Striving towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

Alexander the Great conquered Persia, but broke down and wept because his troops were too exhausted to push on to India.

Let’s face it, we all experience disappointments both personally and professionally.

My encouragement to you with regard to personal disappointments is to forgive yourself; cut yourself some slack, get over yourself. Once you have identified the cause of your personal disappointment you are now empowered to make corrections. Identify what went wrong, accept responsibility for your part, make corrections, and get moving. Simply put, life is too short to wallow in self- pity.

In his book, Failing Forward, John Maxwell writes, “In contrast, someone who is unable to get over previous hurts and failures is held hostage by the past. The baggage he carries around makes it very difficult for him to move forward. In fact, in more than thirty years of working with people, I have yet to meet a successful person who continuously dwelled on his past difficulties.”Life will be filled with disappointments and mistakes, but we must not allow them to own us or defeat us. Too often we try to justify our anger, our bitterness, and our grudge. In the end, it only hurts one person.

In order to be successful in leading others, you have to successfully lead yourself. Choosing the right attitude when wronged or disappointed by others may be difficult, but in the end, your rise to the next level as a leader depends on it. Choose wisely.