As my teacher, Michael M Reuter teaches: “Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” wrote Albert Einstein. Great leaders know that their life is the reflection and consequence of the choices they make each day on their magnificent journey. John Wooden poetically captures this reality: “There is a choice you have to make in everything you do. So keep in mind that, in the end, the choice you make makes you.”
Each choice adds a touch of paint to the exquisite mosaic of who they are and what their living represents. Many are their choices: personal priorities, health, financial situation, learning, friends, character, career and service and the myriad of choices in their business and professional life requiring attention and focus. Each choice is a moment of preparation, a stepping stone… forward, backward or sideways… defining who they are and the direction of their life ahead.
Robert Louis Stevenson tells great leaders: “There will come a time when we will sit down to the banquet of our consequences.” May your banquet be extraordinary in the depth and breadth of its rich contributions, in the lives you have changed in your caring and servant leadership, in the joy, beauty and value of the legacy of your life’s purpose and meaning. May you remember that each word, action, behavior, look, attitude is a choice that will have its consequences. Choose wisely, and choose well, realizing always that “the choice you make, makes you.”