Originally posted on the Old Servant Leadership Blog - September 29, 2009.
Working for a government agency, it gives me hope when I find something inspiring in one of the many emails that pass through my computer, when many are not worth the time it takes to delete them. Fortunately I didn’t delete the one that included a link to a recent article by Ken Miller in Governing. If you get a minute, the article “Frustrated by an Unchangeable Agency? Change Anyway.” is worth taking a look at.
Miller references another link that is worth taking a look at, Dr. Kent M. Keith’s Paradoxical Commandments. The commandments are a series of inspirational guidelines he drafted for inclusion in a booklet for student leaders. His Paradoxical Commandments follow:
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway.
