LEADERS ARE POSITIVE
FURTHER QUOTATIONS ON
POSITIVE LEADERS
- ATTITUDE:
- Samuel Johnson observed: “The fountain of content must
spring up in the mind, and he who hath so little knowledge of
human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but
his own disposition, will waste his life in fruitless efforts and
multiply the grief he proposes to remove.”^9
- “I learned very early in life never to take counsel of my fears.”
(General George Patton)^10
- Negative thinkers and pessimists never inspire or motivate
anyone except to negativism and pessimism.^11
- In 1940, Winston Churchill did by himself turn the tide of
history. His shoulders held the sky suspended. He saved his
country and the course of human freedom. In the War Room
from which he directed the war, he kept a piece of cardboard
on which were printed these words: “Please understand there
is no pessimism in the house and we are not interested in the
possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.”^12
- Maybe more important than ability is attitude. Herb Kellehher,
president of Southwest Airlines, says, “We look for attitude...
we’ll train you on whatever it is you have to do, but one thing
Southwest cannot change in people is inherent attitudes.^13
- The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity and the
optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.^14
- Golfing legend Jack Burke, Jr., in advising one of his
star pupils...to always keep a positive attitude, said, “Keep
your head up. Everything in the world with its head down gets
eaten. Chickens, hogs, cows. Every time you see a leopard, his
head is up, isn’t it? You don’t see any leopards getting eaten,
do you? No gloomy guy, dragging around, looking at his shoe
tops, ever won anything worth winning.”^15
