Tonight's Blog post centers on a thought provoking statement that I've discovered during the course of reading books on business and leadership.
It's a quote from Nuts!The Story of Southwest Airlines, co-written by Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg: "People who work in gold mines will tell you that tons and tons of dirt must be removed before the miners hit a vein of gold. They focus on the search for the gold rather than the dirt."
I believe that this reference offers an interesting suggestion on how we view our goals, objectives and personal visions. It seems that many people are too often distracted or overwhelmed by the dirt and lose sight of the gold. I guess it can be summarized and reduced to a parallel of the old question, "is the glass half empty or half full?"
In this case, you could substitute several different words or terms for "dirt." Think of misrepresented facts, or high volume vitriol that contribute to obscuring what's right, muting optimism, or draining desire. It's not about who is right - it's about what is right.
Public school education is afflicted by the impact of people who choose to maintain a focus on the dirt rather than the pursuit of gold. That's much easier and requires far less energy than removing tons and tons of dirt in the quest for gold. Horrendous headlines and blaring broadcasts spout oft-stated criticism of schools that generally lack sufficiently supported facts.
Meanwhile, dedicated and industrious educators continue to labor at creating and sustaining the efforts that will eventually uncover gold. It's a dirty job.
It's a quote from Nuts!The Story of Southwest Airlines, co-written by Kevin Freiberg and Jackie Freiberg: "People who work in gold mines will tell you that tons and tons of dirt must be removed before the miners hit a vein of gold. They focus on the search for the gold rather than the dirt."
I believe that this reference offers an interesting suggestion on how we view our goals, objectives and personal visions. It seems that many people are too often distracted or overwhelmed by the dirt and lose sight of the gold. I guess it can be summarized and reduced to a parallel of the old question, "is the glass half empty or half full?"
In this case, you could substitute several different words or terms for "dirt." Think of misrepresented facts, or high volume vitriol that contribute to obscuring what's right, muting optimism, or draining desire. It's not about who is right - it's about what is right.
Public school education is afflicted by the impact of people who choose to maintain a focus on the dirt rather than the pursuit of gold. That's much easier and requires far less energy than removing tons and tons of dirt in the quest for gold. Horrendous headlines and blaring broadcasts spout oft-stated criticism of schools that generally lack sufficiently supported facts.
Meanwhile, dedicated and industrious educators continue to labor at creating and sustaining the efforts that will eventually uncover gold. It's a dirty job.
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