There’s a good way to use terror
and a bad way.
One way makes you the hero,
the other makes you creepy.
(Or boring. Which is the cardinal
sin of marketing, in my book.)
Check out this perfect plum:
In the documentary, “Winston Churchill:
Walking with Destiny,” it shows Churchill
touring the areas in London that were getting
completely blown to bits…even offering
his help to dig out survivors.
Churchill refused to stay in the
shelter for government officials,
telling the King of England, George VI,
“I must go out and see how things
are going.”
Churchill didn’t care to sleep
in the protected area of the Cabinet’s
War Rooms. He preferred the residence
of Number 10, so he could quickly get
outside during a raid and see what was
happening.
That’s using terror in a good way.
The British people were dealing with
a level of fear few of us will ever know.
But Winston Churchill got out there, got
his hands dirty, and let those hardy Brits
know they weren’t alone.
Future Prime Minister of Israel, David
Ben-Gurion, said of Churchill:
“He lifted an entire nation out of the depths
of humiliation and defeat, instilled in them
a spiritual strength that would hold fast
against heavy odds. If not for Churchill,
England would have gone down.”
You may not be leading a nation but
you are leading someone.
You have the opportunity to figure out
what those “terror points” are for them.
And if you follow Churchill’s method,
you’ll come out smelling like an English rose.
If you use terror in a bad way (scaring
people into hiding behind their mommy’s
apron… never teaching them how to
walk, let alone run), you won’t get as
far.
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