Excerpt: This is a massive 608 page book that’s packed with insight. Our 15 quotes from Whatcha Gonna Do with That Duck? highlight some of the best.
In my mind, there’s a boy who exists in chains.
Inside a cold, dark room of painful solitude is where he will remain.
Behind these walls, the sorrow is inevitable, as relentless as the passage of time.
Mentalities corrupt and dark, brainwashed, and hopelessly blind.
Prisons are packed with crowded spaces, lifers and guards with hollow faces.
Shackled hearts afraid of changes, and weakened wills become complacent.
Yet, I maintain with patience, time can limit but not shatter my will, strength blazed across my chest as solid as penitentiary steel.
But the silence speaks, it tells me all I need to hear, it confirms my beliefs and its promises I have to fear.
It reminds me that without freedom, I’m alone.
And these whitewashed walls don’t make up for blackened souls.
I’ve given 95% of my boys a handshake than a pound, before they were either locked down or buried off in cemetery grounds.
What I’ve done is who I am, but who I am is what I do now.
I won’t let up or cease to fight.
Just time, I plan on doing it right.
And what’s right lies within me.
I’m learning to appreciate my struggle for it would be hard to find the joy of accomplishment without it.
We live and we learn.
We rise and we fall.
Like the heartbeat of a sleeping giant, with bittersweet dreams.
Stay up, never down.
—— —— ——
More: Poems // Resources on Starting Fresh
Watch: Jamesy Boy [2014]
Book Overview: According to J. Keith Murnighan, Great leaders don’t do anything—except think, make key decisions, help people do their jobs better, and add a touch of organizational control to make sure the final recipes come out okay. In sharp contrast, most leaders are too busy actually working to do these things—and their teams suffer as a result. Do Nothing!’s practical strategies and true stories will show you how to set high expectations for your team and watch it rise to the challenge. It will help you establish a healthier culture by trusting people more than they expect to be trusted. And it will help you overcome your natural tendencies toward micromanagement so you can let people do their jobs—even when you know you could do their jobs better.
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Post(s) Inspired by this Book:
“Like accolades ought to be, the fulfilled life is a consequence, a gratifying byproduct. It’s what happens when you’re thinking about more important things. Climb the mountain not to plant your flag, but to embrace the challenge, enjoy the air and behold the view. Climb it so you can see the world, not so the world can see you. Go to Paris to be in Paris, not to cross it off your list and congratulate yourself for being worldly. Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special. Because everyone is.” ~ David McCullough
“The value of life can be measured by how many times your soul has been deeply stirred.”
Soichiro Honda (via Do Nothing!)
“You shouldn’t focus on outcomes so much. Focus instead on doing things right, on the best possible process, and on paying attention to what you can do rather than to what you can’t control.”
J. Keith Murnighan, Do Nothing!
Excerpt: This story is about Kyle—a high school valedictorian who gave a speech about a bullying incident and how one small action changed his life.
