I work with the most daring, courageous people

An old friend gave me book by Brené Brown called “Daring Greatly.” It’s a book about the courage and vulnerability needed to be a great leader. She got her title from a speech by Theodore Roosevelt. The excerpt from the speech took my breath away the first time I read it:

“The Man in the Arena”

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

 
~Theodore Roosevelt, Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, France, April 23, 1910

I run PowerLink and I have the great pleasure of working with and helping growing companies to thrive by connecting them to our network of more than 800 CEO’s, corporate executives, consultants and professionals who donate their time to help our clients succeed and grow. But when I read the speech, I realized that the “Man in the Arena” are our clients!

For 25 years we have been helping entrepreneurs in “the arena.” Those daring men and woman courageous enough to try, fall, dust themselves off and do it again. They are our heroes. Here are our plans for the next 25 years:

1. We are going to provide PowerLink Advisory Boards and CEO Circles to more businesses in Western Pennsylvania.
2. We are going to partner with more economic development organizations so that we can get access to broader networks of advisors while we help their clients.
3. We are building a staff of paid Executives-in-Residence who can chair our boards more effectively while providing added domain expertise.
4. We are facing the reality that expansion and experienced CEO’s require more resources so we are raising our very modest annual fees and offering monthly installment agreements.

If you or anyone you know has been standing in that arena too long by themselves and feeling they need a lifeline thrown to them, have them email me. PowerLink would love to hear their story and figure out how to use our network of advisors to help them grow. 

--Anita anita@powerlink.org

P.S. Our “Daring Greatly” clients and PowerLink have been featured in the news recently. Check out: “Our Region's Business with Bill Flanagan” June 25, 2017 episode HERE and check out Joyce Gannon’s great story in the Post-Gazette on May 26, 2017 HERE.