COURAGE: The defining human characteristicApril 30 2007
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In the early days of my consulting business I faced the same dilema that every entrepreneur faces: "How do I pick the best people to hire?"
Having had some experience on which to base my considerations I noticed that the very brightest and most capable hires where not always the most successful. In fact some of my least skilled employees went on to be my most productive and my most valuable staff members.
If capability and intelligence were not the defining characteristics of success, then what were?
I noticed two things ... one was that sucessful employees had a realistic concept of their own strengths and weaknesses, and the other was that they tended to have the courage to say and to do, what needed to be said or done.
On reflection I noted that it takes courage to develop and be comfortable with your own limitiations, so that reduced the my list to one element ... "courage!"
With a few decades behind me, I now see that in more than just employment, courage is the single most important quality that differentiates a person as a good friend, a successful professional, or as a reliable family member.
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