Summary: Listen to episode 312 of the Inspirational Living podcast: The Leadership Challenge | How to Be a Leader. Edited and adapted from Leadership by George H. Knox. Take advantage of Blinkist's 7 day free trial for our listeners by visiting: http://www.blinkist.com/living Motivational Podcast Excerpt: More men and women should place upon their heads a crown of leadership that will inspire to the impossible. However, that is a headgear that doesn't stay on by itself. If you can reach the sublime heights of leadership, you can wear the crown with ease, but if you shrink from the task before you, it will become a burden that will crush you to the earth. Leadership is a magic word — a marvelous attainment — but the price you pay for it is tremendous. The splendid thing about it is that the more you pay the more you get. The more you give in, the more you have left. Pay but a small price, and the returns are meagre, but pay the supreme price of leadership, and your reward is genius and immortality. When a person aspires to leadership, you need to forget some things. You should forget those who envy you, those who would pull you down and trample you under their feet, thereby hoping to gain a foothold for themselves. You must forget that there is such a thing as loafing or lounging or wasting time. If a person has a life of ease, they can have nothing else. If you have this, you can't have that. You must pay the price of being thorough; of being a master of time, of method, and of concentration. Never, on penalty of your crown of leadership, get to the position where you think you don't need further preparation. Cease to prepare, and you cease to grow. Cease to grow, and you begin to dwindle. When you cease to be better, you cease to be good. You become but a weed in the garden of prosperity. You must cultivate nerve and enthusiasm and concentration, and a great faith, and a great zeal that passeth understanding. You must cultivate patience and then more patience. Not the patience that idly waits, but the patience that knows that when the best that can be done has been done, if the result doesn't come today, it will tomorrow.
