truth vs. embarrassment

When [Head Coach Monty] Williams was asked how he has evolved since New Orleans, he didn’t shy away from being honest.

“I thought I had the answers,” he said. “I was a lot younger, probably more brash, more stubborn. Now I’m starting to figure out the questions. I’m probably in a place in my life where I’m more apt to listen and delegate more.”

Williams had a reputation for butting heads and it sounds like he’s grown from that.

“I understand the difference between telling someone the truth and embarrassing them and that [used to be] one of my flaws in New Orleans,” he said.

Kellan Olson

"Suns’ Monty Williams always adopting concepts, adapting coaching style," Arizona Sports. May 21, 2019

a no whining policy

Everyone has a bad day from time to time, and this tip is not to suggest that we don’t allow each other to be human. But remember, there is a time and a place for venting and the workplace should be neither. Ask everyone to focus on positivity and the work at hand -- and do so yourself. You’ll immediately eliminate an entire category of negativity at the workplace. Suggest that the whole team leave the drama at the door, shift their attitudes to positive ones and make each day the best it can be.

Allison Maslan

"4 Essentials for Inspiring Leadership," Entrepreneur. August 5, 2016

originated in the soul of the universe

...."whoever you are, or whatever it is that you do, when you really want something, it's because that desire originated in the soul of the universe. It's your mission on earth." ...."And, when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it."

Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist, HarperCollins 1993. p.23

a language in the world that everyone understood

There was a language in the world that everyone understood, a language the boy had used throughout the time that he was trying to improve things at the shop. It was the language of enthusiasm, of things accomplished with love and purpose, and as part of a search for something believed in and desired.

Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist, Harper Collins 1993. p.64

throw yourself like seed

Shake off this sadness, and recover your spirit

sluggish you will never see the wheel of fate

that brushes your heel as it turns going by,

the man who wants to live is the man in whom life is abundant.

Now you are only giving food to that final pain

which is slowly winding you in the nets of death,

but to live is to work, and the only thing which lasts

is the work; start then, turn to the work.

Throw yourself like seed as you walk, and into your own field,

don't turn your face for that would be to turn it to death,

and do not let the past weigh down your motion.

Leave what's alive in the furrow, what's dead in yourself,

for life does not move in the same way as a group of clouds;

from your work you will be able one day to gather yourself.

Miguel De Unamuno 

Translated by Robert Bly. Roots & Wings: Poetry from Spain 1900-1975. Hardie St. Martin, Editor. Harper & Row. 1976. p.19