“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Leonardo da Vinci. Adopted by Steve Jobs.
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An Ass heard a Grasshopper singing in the grass. “What makes you sing so beautifully, Mr. Grasshopper,” said the Ass. “Why, it is the dew, of course!” said the Grasshopper.
So, in order to acquire such a voice, the Ass ate nothing but dew. In doing so, the Ass soon died.
Moral of the Story: What is the source of strength to one is not necessarily the source of strength to another. Each of us must find our own muse, or individual source of creative power and internal strength.
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Introduction – The Essential Aesop – Epilogue
Related Article: Self-Validation and Envy – No. 2. The Frog and the Ox – The Essential Aesop™ – Back to Basics Abridgment Series; The Distinguished Napoleon – The Business of Aesop™ No. 2 – The Frog and the Ox; John Stuart Mill – Leadership is Thinking Independently; John Stuart Mill – Leadership and Being Unique from the Crowd; The Ben-Hur Team-Building Principle™
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Why We Loved It: Each person is a blend of different attributes, different preferences, desires, strengths and weaknesses. Accordingly, each of us must find our own muse, or our own source of creative power and internal strength.
It is common to study particular leaders and their respective successes, but it is not so simplistic as to consider one person’s success without understanding the context. For example, the great Sir Winston Churchill was relatively disregarded prior to World War II, and then again after World War II, but he was indispensable during World War II. For that brief moment in time, Churchill held the weight of European Democracy—if not all Democracy—on his shoulders, like Atlas, with mythological tenacity. The difference was not so much a change in the man, so much as it was a change of circumstances. Churchill was just being Churchill, but the changing necessities found the man, in the same way that the One Ring found Frodo.
As we study others, we should do so only as a matter of sample or formula, but not as an absolute. Success does not occur in a vacuum. The leader may change, the people to be led may change, or the circumstances may change. We have to be careful to understand the different paths of change, being to change ourselves, to change others, and/or to change context. In his book, The Art of Money-Getting or Golden Rules for Making Money, the great entrepreneur, Phineas Taylor (P.T.) Barnum, told his friend who was failing in business in Europe, simply to take the show to the United States, then resulting in a great success. Same show, new location. Therefore, we should keep in mind that it might not be for the horse to change, but rather it might be for the game to change. A champion on the track might be a failure in the field, and vice versa.
Each of us is unique, and one size does not fit all.
Find your own muse, your own source of creativity and strength. And, once you find it—once you find what works for you—don’t betray it, trust it, and defend it against all others.
“In this age the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time.” ~ John Stuart Mill
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© 2013 Arnold Zegarelli and Gregg Zegarelli, Esq. Gregg can be contacted through LinkedIn. Arnold Zegarelli can be contacted through Facebook.
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