The Problem with Mixed Signals

The Problem with Mixed Signals
April 30, 2018 | by | No Comments

Mixing signals in your club, your business, or—for that matter—your marriage, does not work. To be successful at anything you have to choose one course and stay on it. History is full of examples of tragedies that resulted from mixed signals, but few are more horrific than that which befell the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia, when the entire city was obliterated in the blink of an eye. On December 6, 1917, the French ship Mont-Blanc was entering Halifax harbor loaded with 62 tons of gun cotton, 150 tons of TNT, 2,366 tons of picric acid (which was even more unstable and powerful than TNT), and, finally, 246 tons of benzol that was packed in steel drums stacked four high. In all, the ship was loaded with six million pounds of high explosives that the French government purchased from its New York agents and which were being shipped to France
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A Dramatic Lesson in Leadership – Part 2

A Dramatic Lesson in Leadership – Part 2
April 3, 2018 | by | No Comments

Last month we traced the course of the ill-fated Donner Party as their wagon train attempted to cross the Sierra-Nevada mountains and reach a place they considered to be paradise: it was California. After being stuck for three months in cabins near Lake Truckee, 44 of the 89 emigrants did reach “paradise”—but it wasn’t the one they expected. Those poor souls died of disease and starvation in spite of the fact that they had some supplies including a few horses and cattle, endless firewood, and a trout-filled lake. They were on a well-known trail and had to do little more than “shelter in place” for four months until they would be rescued. But, because of the indecisive leadership and mistakes of George Donner, half of the party died. Contrast that with the trans-Antarctic expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Their ship, the Endurance, was caught in the ice on January
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