Abraham Lincoln

rick baker
8/12/2013 11:51:25 PM #

"Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure... than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt

rick baker
8/13/2013 12:16:24 AM #

"The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been kindness, beauty, and truth. The trite subjects of human efforts, possessions, outward success, luxury have always seemed to me contemptible."

Albert Einstein

rick baker
11/24/2013 10:34:46 AM #

"Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk, and to act."

Maxwell Maltz
American Cosmetic Surgeon & Author [PsychoCybernetics]

rick baker
5/1/2014 9:14:23 PM #

"How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them."

Benjamin Franklin

rick baker
11/14/2014 10:04:05 PM #

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.”

Andre Gide
French writer, humanist and moralist, 1947 Nobel prize for literature (1869-1951)

rick baker
5/4/2015 8:07:23 PM #

"Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk-especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going-pioneering and adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity."

Walt Disney

rick baker
5/25/2015 9:36:02 PM #

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young

Bob Dylan

rick baker
8/24/2015 3:27:30 PM #

"Courage is that power of mind which manifests in the love of mental conflict; it is a noble and lofty sentiment; it is equally fitted to command or obey."

Charles Haanel
'The Master Key,', (1917)

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