DeGaulle on Leadership
Awhile back I read, audio book actually, a book on Charles DeGaulle by Jonathan Fenby. DeGaulle set high standards for arrogance and there is not much of his example that I’d like to try and copy. But there was a quote from him on leadership that I really liked and try to follow:
“Great Leaders were those who moved beyond set hierarchies and regulations to take individual actions, aware of the risks but ready to accept them.”
There’s an unfortunate corollary to this quote which is, unfortunately also true. Nassim Taleb recently tweeted the following aphorism:
“Ambition accounts for 50% of success. And 100% of failures.”