To Be or Not To Be

"To be or not to be, that is the question." William Shakespeare wrote this very famous line in his well known play, Hamlet. Hamlet was questioning whether to live or to die. In this soliloquy he is wondering if it is nobler to bear his grief or to take action.

We are faced with questions, big and small,  daily regarding our chosen path. Our current professional station in life is more often than not the sum of our decisions. Our decisions lead to actions or inaction and those choices lead to a result that we either initiated or accepted. We are successful because we decided to be successful or by default, we are not successful because we decided not to be. We either did something at sufficient levels when given the opportunity or we simply did not. To be really good at anything requires a commitment to stay the course that has been strategically set and continue making incremental progress.

Many times we hear of circumstances, beyond control that caused a less than desirable outcome and thus the people involved could not have succeeded no matter which course they chose to take.  These circumstances often take the form of excuses rather than actual circumstances beyond control. Lt. Colonel Harold Moore, the famed character in the movie: We Were Soldiers and US Army officer in command during the first big battle of the Vietnam War was quoted as saying; "Three strikes and you are not out. There is always something else you can do." His decisions lead to putting soldiers in harms-way and he was simply not willing to give up no matter how overwhelming the odds.

If we are going to be great and separate ourselves from the competition, we must decide; To Be! Otherwise the result is: Not to be!