Inspired By...The Optimal Optimist

In meandering around Seeded Buzz this afternoon, I came across the headline 'Why Leader Are Leaders'.  Part of me wanted to dive behind the comfortable couch and hide from yet another platitude about the mysteries of leadership but my curiosity got the better of me and I read on to experience this:

The irreducible essence of leadership is that leaders are people who live their deepest personal values without compromise, and they use those values to make life better for others- this is why people become leaders and why people follow leaders. -Stan Slap in "Bury My Heart in Conference Room B"

Wow!  I thought, I wonder where this came from (besides some dude in Conference Room B)?  And with a simple click I arrived at the blog of the Optimal Optimist, a twenty-something girl in Philadelphia out to make a difference.  And being up for a bit of difference-making myself, I read on to be reminded that:

"Smooth seas do not make for a skillful sailor." (African Proverb)

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

and my favourite:

"Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself." (George Bernard Shaw)

So I'm going to take my 'deepest personal values', follow this one for a while and see where it takes me...