One of the things I learned, the easiest of lessons, was that the better you do your job, often going against conventional mores, the less popular you are likely to be.
Interpretation
Doing your job well may make you unpopular if it goes against the norm.
This quote by David Halberstam reflects the idea that excellence in one's work can sometimes lead to unpopularity, especially if it challenges accepted norms or practices. It emphasizes the notion that the pursuit of quality and integrity may place an individual at odds with the majority, who may prefer to adhere to conventional ways of doing things rather than risk discomfort or conflict by seeking improvement or change.
In practice
This quote could be used in a workshop on workplace ethics and integrity.
Fear was the terrible secret of the battlefield and could afflict the brave as well as the timid. Worse it was contagious, and could destroy a unit before a battle even began. Because of that, commanders were first and foremost in the fear suppression business.
If youre a reporter, the easiest thing in the world is to get a story. The hardest thing is to verify. The old sins were about getting something wrong, that was a cardinal sin. The new sin is to be boring.
Being a professional means doing your job on the days you don't want to do it
Memory is often less about the truth than about what we want it to be.
With the marketing pressures driving the book world today, it's much easier to get the author of a memoir on a television show than a serious novelist.
If there is anything that is important to America, it is that you are not a prisoner of the past.
Some of the things are the same no matter which world you're in, kid. One of 'em is this: The quickest way out of something is usually straight through it.
In the gap between thoughts_x000D_ nonconceptual wisdom shines continuously.
It seems that the necessary thing to do is not to fear mistakes, to plunge in, to do the best that one can, hoping to learn enough from blunders to correct them eventually.
Do what is right, and you'll have no lasting regrets. Do what is right, and put yourself on the side of truth, goodness, and the best of life.
If you listen through the screen of your desires, then you obviously listen to your own voice; you are listening to your own desires.
It is only in sorrow bad weather masters us; in joy we face the storm and defy it.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.