It Worked For Me Read Online Free PDF

the leaders must provide the means to get there. The focus should always be on getting better and better. We must always reach for the better way.
    12. DON’T TAKE COUNSEL OF YOUR FEARS OR NAYSAYERS.
    This one has a long history. You can trace it back to Marcus Aurelius, Andrew Jackson, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and hundreds of others. Perhaps the best known comes from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural address: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
    Fear is a normal human emotion. It is not in itself a killer. We can learn to be aware when fear grips us, and can train to operate through and in spite of our fear. If, on the other hand, we don’t understand that fear is normal and has to be controlled and overcome, it will paralyze us and stop us in our tracks. We will no longer think clearly or analyze rationally. We prepare for it and control it; we never let it control us. If it does, we cannot lead.
    I will never forget my fear the first time I came under fire. In 1963 I was the advisor to a Vietnamese infantry battalion. We were walking in column down a forested trail when we were hit by small arms fire from an enemy ambush. We returned fire and the Viet Cong enemy quickly melted back into the forest. It was over in a minute; but one soldier was killed. We wrapped him in a poncho and carried him until we found a place to bring in a helicopter. That night, as I tried to sleep on the forest floor, I was filled with the realization that the next morning we would probably be ambushed again. And we were. My body was filled with the gut feeling that I could be the next one killed. I was taller than the Vietnamese, and as the American advisor, I was a more valuable target. I stuck out.
    That morning, and every morning, I had to use my training and self-discipline to control my fear and move on—just like all the Vietnamese, just like every soldier since ancient times. Moreover, as a leader, I could show no fear. I could not let fear control me.
    Naysayers are everywhere. They feel it’s the safest position to be in. It’s the easiest armor to wear . . . And they may be right in their negativity; reality may be on their side. But chances are very good that it’s not. You can only use their naysaying as one line in the spectrum of inputs to your decision. Listen to everyone you need to, and then go with your fearless instinct.
    Each of us must work to become a hardheaded realist, or else we risk wasting our time and energy pursuing impossible dreams. Yet constant naysayers pursue no less impossible dreams. Their fear and cynicism move nothing forward. They kill progress. How many cynics built empires, great cities, or powerful corporations?
    13. PERPETUAL OPTIMISM IS A FORCE MULTIPLIER.
    In the military we are always looking for ways to leverage up our forces. Having greater communications and command and control over your forces than your enemy has over his is a force multiplier. Having greater logistics capability than the enemy is a force multiplier. Having better-trained commanders is a force multiplier.
    Perpetual optimism, believing in yourself, believing in your purpose, believing you will prevail, and demonstrating passion and confidence is a force multiplier. If you believe and have prepared your followers, the followers will believe.
    Late one winter’s night in Korea after a very tough week of field training, my battalion of five hundred soldiers was waiting for trucks to take us back to our barracks at Camp Casey, twenty miles away. Word came down that we had a fuel shortage and no trucks were coming. We had to march back that night. The troops were exhausted, but we saddled up and started marching cross-country, with some grumbling in the ranks about higher headquarters.
    After we launched, my operations officer, Captain Skip Mohr, reminded me that we had an outstanding requirement to make a forced twelve-mile timed march to qualify our troops to participate in the Expert