“They never talked in reactionary terms and never defined their strategies principally in response to what others were doing. They talked in terms of what they were trying to create and how they were trying to improve relative to an absolute standard of excellence.”

— Jim Collins, about what makes a great leader

Jim Collins is another one. He wrote about “Level 5 leaders” for example, people who have a unique blend of “extreme personal humility with intense professional will.”

Any organization who wants to “raise global leaders” ought to learn from the teachings of such actual leaders.

Hyper-intelligent, ultra-driven, and obsessed with detail, Bezos expects everyone around him to be the same. Amazon staff are said to live in fear of his outbursts. His finest putdowns include, “Why are you wasting my life?”, “I’m sorry, did I take my stupid pills today?” and “Are you lazy or just incompetent?”

I missed point 3: “Complaining is not a strategy.”

I want to do point 1, but “the box” may be quite ingrained in me, but I think I am “throwing out the box” by God’s help.

Taking incremental steps (#4) and constantly innovating (#5) is what I want to continually do, even if I seem to be going nowhere anytime soon.

The many comments on this post is also fascinating and illuminating about the “simplicity” of those who succeed.

I find that I learn much these days from certain American companies and how they reveal the gospel messages (perhaps unknowingly). I wasn’t impressed with Hunger Games this time, for now I crave the “Disney endings” such as in Frozen and Tangled. I long to encounter acts of true love, embraces of goodness and acceptance of kind, tender hearts. Such things have gone missing from Christendom.

This Christmas I pray that anyone who claims to be Christian will care more about putting Christ back into “Christ-ian” than “Christmas”.