helenscott08
03-23-2008, 08:14 AM
I cut and pasted this excerpt from a book by Lee Iacocca from an email sent to me. Not sure if I am posting it in right area or not but do believe it is very interesting and thought you might find it so as well. hs
Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got
the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and
we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq.
And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and
the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call
this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in
the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager
in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham,
who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner,
with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to
tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as
a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If
you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream,
you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just
has a lot of sound bites. You know,
Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators<wbr>-no-child-left-behind-heck-of<wbr>-a- job-
Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once
said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying
to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our
current President should visit the real world once in a while.
The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership
is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up
on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war
when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to
lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we
needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We
needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George
Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he
heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes
with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it
for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back
to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the
panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to
the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he
told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were
all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for
our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was
nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and
devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment
of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained
his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father
had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen
to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being
faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of
you, I don't know what will. A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no
plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest
deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing
edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by
health care costs. Gas prices are sky-rocketing, and nobody in power has
a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders
are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way.
These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all
the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators?
Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and
common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you
get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than
making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and
all we know how to do is react to things that have already
happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane
Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to
the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that
were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering
down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's
just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what
you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to
Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important,
what are we going to do about it? Name me a government leader who
can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the
energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is
deafening.
But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and
milking the middle class dry. I have news for the gang in Congress. We
didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent
while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being
replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some
bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't
you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not
trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a
fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my
lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's
greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the
Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy
assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles
of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's
this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for
somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or
building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.
That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for
people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's
getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work.
Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________________________
/Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. Copyright ) 2007 by
Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved./
Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got
the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and
we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq.
And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and
the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.
You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call
this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in
the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager
in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham,
who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner,
with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to
tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as
a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If
you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream,
you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just
has a lot of sound bites. You know,
Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators<wbr>-no-child-left-behind-heck-of<wbr>-a- job-
Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush. Former President Bill Clinton once
said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying
to get into the reality-based world, and I like it here." I think our
current President should visit the real world once in a while.
The Biggest C is Crisis Leaders are made, not born. Leadership
is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up
on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war
when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to
lead when your world comes tumbling down. On September 11, 2001, we
needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We
needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George
Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he
heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes
with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it
for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back
to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the
panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to
the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day, and he
told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were
all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for
our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was
nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and
devise the right photo op at Ground Zero. That was George Bush's moment
of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained
his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq, a road his own father
had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen
to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being
faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of
you, I don't know what will. A Hell of a Mess.
So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no
plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest
deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing
edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by
health care costs. Gas prices are sky-rocketing, and nobody in power has
a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders
are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way.
These are times that cry out for leadership.
But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all
the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators?
Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and
common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you
get the point.
Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than
making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?
We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and
all we know how to do is react to things that have already
happened. Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane
Katrina.
Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to
the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that
were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering
down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's
just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what
you're going to do the next time.
Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can
restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed
that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to
Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important,
what are we going to do about it? Name me a government leader who
can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the
energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is
deafening.
But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and
milking the middle class dry. I have news for the gang in Congress. We
didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent
while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being
replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some
bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't
you guys show some spine for a change? Had Enough? Hey, I'm not
trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a
fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my
lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's
greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises, the
Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy
assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles
of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's
this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for
somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or
building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play.
That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for
people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's
getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work.
Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.
______________________________<wbr>______________________________<wbr>__________________________
/Excerpted from Where Have All the Leaders Gone?. Copyright ) 2007 by
Lee Iacocca. All rights reserved./