Leaders Make Mistakes Main Text

Hello, this is AJ, welcome to the next lesson. This one is called "Leaders Make

Mistakes" and it comes from a book called Leadership by Tom Peters.

Tom Peters is one of my favorite business writers. The reason I like Tom Peters is

that he's very passionate. He's not a boring businessperson. Most business books

are boring, but not Tom Peters. His books are excellent and they're full of passionate,

emotional language and words and emotional passionate ideas about how to make

business into something more, something special, not just greedy little people trying to

get more money, but really trying to contribute and help people and do great things.

So that's what Tom Peters writes about and it's why I really like him. He's got a great

Website TomPeters.com and he's got a lot of great books. And this book that I'm

talking about today is called Leadership. And there's a little section and the section is

called "Leaders Make Mistakes", so l'm going to read this small section and then l'll

talk about it more. So here we go.

"Leaders make mistakes and they make no bones about it. On the wall of my writing

studio in Vermont hangs a quotation by David Kelly, "Fail faster, succeed sooner."

Next to that quote hangs another by Diane Arbus who told her students “Learn not to

be careful."

In placid times leaders may think they have all the answers. In turbulent times leaders

must have the best questions, questions that encourage others to undertake voyages

of mutual discovery and the essence of that process is letting people screw up. If you

try new stuff you screw up. If you try a lot of new stuff you screw up a lot. In fact, the

best leaders make big mistakes.

Mistakes are not enough, big mistakes are mandatory.

My all-time favorite PowerPoint slide is this 'Reward excellent failures, punish

mediocre successes.' These tumultuous times beg for bold initiatives. While

thoughtless recklessness is not to be applauded, the word reckless must be examined

carefully.

Most people who change the world -- Martin Luther King, Galileo, and Picasso -- they

were indeed reckless, but not thoughtless. The Martin Luther Kings of the world, the

Galileo's, the Picasso's, the Churchill's, the de Gaulle's, they attempted to create an