a lot of empty yesterdays

You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you’ve collected a lot of empty yesterdays.

Professor Harold Hill, character in The Music Man (1957) by Meredith Willson and Franklin Lacey, as quoted in Thomas S. Monson, “Finding Joy in the Journey,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 84–87

roots and foundations and organic processes

It is sometimes supposed that men must organize in order to affect their plans. It is sometimes said or organizations that the development must come from the top down. These ideas have their worth, but they lay too little weight on the role of the individual. Strong leadership will always be needed and prized, but it cannot be responsible for all growth. It is not generally responsible for the most important growth. Trees and children do not grow from the top down. Men do not construct buildings from the top down. The growth that counts is based on roots and foundations and organic processes that are hidden from view. What is exposed is less important than what is not. So it is with people. I cannot look to others or to outside circumstances to provide the basis for my work. The vital strength lies within my own will and the grace of God. The most important struggles and achievements in life are not in society but in the human heart.

Dennis Rasmussen

The Lord’s Question: Thoughts on the Life of Response. Brigham Young University Press. April 1985. Chapter Four, “Whom Shall I Send?” p.40

the other side of hard

"Monty [Williams] always says a quote, 'Everything you want is on the other side of hard,' " [Devin] Booker said. "I've took that quote and embraced it. He never put a definite explanation on what hard is, but I think he said that for you mentally, hold yourself accountable when you’re feeling a step slow, or your back's hurting or something’s bothering you or the ref makes a bad call, you have to take it in and next play."

Booker admits it's not easy, but he sees value in that approach to the game.

"I might want to go say something to a ref or I might to go take a bad shot or something like that, but everything you want is on the other side of hard," Booker concluded.

Duane Rankin

"Devin Booker still growing, leading — and finally winning with Phoenix Suns." The Arizona Republic. November 5, 2019

where the tiny bit begins

One may say that true life begins where the tiny bit begins - where what seem to us minute and infinitely small alterations take place. True life is not lived where great external changes take place - where people move about, clash, fight, and slay one another - it is lived only where these tiny, tiny infinitesimally small changes occur.

Leo Tolstoy

"Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves?" p.197 Tolstoy's polemic against what he saw as the "escapes" of alcohol and narcotics, translated by Aylmer Maude

there are no bad teams, only bad leaders

When Leif Babin became a Hell Week instructor for Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training (BUD/S), he had already served as a Navy SEAL platoon leader in the most decorated special-operations unit of the Iraq War.

Still, he learned a profound lesson about leadership: "There are no bad teams, only bad leaders..."

In one exercise, Babin explained, SEAL candidates were grouped by height into boat crews of seven men and assigned to a WWII-relic inflatable boat that weighed more than 200 pounds. The most senior-ranking sailor became the boat-crew leader responsible for receiving, transmitting, and overseeing the execution of the lead instructor's orders. They were to go through a grueling string of races that involved running with the boat and then paddling it in the ocean.

After several rounds, one particular team came in first and another in last nearly every time. The instructors decided to switch the leaders of the best and worst teams, and the results were remarkable. Under new leadership, the formerly great team did relatively well but was a shadow of its past self, and the formerly terrible team placed first in nearly every race.

The once-great team had practiced enough with each other to accomplish something even under bad management, but the bad leader was unable to command respect or maintain synchronicity.

Meanwhile, the excellent leader had taken his new team from last to first by getting them to believe that they were just as capable as his former team, and that bickering with each other during the exercise would not be tolerated...

"One of the things that I learned from that boat-crew example is that most people want to lead," Babin said. "The team that was failing there, they didn't want to be on the failing team. They wanted to win. ... It's about checking the ego — it's about being humble, to recognize what can I do better to lead my team."


Richard Feloni
"Former Navy SEAL commanders explain why 'there are no bad teams, only bad leaders'" Business Insider. October 1, 2016