More Hesselbein on Leadership

The Inspiring Journey We All Share

I had a wonderful husband. John was a writer, a newspaper night city editor right out of journalism school, and a filmmaker who made wonderful documentaries and was one of the first six Robert Flaherty Fellows (Robert Flaherty was considered the father of the modern documentary—his films include The River and Nanook of the North).

We had one small problem. He took a cool, clinical, measured look at things, while I would want to leap ahead. “Wonderful. Let’s go!” I’d say, and on and on. One day when I was particularly exuberant (obnoxious) about a possibility, John said, “Frances, if you were drowning and going down for the last time, you would be shouting, ‘Today was great, but tomorrow will be better.’” That ...