A Very Few

Some people have greatness thrust upon them.  Very few have excellence thrust upon them.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
2021	Or Blog Every Day
	Every Woman Should Have One
2020	Where Are We Going?
2019	One Before I Go
2018	And Blog Posts, Too
2017	Just Doin’ It
2016	Definitely Not Bell Shaped
2015	Dreadful Pity
2014	Worse Than Useless
2013	Personal Prisons
2012	So, Not Yet Then
2011	Real Love

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Misunderestimated

Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?  Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh.  To be great is to be misunderstood.
―     Ralph Waldo Emerson
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On This Day In:
2020	Doctor’s Orders
	Make That Seven Orders…
2019	Innocent
2018	Ripost
2017	Just Asking…
2016	And 4
	How Tall Do You Stand?
2015	More Prejudice
2014	Say What?
2013	Daring Errors
2012	Are You Comfortable?
	I Just Have To
	In Flux
2011	True New
2010	A Job Well Started Is A Job Half Done
	I See With My One Good Eye

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No Plan And Less Sand

To achieve great things, two things are needed:  a plan and not quite enough time.
—    Leonard Bernstein
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On This Day In:
2020	Why #45 Is In The Dark
	180 Day Health / Weight Update (Mar 2020)
2019	Tonight I Am All Blacks
	In All Its Messy Complexity
2018	Danger = Opportunity
2017	True And Great
	Sand At The Beach
2016	There Is A Difference Between Dangerous And Frightening
2015	Always A Goal
2014	Standing Strong
2013	Shaken And Stirred
	The Bird With The Broken Wing
2012	Friends In High Places
2011	Objective Independence

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Like Belief In Truth And Facts

America’s greatness has been the greatness of a free people who shared certain moral commitments.  Freedom without moral commitment is aimless and promptly self-destructive.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
2019	Many Forms
2018	Serenity Prayer
2017	But The Clock Says It’s Already Two Minutes 30 Seconds to Midnight
2016	Towards No Regret
2015	109 And Beyond
2014	Are You Waiting?
2013	Traditional Human Sacrifice
2012	A Division Of Men
2011	Miles, Legends and Superwoman
	Got Tragedy?
2010	My Company For A Prince!!
	On The Shoulders Of Titans

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Making Me

As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world – that is the myth of the atomic age – as in being able to remake ourselves.
—    Mahatma Gandhi
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On This Day In:
2019	Inside Your Head
2018	Lingering Curiosity
2017	Just Kidding
2016	The Danger Of Walls
2015	Protection
2014	Let It Go
2013	Don’t Know And Not Telling
2012	A Challenge For Progress
2011	Dependent Difficulty

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Republican Senators Should Vote For Conviction Of #45

Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.
―    George Bernard Shaw
[They won’t.  But they should…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2019	Carry It
2018	Simple
2017	Knowledge Pays
2016	Brief Glimpses And Full Glances
2015	Pursuing Perspective
2014	Wearing Down?
2013	Labouring Under A Curse
2012	Listen To Yourself
2011	Career Tips (Part 1)
	No Captain Dunsel

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Most Hire

Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.
—    Daniel J. Boorstin
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On This Day In:
2018	Sounds Like #45’s White House
2017	Have We Started Winning Yet?
2016	Still Springy
2015	Well Concealed
2014	The History Of Warriors
2013	A Cult Of Ignorance
2012	Counting Valor
	Understanding Faith
2011	I Can Hear You Now
2010	Inception

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In Times Of Crisis

The measure of a country’s greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.
—    Thurgood Marshall
Former U.S. Supreme Court Justice
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On This Day In:
2017	The Voice Of Experience
2016	Who And When
2015	Change Process
2014	What Is Still Possible
2013	Strength Is There
2012	Beyond Reasonable Doubt
2011	Celebrating Values
2010	Is it just me, or is it suddenly dark around here?
	Dance!

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Reductionism

When small men attempt great enterprises, they always end by reducing them to the level of their mediocrity.
—    Napoleon Bonaparte
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On This Day In:
2014	Gravitation, n.
2013	Ups And Downs
2012	Nerd Heard – And Good-Bye
	Your Continuum
2011	Career Tips (Part 2)

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Great Service

Not everybody can be famous, but everybody can be great because greatness is determined by service.
––    Martin Luther King, Jr.
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On This Day In:
2013	You Really Should Wear More Sweaters
	Here I Am God
2012	The Serenity Prayer
2011	The Victory Of Life

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Prudence

A prudent man should always follow in the path trodden by great men and imitate those who are most excellent, so that if he does not attain to their greatness, at any rate he will get some tinge of it.
―      Niccolò Machiavelli
From:  “The Prince“
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On This Day In:
2012	Reason Against Reasons
2011	The 1% Rule Of Large Groups
2010	Going, Going, On…
	Expect Mike
	Wasted Again?
	You Did?
	Reflecting Plenty
	Old Math
	Mental Images
	Here’s Lookin’ At You, Kid
	Learn
	Nothing Feared Today
	I Had Other Plans
	Ratings…
	Really?
	Encourage Greatness

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Greatness

Be not afraid of greatness.  Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.
—  William Shakespeare
From:  “Twelfth Night“, Act 11, Sc. 5
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Lift

The criterion of a man’s greatness is his ability to lift up all who live in his time.
—    Sydney Smith
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Excellence At Performance = 10,000 Hours

The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise.  In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise:  ten thousand hours.
“The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything,” writes the neurologist Daniel Levitin.  “In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again.  Of course, this doesn’t address why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others do.  But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time.  It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.“
—    Malcolm Gladwell
From his book:  “Outliers“
[In other words, if you have some talent in anything, practice 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, 52 weeks per year, FOR 5 YEARS (!!!) and you will be great at it – for the rest of your life.   You have got to LOVE something (whatever “it” is) in order to commit that amount of your life to doing it.    —   kmab]
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This Glorious Company

The great are not solitary;  out of the night come the voices of those who have gone before, clear and courageous;  and so through the ages they march, a mighty procession, proud, undaunted, unconquerable.  To join in this glorious company, to swell the immortal person of those whom fate could not subdue – this may not be happiness; but what is happiness to those whose souls are filled with that celestial music?  To them is given what is better than happiness:  to know the fellowship of the great, to live in the inspiration of lofty thoughts, and to be illumined in every perplexity by the fire of nobility and truth.
—     Bertrand Russell
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