Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership

In an era when companies act like nations and nations act like companies, this book would be a timely read. This book by Tim Irwin focused on the lives of six leaders of well-known companies - the stories of what they did wrong and the consequences of such crucial decisions.

Most importantly, he then discussed on how we - whether in a position of leadership or not - could avoid such mistakes. What hit me in the book is somehow its emphasis on character over skills, which is sometimes overlooked in the workplace that is obsessed with results and productivity.

In the end, humility, honesty and integrity matters most.

And while most of us who read this may not be on a position of leadership, we might as well learn from these people's mistakes. As they say, we may never live too long to make all of them and thus, learn.

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Coffee

Talking over coffee with my friend last night, I realized how there are absolutely no coincidences in life.

Listening to his stories how everything just came together smoothly for his move to Paris to come through, I found myself amazed at how God could move in a person’s life anonymously, even if it meant not getting all the credit He deserved.

I can’t help but smile at how our conversation moved from Spartacus, to “Eat, Pray and Love” to ex-relationships to life. And how everything seemed orchestrated by Someone for some unknown reason.

Unknown until last night that is.

Perhaps, the Eureka moment came when from nowhere, he blurted out, “I feel so blest, and I don’t feel I deserve any of what I received.”

I smiled.

All too many times in our lives we ARE inundated by so many blessings to mention, and yet, rarely do we ever feel undeserving, don’t we?

We feel like we earned the right to be there. Hard work, we justify, has finally paid off. And so, instead of looking up and be grateful, we walk chin up for being self-made men.

And here, comes our dilemma.

If there is one thing worse than not giving God the credit, it’s trying to earn his favour. My friend doesn’t even believe in God but he feels like the universe has given him so much than what he deserved. But God blesses him anyway.

I think atheists are so much easier to deal with than some self-confessed believer trying to earn grace.

It has been years now since a new revelation of Grace impacted my life. But if the lessons I learned so far could be summed up in a statement it would be this: We are all undeserving; deal with it.

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