Saw the movie Pelham 123 with John today. I enjoyed it. It's difficult not to enjoy a movie that includes both Travolta and Denzel; they're both so charismatic.
There was a line in the movie that hit me.
I don't want to give too much away so I'll be vague in setting up the quote. Denzel is walking into a very bad situation where the odds are great he may not end up living through it and the cop with whom he is walking asks him: "Who'd you f_ _ _ to get this assignment?" to which Denzel replies "myself", and the cop comes back wtih "that's easy to do".
I respected Denzel's character because so often it's easy to put the blame on someone else, but he accepted responsibility. Every day I watch people who put the responsibility for their actions on everyone else.
The comeback was so true - we can mess ourselves up more than anyone else. There's that old adage about sometimes we're our own worst enemy.
I do not think a leader is someone who is so great that he avoids this human propensity. I just think a leader realizes when he is wrong, takes responsiblity, and chooses to do the right thing going forward.
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