Do you know which great leader personified the same qualities as the bulldog?



Every person, every dog looks at a bulldog with a feeling of the utmost and profound respect. If you can meet the bulldog leadership test, life will be good to you.

You cannot buy it and you will not learn it in school.

Bulldogs are revered because they will not let loose, they hold on. Once the dog has a grip, a red-hot iron will not break it.

Winston Churchill was that kind of leader. When you think of bulldog determination, Winston Churchill comes immediately to mind.

When I was growing up, I had a friend, Bobby, who was physically weak at that time. He would get into many fights and always lose. He would be beaten and battered. However, quitting was something he never did.

Even after he was beaten, he would keep coming back for more. He just would not quit no matter what happened. After time, he seldom got into fights anymore. You see the bullies wanted nothing do with him. They feared him. Even though they got more licks in than he did, they took quite a few themselves. Bullies do not like that very well.

As I followed Bob over the years, he has always done well no matter what he did or where he lived. He has had a long and good marriage too. Despite never going to college, his penchant for not quitting paid off handsomely for him. Do not quit! Be like Bobby!

People in business and entrepreneurs must have the tenacity of a bulldog if they want to become a leader. They must not cower from a fight and may even delight in giving blow for blow.

The defining question is, "Does the leader take defeat as final?" Can the leader come back and try again?

True leaders do not let defeat stop them.

A leader who has suffered a defeat must get up off the canvas and keep going. A leader must do what a great boxer does. The boxer gets up after a decking and then comes back from the brink of defeat to continue the fight.

It takes Mohammad Ali determination to be a great leader. You must acquire this type of determination if you are determined to be a leader. Champions are not quitters. Get up; get up is the call to action when you have suffered defeat.

Good leaders make a hobby of doing impossible things. They scorn the easy jobs and the beaten path. They are the explorers and pathfinders.

A person that does not have quit in his being will succeed at most things. If we are to continue being world leaders, our next entrepreneurial generation must have this imbued into them.

Life has conflict. One cannot expect it to be a parade or a tea party. Leaders must be quick to notice why they were beaten and use this knowledge to their advantage the next time conflict occurs.

Too often stubbornness is spoken of as though it was was a fault. We call a leader obstinate, as though obstinacy was not one of the rarest and most creative virtues in the world.

Obstinacy! We need more of it. Obstinacy plus teach ability. Now you have one of the best pairs of virtues any person can have.

Columbus was obstinate when he kept on for days, in spite of the threats and appeals of his sailors. Watt was obstinate when he kept on making steam engines that would not work for 15 years; until at last, he made one that did work.

Unless leaders have the resoluteness to keep on, in spite of ridicule and opposition, their accomplishments will be minimal.

In business, resoluteness is especially important because well meaning friends and family will try to douse the flame of your enthusiasm when you are attempting a new endeavor or venture.

Resoluteness is necessary when you start a new venture.

Resoluteness is necessary if you must compete in the world economy.

Resoluteness is required when business competitors do not care if they destroy you.

Resoluteness is required if a salesperson wants to win that big account.

A person with mediocre intelligence, who keeps on, can beat a brilliant person who darts away from opposition and seeks easy jobs.

When I was in high school, I wanted to quit geometry because I was not doing well. At about the same time, a school counselor advised me that I should not go to college because I did not have "What it takes to succeed in college".

Well, I went to college and graduated with a major in mathematics. From there I continued my education and earned both a Masters and Ph.D. The Ph.D. had a heavy concentration of statistics.

The high school principal would not let me quit geometry; the counselor's advice I ignored.

The principal, B. F. Stevens, was a wise leader. The counselor did know anything about the human spirit and motivation. He knew nothing about the importance of determination, persistence and guts. He should not have been in schools influencing young minds with his kind of defeatism. I have forgotten his name but not the principal.

Jim, my best friend in high school, wanted to quit geometry too. Mr. Stevens would not let him quit either. Since then, Jim has won National Science Teacher of the Year and so many other teaching honors that the state of Nevada named a special day in his honor. Nevada called it, The Jim Bryn Day. Many brilliant young students benefited from his teaching genius. As a result, they have distinguished themselves in the scientific world. Because of Jim, our world will be a better place.

On last thing, Bobby, Jim and I grew up in poverty. We had no running water, no electricity and no in door plumbing. The one thing we had though was, bulldog tenacity and determination.

Leaders lift people up; they do not tear them down. They make people feel they can accomplish much more than they themselves believe is possible.

We need strong leaders in schools and universities. We should not pollute the young minds of our brightest and best with negativism and pessimism. We need our young leaders to be bold and adventurous as they lead the way into a new century.

The ancient Egyptians, as you remember, put this idea into the myth of the

Phoenix.

The Phoenix was a sacred bird that lived in Arabia. Every 500 years it went to a certain temple in Egypt and burned itself on the altar.

Then, just when every one thought that it was dead, it sprang out of the flames all renewed. It rose from the ashes of its dead self and lived for 500 years longer.

Yes, if you want to be a leader in a world that is full of obstacles and enemies, you must be a Phoenix.

Leaders must OUTLAST DEFEAT.