Page 137 - How We Lead Matters

Year after year beheld the silent toil
That spread his lustrous coil;
Still, as the spiral grew,
He left the past year’s dwelling for the new,
Stole with soft step its shining archway through,
Built up its idle door,
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more . . .

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!
Let each new temple, nobler than the last,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast,
Till thou at length art free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!

O LIVER W ENDELL H OLMES
(U.S. POET)
FR O M “T HE C HAMBERED N AU T I L U S”
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120 How We Lead Matters: Reflections on a Life of Leadership