Serve to Lead | James Strock
21st Century Leadership
By James Strock
The anniversary of TR’s birthday, October 27th, is an appropriate time to commemorate his historic leadership.
And, just perhaps, it’s useful to reflect on our national leadership–and what TR called the “national character.”
How do we stack up? What can we do better? What can we make better?
What can we begin on this very day, in this very hour?
Excerpted from Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership.
Theodore Roosevelt Leadership | Birthday
“There is little use for the being whose tepid soul knows nothing of great and generous emotion, of the high pride, the stern belief, the lofty enthusiasm, of the men who quell the storm and ride the thunder… It is war-worn Hotspur, spent with hard fighting, he of the many errors and valiant end, over whose memory we love to linger, not over the memory of the young lord who ‘but for the vile guns would have been a valiant soldier.'”
“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. To keep our faces toward change and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate is strength undefeatable.”
Who Am I Serving?
How Can I Best Serve?
Am I Making My Unique Contribution?
What Am I Becoming?
“History does not teach fatalism. There are moments when the will of a handful of free men breaks through determinism and opens up new roads. People get the history they deserve.”