Category: Motivation

for motivation based blog posts

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Leadership Motivation

on Niccolò Machiavelli #5

“Therefore, the best fortress is to be found in the love of the people, for although you may have fortresses they will not save you if you are hated by the people.” – Niccolò Machiavelli 

This one is real simple. What Machiavelli is saying is if you have the love of the people then you got it all. They will go to bat for you. They will follow you through hell and high water. They will be there for you.

It is when you don’t have their love that you have problems. When you find yourself without authentic followers you will have a difficult time moving mountains or defending your castle from the onslaught of a charging Mongolian Army.

When you have people that love you, your product/service, your organization or any combination is when you have followers. Just like they love you, you must to love them. You must be grateful for having them.

I am not telling you anything new.

Back in the 16th century, Machiavelli was wise enough to share this one bit of advice with his friends in the book The Prince before it was published for the masses, some five years after his death.

However, Machiavelli was not the first to come up with the concept of having people like you to help you when you need their help. Sun Tzu, in his book Art of War, mentions something to the same effect. Then scatter throughout ancient and modern history the same theme permeates.

It cannot be denied. Libraries are filled with stories of individuals, weak and mighty, who turned their backs on others only to find that they really need them and then it is too late for anyone to help.

If you can find people and keep people, you have won. Please understand, when I say keep them I mean that you have done all you can to create and maintain a mutual admiration and respect for each other then you are good to go. When you have showed them that you value them for who they are then they will value you.

Most certainly, as a King, Owner, Dictator (wait a second Dictators don’t count), Leader, or Boss you can rule with a heavy hand or an iron fist but why would you want to? Why would anyone want to? Ask a Dictator, they will tell you why (as you are being led to the gallows).

The cool thing about staying in power and growing with power is to make as many people as you can grow with you. Appreciate those that are with you, especially the ones that have been with you since day one.

What do you think? I would like to hear from you.

Thanks,
David

Categories
Leadership Motivation

on Niccolò Machiavelli #2

“Without an opportunity, their abilities would have been wasted, and without their abilities, the opportunity would have arisen in vain.”  – Niccolò Machiavelli

I wrote about this a while back about exploiting opportunities. In the line above, Machiavelli expounds on the fact that everyone must be ready for when opportunity comes knocking.

The problem and the blessing is that no one knows when opportunity will actually knock. Sometimes, there are signs that things are about to happen but for the most part we never know when it will happen. That is why we must be prepared to exploit those opportunities when they arrive.

While I don’t believe that opportunity only knocks once. I do believe that every time it knocks and we don’t answer it just takes that much longer for the next opportunity to come knocking again.

On the other hand, what if you are ready but opportunity never comes a calling?

This one is easy. Get yourself ready then get out there and show the world you are ready.

Categories
Leadership Motivation

on Niccolò Machiavelli #1

“There is no other way to guard yourself against flattery than by making men understand that telling you the truth will not offend you.” – Niccolò Machiavelli

Machiavelli hits the nail right on the head with this line.

Surround yourself with “Yes” men and you will never hear the honest truth again. To me, the need to have the truth is vastly greater than to being flattered whether the comments are genuine or not.

The way I see it is that we do not always need flattery. After all, there can be only so much ego stroking before even flattery gets old, tired and inauthentic. Then what good is it?

However, when flattery is mixed with a dose of reality things start to change.

Recently, I received a review of one my works of fiction. It was not a good review. Actually, it wasn’t a review at all, it was two sentences long. However, I will forever be in the debt of the author of those two sentences.

Those two sentences spoke volumes. Unfortunately, the review came a little over a year after that book was published. However, that will not stop me from taking those two sentences and doing something positive with them. Though I hope my writing has matured since., I will work harder to make it better and possibly get a better review from him, next time.

Getting back to Machiavelli, well let’s just say this guy was onto something.