“What I enjoy most about writing is the ability to take a magnificent person or place, hold it up to the brightest possible light, and share that light with others.
That’s the challenge, and that’s what keeps me striving to ever hone my words to a fine obsidian edge.”
– Bart Jackson
If you would enjoy reading more of these words, visit our BartsBooks Bookstore.
If you would like to hear any of these words from the authors mouth at your next event, drop Bart a line at info@bartsbooks.com
APPETIZERS
On Money:
Money is only a yardstick for those who have achieved, but ‘tis a vital walking stick for those still struggling up the trail.
On Success:
Growth doesn’t happen. It demands architects of change and willing engineers to innovate. And, of course, oceans of enthusiastic sweat.
When your own company grows, its so exciting you can scarcely sleep. When your company ceases to grow, you cannot sleep either.
On Leadership:
A great leader can inspire his team to scrabble up and over a wall bare handed. A great manager makes sure there are ample ladders leaning against the wall so everyone can get over swiftly. Notice, I do not say they have to be two different people.
On the benefits of Flattening Your Organization
Pyramids are great. Pyramids are Impressive. But they house only the dead…
On Power:
Real power is as fleeting as romance in a brothel. Take it neither to heart or head.
Alexander the Great inherited an empire. Ghengis Kahn was an orphan. Opportunities of birth, like the taste of old Scotch, are highly overrated.
ENTREES
The Ultimate Leadership Challenge
He walks into a strange hall in a foreign country filled with nearly 100 consummate professionals whom he has never met. They know only his name plus whatever hints of his reputation they have gleaned from the brief biographical handout. Fortunately, theirs is one of the five languages he speaks fluently. He has come to imprint his vision on them and on a product under tight deadline. Each of these nationally renowned professionals holds his or her own personal vision, and most have been hired at least once to employ that interpretation in creating this product for other employers.
He mounts the stairs and comes before them. In stature, he stands half a foot shorter than the average American CEO. Yet his stance and presence gleam with authoritative intensity, radiating the message that you do not want to mess with this guy. Even before he greets them in their mother tongue, he has taken command. He has banished what might become a wasteful contest of wills, because he simply does not have the time.
From the moment Maestro Jacques Lacombe lifts his baton at the first orchestral rehearsal, he will have a mere eight hours – four rehearsals – to produce a two-hour symphony before some of the most discerning ears in the nation. When he sets his baton down after the performance’s final coda and sweeps his arms majestically upward, signaling his fellow musicians to rise, he will turn, briefly bow, and acknowledge the standing ovation. Audience members will whisper to each other about subtle nuances of “his” rendition. Reviewers will remark on his ability to draw out the optimal performance of individual musicians and blend them as a united whole. The proof of teamwork and leadership lies in the product. Bravo….
Cricket vs Baseball
From his article The Second Most Popular Sport
The trouble with Cricket is that it is so ineffably British. It’s just that stodgy, over-dressed version of baseball, where men in snow-white padding fuss about on a manicured lawn all mired up in some labyrinthine set of obscure rules and memories of The Grand Empire. Or so it may seem to us unitiated yankees…….
The obvious difference on the cricket pitch is Teamwork. You see, the trouble with baseball is that it is so ineffably American. I – a rugged individual baseball batter – armed with nothing more than my big stick, square off against an enemy army of fielders. And I slug that horsehide spheroid with all my god-given might, and I churn my legs to earn as many bases as I alone can grind out against the foe. Then some other guy, recently traded and paid to wear the same shirt as mine, gets his chance. ‘Tis exactly the appropriate version of the bat-and-ball sport for a nation of lone (and more than a little self-absorbed) pioneers fighting their way in the wilderness.
However, if I were a human resource manager looking for some fun corporate team-building exercise, I might just swap the softball field for the cricket pitch. A cricket match is a deliberately engineered group-coordination effort. The kind of stuff that neglects stars, and builds empires…..
Man, Deer, and The Forests
You could hear the rhythmic hoof beats advancing through the forest. I had crawled out of the old, low canvas tent my father brought on our camping trips, to answer nature’s call. Squinting into the dawn, I searched the blaze of autumn colors for the source. And then it broke brush. With arrogant magnificence, an immense stag leapt into the small clearing of this North Jersey woods, bearing easily aloft a broad antler rack of at least 12 points. I stood frozen with slack-jawed awe and beheld this stately, grand animal with whom I shared this moment. In a few bounds, he crossed the clearing and slipped into the foliage. There are some things a boy never forgets.