Erudite Relics of Loc Huu Ho

By Scott Berkun, January 25, 2006

The central mistake new managers make is egoism. On the surface, the change is all about you: you

As a positive counterpoint to my list of why managers become assholes, and as a counterbalance to my tendency to write cynically,

As necessity is the mother of invention, strong desire is the mother of attainment.

If you want a thing bad enough
To go out and fight for it,
Work day and night for it,
Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it
If only desire of it
Makes you quite mad enough
Never to tire of it,
Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it
If life seems all empty and useless without it
And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,
If gladly you’ll sweat for it,
Fret for it,
Plan for it,
Lose all your terror of God or man for it,
If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want,
With all your capacity,
Strength and sagacity,
Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,
If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt,
Nor sickness nor pain
Of body or brain
Can turn you away from the thing that you want,
If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it,
You’ll get it!

Berton Braley.

From “Things As They Are.”