We Shall Not Fail

We Shall Not Fail
Celia Sandya

A bibliography of Winston Churchill of sorts.

Celia Sandya, Churchill’s granddaughter, teams up with Jonathan Littman to write a book on Churchill’s strengths with the aim of inspiring a society to cultivate the same from our business world players today. I read this book as a gift from once again my son as a prelude to reading Churchill’s famous collection that has been sitting on my bookshelf for five years, unread. It is light reading and a little stuffy with the tangents to corporate world. But a worthwhile read nonetheless.

Churchill was born of some wealth, the son of Lord Randolph the Duke of Marlborough. He was like many leaders of our modern world, not keen on academic study in a formal institution. He was however well read on subjects of his own choosing of which spanned a broad range of subjects. His appreciation for self taught education was manifest in a purposefully honed skill of communication as an orator and writer. The exact same skills found in Ben Franklin. Great people just don’t seem to school well, why is that and what made Churchill great?

Churchill assembled teams of people who may have at one time been his assailant on issues. He had no time for grudges and felt the strength in leadership is fortified in the power of forgiveness. As such an inscription in a French monument: " In War, Resolution. In Defeat, Defiance, In Victory, Magnanimity. In Peace, Goodwill." In problem solving he is quoted as saying “ Of this I am certain: if we open a quarrel between the past and the present, we shall find that we have lost the future” He often referenced Lincoln's quote " A house divided cannot stand"

Throughout this book the authors draw parallels between Churchill’s leadership qualities and the qualities required and sited in today business leaders. Most immediately drawn from this effort is INSPIRATION. Each chapter lists a classified set of qualities to summarize the preceding Churchill experience. While personally I found most qualities pertinent in today’s business world; my corporate experience would suggest a few may be a little draconian, maverick(ish), and egotistical, but then again, who’s to say that surrender to the “TEAM” makes great leaders. If indeed your goals are to excel and those goals are somehow tributary to the success of the team, it must be ok to have stars, one would think wouldn’t they? Of course in the politically correct world of athletic competition, tongue and cheek, these people are glorified as “impact players”; players who make a difference. In the corporate world the CEO who achieved success through high impact business accomplishments is vilified as a devious crook, which ironically leads their corporation to its winds of fate one way or another. This popular split in views, largely driven in my opinion by tilted journalist with paradoxical morals depending on the subject makes apparent a challenge in our world today. There exists a conflict between the corporate strategy to create a team effort across a diverse field of play, both internally and externally, and the goal to develop Leaders. For the team peer to aspire a leadership position and then achieve such implies a Machiavellian twist that is either over looked or allowed in the glory days of the world industrial revolution. Can we resurrect a Churchill in the 21st century? I hope so. This book compels you to leave Maxwell, Covey and all the rest of those corporate/business success authors/witchdoctors behind and simply tune into some old fashioned wisdom of a truly great man. In that regard the book did its job. I am on to Gathering Storm by Sir Winston Churchill.

Related Reading from his Early Life
1. The Scaffolding of Rhetoric
2. The World Crisis
3. Never In the Field of Human Conflict (speech)

Catch phrases
1. Death stands at attention, waiting the command to pulverize civilization.
2. Long his victim - for once his master.
3. The world lifted its head, surveyed the ruin