A New Kind Of Excellence

An archaeologist was digging in the Negev Desert in Israel, and came upon a casket containing a mummy, a relatively rare occurrence in Israel, to say the least.

- FRANCIS J. KONG

After examining it, he called Abe, the curator of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

"I've just discovered a 3,000-year-old mummy of a man who died of heart failure!" the excited scientist exclaimed. Abe replied, "Bring him in. We'll check it out."

A week later, Abe was amazed and called the archaeologist.

"You were right about both the mummy's age and cause of death. How in the world did you know?"

"Easy. A piece of paper in his hand said, '10,000 shekels bet on Goliath.'"

This funny but untrue story illustrates a point.

Are you still betting on a secure and predictable future? Spoiler alert! You will lose. Chronic instability is the new normal, and this is a leadership issue.

Today's best leaders avoid neither failure nor uncertainty, while others try to avoid failure at all costs. The leaders who achieve success identify which failures should be stopped and which should be supported.

Many have believed success results from hard work for several decades, but failure emerges from laziness. That might be true in stable environments, but the current environment is outside the boundaries of stability.