POEM

‘if’ 

By: Rudyard Kipling

http://paulsohn.org/one-poem-that-taught-me-everything-about-leadership/

If you can keep your head when all about you,

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,

Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,

And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

Source: lawofficer.com

             From the above paragraph, Rudyard Kipling advised that even other people does not trust us anymore, the most important thing is we have to believe in ourselves but somehow we have to reconsider their opinion about us and also do not be to arrogant for what we have although being at the top of the team or the rank.

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master,

If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim; 

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same;

If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken

Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,

Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,

And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

Source: azquotes.com

            Rudyard Kipling also said that do not discriminate between our followers and yet we have to treat them the same way as others. Being a Leader is not as simple as we thought but a good leader will accept others critics and opinions about what he or she did rather than stood about what he or she has said or spoke.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

And never breathe a word about your loss;

If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew

To serve your turn long after they are gone,

And so hold on when there is nothing in you

Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

Source: pinterest.com

             
              He also said that, it does not matter whether being a winner or a loser and never ever brag about what we have gone through. Winning or losing something that we want is not a big matter, but the most important is we can learn through the circumstances and look through our inner self.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,

Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch,

If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,

If all men count with you, but none too much;

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!

Source: maleficent.wikia.com

                Last but not least, Kipling's words were very inspiring. He said that the virtue is ours. All people is counting on us. The time of sixty seconds is long enough for us to think what is good and what is not good. If we can manage the time hence the world is ours, which has everything in it thus creating us a good leader.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

[Note: Kipling is said to have written the poem ‘If’ with Dr Leander Starr Jameson in mind, who led about five-hundreds of his countrymen in a failed raid against the Boers, in southern Africa. The ‘Jameson Raid’ was later considered a major factor in starting the Boer War (1899-1902).]