Great People | Career Angles

Great people do principled things over time.

It isn’t just one thing on a March afternoon that makes someone great. That’s doing the right thing. That’s a good thing, but does it make someone great.

Part of what makes someone great is also that we know about it.

Who knows about it doesn’t have to be enormous (although if you want society to regale you it needs to be known by the society at large).

Conditions change and we see greatness differently at different times.

At times, Dr. King was dismissed as a troublemaker by the society at large. Death converted into a martyr for justice. The world change while Mandela was in prison. It caught up to him.

Of all the things Pres. Obama is acclaimed for, to me, marriage equality was a great action. I don’t think it makes him a great man AND it was a great decision.

Death does not make someone great.

Their actions over time do.

The elimination of slavery in the United States and elsewhere in the world was not instantly popular. It was right.

We don’t always have to agree with them during their lifetime.

Thus, when I look at the workplace and what makes someone great there, is the almost magical…