Even a bad idea executed is better than a good idea undone.
Paul ArdenRead
Everybody wants to be good, but not many are prepared to make the sacrifices it takes to be great. To many people, being nice in order to be liked is more important. There's equal merit in that, but you must not confuse being good with being liked.
Interpretation
True greatness requires sacrifices that many are unwilling to make, as often people prioritize being liked over being good.
In this quote, Paul Arden emphasizes that while everyone aspires to be good, the journey toward true greatness demands significant sacrifices that not everyone is willing to make. He points out the common tendency to seek approval and likability, suggesting that while being liked has its own value, it shouldn't overshadow the pursuit of genuine goodness and excellence, which often requires deeper commitment and resilience.
In practice
During a leadership seminar to illustrate the meaning of true leadership and sacrifice.
Even a bad idea executed is better than a good idea undone.
Risks are a measure of people. People who won't take them are trying to preserve what they have. People who do take them often end up having more. Some risks have a future, and some people call them wrong. But being right may be like walking backwards proving where you've been. Being wrong isn't in the future, or in the past. Being wrong isn't anywhere but being here. Best place to be, eh?
We are always waiting for the perfect brief from the perfect client. It almost never happens [...] Whatever is on your desk right now, that's the one. Make it the best you possibly can.
It's funny: I always imagined when I was a kid that adults had some kind of inner toolbox full of shiny tools: the saw of discernment, the hammer of wisdom, the sandpaper of patience. But then when I grew up I found that life handed you these rusty bent old tools - friendships, prayer, conscience, honesty - and said 'do the best you can with these, they will have to do'. And mostly, against all odds, they do.
...I'll continue to see things as a child. It's not so far to fall.
The only secret I can claim to have is concentration, and that's something that can't be taught.
The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.
...ambition without pious restraint must end in failure, often involving in its ruin that beautiful reverence which solaces common men for the obscurity and poverty of their lot.
I wish somebody had given me the news that ideas don't just fall on your head like fairy dust. You have to treat that like a job. You have to spend hours each day, where you're just like, 'This is the part of the day when I'm looking for an idea.'
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