Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
John W. GardnerRead
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure.
Interpretation
Fear of failure can prevent us from pursuing our goals and lead to missed opportunities.
John W. Gardner's quote emphasizes that the fear of failure often costs us more than failure itself. This fear can hold us back from taking risks, trying new things, and ultimately achieving our potential. By allowing fear to dictate our choices, we may be sacrificing growth and success in pursuit of comfort and safety.
In practice
In a motivational speech to encourage young entrepreneurs to take risks.
Paralysis of leadership is due in part to the unseen grip of the special interests.
More and more Americans feel threatened by runaway technology, by large-scale organization, by overcrowding. More and more Americans are appalled by the ravages of industrial progress, by the defacement of nature, by man-made ugliness. If our society continues at its present rate to become less livable as it becomes more affluent, we promise all to end up in sumptuous misery.
Storybook happiness involves every form of pleasant thumb-twiddling; true happiness involves the full use of one's powers and talents.
Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse qualities. There are quiet leaders and leaders one can hear in the next county. Some find strength in eloquence, some in judgment, some in courage.
We pay a heavy price for our fear of failure. It is a powerful obstacle to growth. It assures the progressive narrowing of the personality and prevents exploration and experimentation. There is no learning without some difficulty and fumbling. If you want to keep on learning, you must keep on risking failure-all your life.
I think that all human systems require continuous renewal. They rigidify. They get stuff in the joints. They forget what they cared about. The forces against it are nostalgia and the enormous appeal of having things the way they always have been, appeals to a supposedly happy past. But we've got to move on.
Rather than having small smart tricks to get by, focus on holding on and persevering.
Watch the film, not the stopwatch.
The only thing keeping you from what you want is your story about why you can't have it.
Fret not where the road will take you. Instead concentrate on the first step. That's the hardest part and that's what you are responsible for. Once you take that step let everything do what it naturally does and the rest will follow. Do not go with the flow. Be the flow.
Tomorrow morning the critic will be gone, but the writer will still be there facing the blank page. Nothing matters but that he keep working.
Don't be put off by people who know what is not possible. Do what needs to be done, and check to see if it was impossible only after you are done.
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