My wish for you is that you can truly say in this moment and every future moment: "The world is a better place because of what I have thought, said or done for the last hour." My wish for you is that you can know more than the shallow satisfaction of achievement by coming to …
Tag: gregg hake
In the Saddle, In the World
"No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle." - Winston Churchill The greatest challenge is not in learning lessons, but in applying them in as many other areas of your life as you can in the few precious years you have on earth. Some of my most important lessons have come …
The Moral of the Chicken Bone
One of my Bernese mountain dogs devoured a giant cooked chicken bone that she had dug out of a lidded garbage can in the butler's pantry a number of months ago and we had to rush her to the vet for surgery to have it removed. You would think that the trauma of the event …
Dulcet Vesper
In time of dulcet vesper I rambled down the lane. And listened to the whisper Of songbirds in the rain. I watched the raindrops falling Through the sagging crown, And spied the chaste fawn sprawling Beneath the hemlock's gown. The moon's soft rays did glisten Around the dancing mist, Thus nightfall did rechristen My peaceful …
A Blueprint for a Healthy Company
One of the greatest impediments to genuine, selfless service is the dubiousness on the part of the recipient. Rather than thanking, "Finally an answer to my problems!", people who have been around the block (it doesn't take long) are more inclined to sit back and look at you suspiciously, wondering "what's the catch?" My sales …
The Discomfort of Dissonance
One hot summer’s day a Fox was strolling through an orchard till he came to a bunch of Grapes just ripening on a vine which had been trained over a lofty branch. “Just the things to quench my thirst,” quoth he. Drawing back a few paces, he took a run and a jump, and just …
The Dark Days
I, entombed in a crypt Of my own making Peered nervously, skeptically Through the crooked beams Of the house of my Being. Your pellucid words Strummed my heart strings, Beseeching a new song - Not from another's hymnal But from my own. Now I too am risen, Shepherded by your lambency and Delivered from the …
Leo’s Life Lessons
"The Horse" by Ronald Duncan Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, Friendship without envy, Or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is served with muscle And strength by gentleness confined He serves without servility; he has fought without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent. There is nothing …
Humility and Mastery
Last evening I had the pleasure of attending a wonderful surprise 60th birthday party hosted by friends of mine in honor of a man who is deeply loved and respected by his friends and whose life has been shaped by his evolving relationship with the most tenderhearted of nature's creatures, horses. It's rare these days …
Respect, Compassion and Mercy
To my mind the three most important qualities any team concerned with building a firm foundation can posses are these: respect, compassion and mercy. These qualities of character are signs of strength, not weakness, and they provide "oil" necessary to lubricate the areas of friction between departments, between people and within the individual himself. Building …
Gregory Hake 