Tag Archives: Miles to Go (Before I Sleep)

Conviction: Earning Your Mettle of Honor

By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Surely, the professor would cancel the class. After all, why should he commute 100 miles round trip -twice a week- on snowy country roads in the dead of winter for only two students ? The professor-my kind of leader — knew why. Mr. Man-of-his-Convictions conducted the advanced college class in astrophysics.

Professor drove 100 miles round trip twice a week to teach 2 students.

And 10 years later, both of his students in that class at the University of Chicago-Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee- won the Nobel Prize in physics.

Leaders like Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, Ph.D., follow their convictions without regard to economies of scale or personal convenience.

They charge down the road of achievement with a kettle full of mettle- a kettle full of “vigor and strength of spirit” as the dictionary defines “mettle.” And it pays off. The professor also won the Nobel Prize in Physics 36 years later in 1983.

That Gandhi-like spirit of conviction, that spirit of self-less service, that spirit of total dedication marks the most effective leaders I have known over the years. Continue reading