When you reflect on a decision before you make it, you then give it power - Reason 1

Normal people go and do whatever they want, and because of that the results are ‘whatever’.

A leader thinks first, then acts.  As a consequence, the action is far more effective and the result will be many times more effective.  The reason is that reflection has the power to turn actions into a magic that makes dreams come true.

Not only that: all actions cause a reaction – a consequence.  This means a person can easily get wrapped up and trapped into a cycle of actions and reactions.  A leader will create a relationship between action and reaction that will be just like a seed and a fruit. 

With awareness a leader realises every performed action is a seed that bears fruit. And that fruit then goes on to produce many more seeds and fruit of the same.  One action will go on to produce not just one result, but will inspire many more actions and results

That action, after reflection, becomes much more than an ordinary action. It is special, valuable and extraordinary, and its creator is that too.

(Excerpt from the book 82 Reasons to be a Leader)

Focus... action!

In a fast-paced society as the one we are living, people seldom gives time for reflection. We normally just react and that makes us tired... so we look for means of relaxing and we don't have enough energy to think, reflect and act, which means we just start reacting again.

This has created a big trend where tourism and entertainment can be considered one of the biggest industries. An example: let's say you are going for shopping - compare the time shopping with the time you spend watching a movie.

It is a strange society, right? We have displaced food as our first value and we have embraced industrial elements, things we could easily live without; now we are going even beyond, preferring what is not even real...

Well, solution does not lie in new policies, a change in the laws or even new inventions. The real solution is to prevent that big tiredness for life that takes place and makes us confusing love we see in a movie with the real love we can feel only in reality.

Focus. It will help people to get less tired and more effective in whatever they do. If you just get tired, in the normal way, that can be solved by a change of environment or a good sound sleep, then it is easier to start thinking and reflecting, before going into reaction. As a consequence, your actions' quality will be better and even if you fall on the reaction pattern again, it will be in relation to a very good quality action.

Focus on what you really want and need. Focus on your reality, your mission and vision of life and you will feel it as a wonderful experience, as an entertainment in itself.

It is not only your productivity that will increase enormously, your joy will also increase and you will enjoy life in a way you probably thought it was only possible watching some good episode on television.

Focus. Reflect. Act. Relax. And focus again...

Colombia, Colombia

When a friend of mine came to Colombia, we started to talk to him about the country. When the subject of the Summit of Americas came, his response was that the only thing that came out of that was the scandal in Cartagena...

Well, in companies, an error in PR can make all the effort of years just go to waste. Is that the case now?

Colombia has changed, from a wounded country, scared of growing and daring (and still, growing and daring), to a country that is profiled to be a leader in its own. And it is a pity the fact that because of a mistake, not from Colombians but from foreigners, Colombia goes backwards...

I do hope Colombia's leaders are working on that and seeing how to solve the situation. Normally, that would imply to create more opportunities to show the greatness until they forget the bad side - something that all countries and places have, after all...

But, a good lesson for any leader is to be always prepared for anything like that. That can mean many things, but I feel personally that it is not a question to hide situations, as normally leaders do.

Tylenol case, which is now a study case in many parts of the world, showed that accepting the mistake is perhaps the best policy. Working on that along with all those affected is even better. Trying to deny, or simply ignoring... well, people won't forget it so easily!!

And if you try to blame others, even when they are probably the real guilty ones, that does not work well. After all, when a scandal like that happens, it is not only one or two people's fault - a friend of mine almost everyday was pointing the role of the hotel, for instance.

I do hope all the efforts so many people have made on Colombia don't go to waste and, rather than that it makes Colombia even more an example to other places of the world, as I know the country already is.