From Jim

Back on Father's Day 1997, my son Rod gave me the

book, “Churchill On Leadership.” It is jam-packed with the

wisdom of this great man. I am currently slowly reading the

books in my somewhat extensive library.

I'll give you just a few quotes from this amazing book to

digest that may help you ‘move ahead with 'possibility

thinking’, as it has done for me this week.

Churchill's unwavering courage was rooted in his

relentless optimism. Dangers and obstacles that may

seem unconquerable to many do not overwhelm those with

an optimistic outlook, instead, they inspire daring acts of bravery.

“I am one of those,” he remarked in 1910 “who believes that things will

get better and better.” He rejected negative thinking. In

a speech to his officers in the trenches in France, he said:

“Laugh a little, and teach your men to laugh…if you can’t smile,

grin, and if you can’t grin, stay out of the way until you can.”

“It is a crime to despair,” he wrote after the disaster of the

Munich agreement of 1938. "It is an hour, not to despair, but

for courage and re-building; and that is the spirit which should

rule us in this hour.”

In his last major speech as Prime Minister in 1955, surveying

the growing threat that nuclear weapons posed to the very

survival of civilization, Churchill concluded: “Meanwhile, never

flinch, never weary, never despair.

“All will come out right” was one of his favourite phrases. He

repeated it often and in the darkest days of World War II he

seldom ended a speech without a note of optimism.

After being hit by a car and nearly killed he summoned up his

optimistic spirit by saying, “Live dangerously, take things as

they come, dread naught, all will be well.”

Optimism is also the key to the ‘can-do' spirit, and to the

‘don’t take "no" for an answer' attitude that is essential to the

successful execution of any venture.