Over the past few weeks I’ve been doing interviews at a growing company near Portland. Going through the data has been so interesting and I’m wondering why, whenever I put it down I am so inspired by this particular company.
I figured it out today. It’s because they are a culture that moves on what they want to do. When they identify it, they go for it.
Reading today I came across Theodore Roosevelt’s famous speech: “Citizenship in a Republic,” Reading it, I came across an inspiring quote that explains why some teams are inspiring and others are draining. Roosevelt says:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
Question yourself – are you involved in lots of activity or are you actually moving toward a goal that matters? Stop the useless activity. Narrow it down. Stop with the excuses for inactivity. Get in the arena.