Food for Thought

Jane Austen

 Put your money where your heart

is.  Jane Austen wasn’t afraid to take risks, whether in love or publishing.  With the exception of Pride and Prejudice, all of her novels were published on a commission basis.  This meant that the financial risk, if nothing sold, would all rest with her. 

Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is

The publishers would pay all of the up front

costs then repay themselves and the author a “commission” on each book sold.  What books that didn’t sell were her responsibility to pay back to the publishers.  Do we have that kind of confidence in our vision as leaders in the work we produce?

Your Money Where Your Heart Is

It is easy to rationalize our decisions and make

choices based off what’s good for us and maybe not so good for the team.  In her final novel, Persuasion, Austen says, “How quick come the reasons for approving what we like.”  We can justify anything to ourselves if it is in our own self-interest.  What if those around us aren’t so sure?

Rationalization

So many people in our lives, whether in our

families (spouses, children) or in our organizations know that we love and appreciate them.  The question is, do they know “how much” we love or appreciate them?  How do we show them?  How do we tell them?  Do we have to hop as high as we can?

To Be Loved

What is right to be done cannot be

done too soon.  In her 1816 novel Emma, Mr. Weston tells Frank Churchill, “What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.”  The is no soon enough or whenever when it comes to doing the right thing. 

Doing the Right Thing

Often times, there is only

an extremely small window of time.  If it’s the right thing, doesn’t it need to to be done now?

The Right Thing