Learning from the Masters

  1. Claire Fracker says:

    Honesty in a leader will always win the respect of employees and the result or results for corporation in the end will be success. You can catch more with honey than you do with vinegar!! My inspiration from this is to focus on kindness and making a positive impact!!

  2. Bob Carlson says:

    Chuck,
    Great article….
    Well said…..it would be helpful if our elementary schools taught such lessons, but I fear they are not……
    It reminds me of the adage “ Those who do not learn from history, are destined to repeat it.”…( Certainly inferring negative history events)

  3. Ginny Curry says:

    Integrity and empathy!!!

  4. Lorraine Bukowski says:

    Along with reinforcing the importance of honestly, integrity and valuing others, you also shared some interesting facts that I didn’t know about these two great men. (I’d love to know what was in Lincoln’s first telegram.) Thank you for another insightful article.

  5. Bill Finch says:

    Thanks for sharing Chuck. I enjoyed reading your post.
    There is much to love and admire about both Washington and Lincoln. I have read quite a bit about both of them and have put both, rightly on a pedestal, as do you. They deserve it. But we must remember they were flawed men who tried hard to overcome their human frailties of pride, ego, and self-interest. Lincoln was an attorney for the massive railroad interests that wantonly decimated the native American lands and the buffalo that sustained them, himself serving in the Black Hawk War against indigenous people. While he advanced the cause of liberty he was not convinced of true “equality” of blacks with whites. Washington also fought and killed indigenous people and stole their land through conquest for his personal aggrandizement. What our country did requires the same kind of soul searching South Africa did to set us right. If the best of American leaders participated in one of the worse crimes against humanity, the genocide of indigenous Americans, then we have a long way to go.
    We must be relativists because for their time they achieved amazing things that advanced humanity while at the same time they participated in what we now must conclude is a moral scourge that we must address without removing them from their pedestal. They will not be on the new pedestals we erect to this transformation.

    • CVF says:

      Bill thank you so much. The Gods indeed do have clay feet. You make an excellent point, in that they (Washington and Lincoln) were all too human. It is also very difficult at times to judge some behaviors and actions through century-old lenses, though i would think all things considered both would still be considered honorable romans. Much appreciate your input !

  6. Byron Druss says:

    Timely inspiration, Chuck. Wanting for the greater good. In several ways, certainly politically, and professionally, building a company.

  7. CVF says:

    Thank you Byron! Yes i do think there are indeed lessons here for corporate leadership in building a great corporate enterprise.

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