The Leader Who Had No Title: A Modern Fable on Real Success in Business and in by Robin Sharma

ultimately worthless unless you activate them with focused and consistent action. The best leaders never leave the site of a good idea without doing something—no matter how small—to breathe some life into it. Lots of people have good ideas. But the masters become masters because they had the courage and conviction to act on ideas. ‘A powerful idea is absolutely fascinating and utterly useless until we choose to use it,’ wrote Richard Bach. What really makes greatness is white-hot action around red-hot ideas. A genius idea alone has zero value. What makes it priceless is the quality of follow-through and the speed of execution around the genius idea. Actually, even a mediocre idea excellently acted on is more valuable than a genius idea poorly performed. Just starting something—whether that’s a new initiative that will better your business or extending a hand to a teammate you used to compete with—is such an intelligent move. Yes, that first step is the hardest. But once you take it, it’ll only get easier. And every positive step that follows sets yet another positive consequence into play. Just start whatever it is that you know you need to do to take your work as well as your life to where you know it can be. I call this concept the Courage of the Start. Starting truly is the hardest part. Beginning is half the battle. So that takes all your will and inner strength. But then it gets easier. Small consistent steps to drive momentum. Daily ripples of excellence—over time—become a tsunami of success. Every action has a consequence. Things start to move forward. Doors you didn’t know existed begin to open for you. Success is so much a numbers game. The more action you take, the more results you’ll see.”
    “I remember reading that the space shuttle uses more fuel during its first three minutes after liftoff than during its entire voyage around the earth,” I observed.
    “Nice metaphor, Blake,” Anna said cheerfully. “That first step truly is always the hardest. Because you are fighting the forces of gravity of your old thinking and habits. No human being likes change. We do love predictability. So anything new scares us and sets our internal systems into varying degrees of confusion and chaos. But you can’t reach mastery unless you are always willing to take action to move things forward. A practical tool for you to use is what I call ‘The Daily 5.’ Imagine doing five little yet important focused acts every day to get you closer to your most important goals.”
    “I could easily make five little steps forward every day,” I admitted.
    “That’s the beauty of The Daily 5 concept, Blake—everyone can. Big changes are scary. But anyone can complete five tiny goals in a day. And small daily improvements over time really do lead to stunning results. After a month that’s about one hundred and fifty goals you’ve realized. And after twelve months, you’ve achieved over two thousand goals. Just imagine the level of confidence you’ll have just twelve months from today if you achieved two thousand goals. Just imagine what your next twelve months will look like, not only in your work at the bookstore but also as it relates to your health, your relationships, and the other key areas of your life when you achieve two thousand little but focused and meaningful outcomes.”
    “My whole life will look different,” I quickly agreed. I felt so inspired by what I was hearing. I could do this.
    “It really will, Blake. And you deserve to live a successful and happy life. You really do deserve to work and live in a way that expresses the absolute best within you and makes you feel like you matter in the most wonderful of ways. Which elegantly brings me to the A in IMAGE.”
    “Which stands for?”
    “Authenticity. The old model of leadership, as I’ve mentioned,was very much about the power you get from the authority of your position and the influence you’d have from a title, as you’ve now