Great Leadership, are you a great leader ?

"He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how"





Hi Guys,

Well back to the on the hoof blogging today, one of the critical things you are going to have to be if you start your own company is a leader, not a manager or techie who thinks he can be a leader. I have talked about this before, the difference in the manager Vs leader but it is so important in an early stage company that you lead and not manage, and when it's time for you to move over make sure you bring in a leader, who has won a few battles and as an old friend Bill Wilson used to comment carries a few defeats as well, battle scars teach you a lot, ask me.



So before you take the bad mens money and sell your body to the Venture Capatalisits or Angel Investors you need to have your own "Why" and be comfortable with it, because that is what will bring you through the dark days that will be ahead at sometime in your adventure and will become your source of strenght and comfort, I know this sounds touchy feely and the VC's hate that but it is something I keep coming back to, are you comfortable in your own skin, and why do you do what you choose to do, if you do not choose to do it then thats another story.

I like to read a lot and one book that I read during one of my latest trips .I.e waiting for connections at the airport was the book "Mans search for meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl, it will stop you and make you think about your "Why" and every great leader needs to have his Why. I have finished this post with an introduction to the book, get yourself a copy and pass it around to your friends, it does not take away from any of your own belifes but it will bring context and form to it. Have are great week and I will see you guys on Friday.

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell" describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Therefore, Frankl's logotherapy is much more compatible with western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is", Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." --Christine Buttery




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Gordon