More and more I am being reminded that life and learning can all go back to childhood. That who we were, are, and could become, stems from the simplest ideas. I am now a firm believer that nothing can reinforce life’s lesson’s more than being a parent. Nothing can test your levels of leadership in work, with colleagues, friends and people more that the tests with your child.
Proverbs 22:6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
This mindset is reinforced everyday in the conversations and scenerios I witness in work and especially in the interactions with my 3 year old son. Every night he has a routine that he plays out with me. Part of this routine is a story before he lays down for bed. It can be short or long but a story Can Has to happen before he goes to bed. One of the books he always chooses is from Dr Seuss called “The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories.”
One of his favorite stories is The Sneetches which tells the story of odd-looking yellow creatures with stomachs that tend to stick out. For some reason, half of the Sneetches boast stars on their bellies, which they believe makes them superior to those who lack stars. “With their snoots in the air, they would sniff and they’d snort. ‘We’ll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort!’ Overall Seuss shows just how ridiculous the “we’re better than them” mentality can be while illustrating the Classic Divide between us and them.
Often this is why we have issues with projects, conflict in relationships and failures in communication: the mentality that somehow I am better than you or I am right and you are inherently wrong.
“Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.” Dr Seuss
Leadership, while hard to believe, is actually simple. It is just how we react and act to the situations and people we face? So with that I leave you with some Dr Seuss quotes and stories! Enjoy!!!
“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”
“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”
“Today was good. Today was fun. Tomorrow is another one.”
“I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living, It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. Which is what I do, And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.”
“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own.
And you know what you know. You are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”
“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
“I’m afraid sometimes
you’ll play lonely games too,
games you can’t win
because you’ll play against you”
“So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act. And will you succeed? Yes! You will, indeed! (98 and ¾ percent guaranteed).”
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?”
“Changing their stars every minute or two. They kept paying money.
They kept running through until the Plain nor the Star-Bellies knew
Whether this one was that one or that one was this one. Or which one
Was what one or what one was who.
“Then, when every last cent of their money was spent,
The Fix-It-Up Chappie packed up. And he went.
And he laughed as he drove In his car up the beach,
“They never will learn. No. You can’t Teach a Sneetch!”
But McBean was quite wrong. I’m quite happy to say.
That the Sneetches got really quite smart on that day.
The day they decided that Sneetches are Sneetches.
And no kind of Sneetch is the best on the beaches.
That day, all the Sneetches forgot about stars and whether
They had one, or not, upon thars.” ~ The Sneetches - Dr Suess
