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Thursday, October 23, 2008

Empathy versus Sympathy

"No sympathy for the devil; keep that in mind. Buy the ticket, take the ride." -- Hunter S. Thompson

Everybody has dreams and aspirations and everyone has had an experience where they fell short of those dreams. In the larger application of this idea, people take chances to become something bigger and better. Choices are made that have consequences. Some consequences are good and others are bad and long lasting.

I'm so fascinated by the concept of risk taking. It's exhilarating.

Does a hero or an admirable person emerge from a high risk situation successfully? Or is the hero a person who is able and willing to accept and address the consequences?

Blind risk taking can be done by any old idiot (e.g. financial CEO's) but risk coupled with accountability. Risk and automatic reward (golden parachutes, high severance pay) is a recipe for disaster.

Here's to building a vision and seeing it through until the end. Here's to sustainability.

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