My family recently made a quick trip to Colorado and we were able to get to Breckenridge to see the 2007 International Ice Sculpture Competition.
Click on the title of this post to open the website with pictures of all the winners from 2006. To see a few other pics you can click on the link called Portmantableau Online Album listed on the right side of this page.
I am constantly in awe of what artists can do with raw material - including a 20-ton block of ice.
Consider this...
We all know that the U.S. has engaged the Muslim world in many ways post 9/11. Some of those activities have been good, some bad, and some decidedly, profoundly, maddeningly stupid. But the most amazing thing about the U.S. response to 9/11 is what DID NOT happen. In the history of the world there has never been a nation who, so injured, has restrained itself so greatly as the United States since the 9/11 attacks. And that restraint is all the more amazing when you consider the staggering military power possessed by America. I will remind you, dear reader, that WW1 was triggered by the assassination of a single man.
What if the shoe bomb were on the other foot? How would the Islamic world respond if a group of radical American Christians hijacked four Middle East based airliners and flew them into the Dome of the Rock, the central Medina mosque, and the Kaaba at the peak moment of the Hajj so that the largest number of Muslims were killed by the event? What if substantive financial links were found between those hijackers and the government of the United States? How might the Muslim world respond to such a heinous attack?
I'll say it again in a different way - never in human history has one nation possessed greater power to retaliate against attack than the U.S. today. Never in human history has a nation had a more compelling reason to retaliate - even blindly and irrationally - than did the U.S. after 9/11. And even in the context of the United States' ongoing and messy military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, never in human history has a nation chosen to restrain itself so dramatically as has the U.S. post 9/11.
And perhaps the most ironic thing of all is that a large portion of the Islamic world perceives our restraint as weakness deserving of disrespect.
Light speed
186,000 miles per second
674 million miles per hour
USA coast-to-coast
3000 miles
6 hours by jet
0.02 second at light speed
Earth to moon
239,000 miles
1.24 seconds at light speed
Sun to Pluto
3.6 billion miles
6.5 hours at light speed
Light year (ly)
5.884 trillion miles
Nearest star within our Milky Way Galaxy
Proxima Centauri
4 years at light speed
Number of stars in our galaxy
100 million
Diameter of our Milky Way Galaxy
90,000 years at light speed
Nearest galaxy to our own Milky Way
2,249,400 years at light speed
Number of galaxies detected by the Hubble Space Telescope
in a patch of sky the size of a grain of sand held at arm's lenth.
100 million
There's a reason they call it "space."
All leaders should realize that they can't do everthing on their own. They simply must have people below them who will do what is necessary to insure success. Those subordinates who will take risks, act without waiting for direction, and ask for responsibility rather than reject it, should be treated as your most prized possessions. Such individuals are exceedingly rare and worth their weight in gold. And when you finally find one - as Lincoln found Grant - they tend to multiply. The "Grants" of the world will choose others in their own image, just as Lincoln's Grant chose such aggressive generals as Sheridan and Sherman rather than procrastinators like McClellan and Hooker. Corporate executives can possess great vision and be able to provide all the direction in the world, just as Lincoln did. But they can't succeed without a man like U.S. Grant to carry out the company's mission.
Abraham Lincoln wrote...
When the conduct of men is designed to be influenced, persuasion - kind, unassuming persuasion - should ever be adopted. It is an old and a true maxim, that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of vinegar. So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart, which, say what he will, is the great high road to reason, and which, when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgement of the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judgement, or to command his action, or to mark him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart, and though your cause be naked truth itself you shall no more be able to reach him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a blade of grass. Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who would lead him, even to his own best interest.
Retain faith that you will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties
- AND AT THE SAME TIME -
Confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be.
There may be seven deadly sins but there are ten D's...
Debt
Divorce
Disease
Drugs
Death
Depression
Drinking
Dice
Deviancy
Dalliance
Teddy Roosevelt wrote...
"It is not the critic who counts. Not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause. Who, at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
Alexander Hamilton wrote (at age 14 by the way)...
I'm no philosopher, you see, and may be justly said to build castles in the air. Yet we have seen such schemes successful when the projector is constant.
Calvin Coolidge wrote...
Press on! Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not: unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Winston Churchill wrote...
It's not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what's required.
J.D. Williams wrote...
"I've always been persistent but that's because I've always been too stupid to quit."
Alfred D. Souza wrote...
"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be worked through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."
J.D. Williams wrote...
"God uses the obstacles of life to drive us to Him."
Louis Brandeis wrote...
The logic of words should yield to the logic of realities.
J.D. Williams paraphrased...
Perfect logic and a brilliant plan always yield to the brute force of reality.
It is extremely difficult for leaders to find a balance between expressing their personalities and effectively managing those of the people they aspire to lead or at least influence. Yet the ability to strike that balance - and to preserve one's authenticity in the process - is precisely what distinguishes great leaders from other executives. Authenticity is not the product of pure manipulation. It accurately reflects aspects of the leader's inner self, so it can't be an act. But great leaders seem to know which personality traits they should reveal to whom and when.
Harvard Business Review Dec05
