Friday, July 28, 2006

Ruthlessness

Ruthlessness is usually defined as "having no compassion or pity."

Yet I've known women who are truly excellent at being ruthless, even though they are very kind and gentle to people.

These women are ruthless in the sense that they know what is right; they know what they want; they know what excellence means, and what price has to be paid -- ahead of time -- in order to secure excellent performance and excellent results.

In order to better understand ruthlessness, I created the above diagram. It seems to show the logical sequence of taking risks, building one's confidence in decision-making, acquiring personal power, which then increases one's willingness to take risks, etc.

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