October 9, 2019 |

What Matters to Me

I’ve been a business owner for a long time now.  It’s been the greatest experience of my professional life.  The reason for me is simple.  I love it because my answers are in the mirror.  Every morning when I wake up, I go to the bathroom and brush my teeth.  It’s there that I see the answer.  No matter what the problem, the challenge or the opportunity, I know that it’s on me.  It’s my responsibility, either individually or as a leader of people, to solve today’s equation.

I find that exhilarating.  If things are going well, then I can celebrate.  If things are going poorly it’s mine to fix.  There are no excuses.  There is no one else at which to point fingers or to blame.  It’s a mindset; perhaps even more – it’s a life philosophy.  It’s not for everyone perhaps, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.  What about you?

This is captured wonderfully in one of the great poems ever written – “Invictus” by William Ernest Henley.  Enjoy.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeoning’s of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.