Strength and Honor
Tonight my wife had a “Girl’s night out.” She went out to dinner with some of her friends to chat and catch up.
So, I popped in our copy of Gladiator
and watched an awesome film one more time. In Gladiator, Russell Crowe stars as Maximus Decimus Meridius.
Maximus is a Roman General that, after many wars and battles, longs to return home to his wife and son.
That is his only request when asked what “Rome’s Greatest General” would like for winning their final major battle.
Later, Maximus finds himself betrayed and he lives as a slave. Trying to earn his freedom and revenge
on his betrayers, he fights as a gladiator. The skills that he honed in battle now aid him in the arenas. He unites
his fellow gladiators and they overcome tremendous adversaries. I love this movie. I love pulling for
that beaten down hero to bounce back and layeth the smacketh down.
On July 18th, 2008, my fellow Import Soldiers and I will lose a friend and a leader: Reggie Riser. He’s resigned so that he can return to
his family. He’s spent the last 9 months away from them. Sure, it’s not quite as long as the nearly 3 years that Maximus was away from his family in the movie.
Maximus didn’t have to suffer schedule compression, late night project plan escalation, or resource shortages. (at least not in the same way… Maximus didn’t have the BlackBerry) There are a lot of books about leadership
and management and the like. While I certainly believe in formal education, I don’t think that great leaders became great by reading these books
(or blogging about them). I think leadership is something that lives in some people. When these people are presented with hardships, challenges, or
even BLOCKER jira issues, they step up and this leadership comes out — naturally. These people are not arrogant. They work, live, and lead among the people.
They take an active role in the battles just like Maximus. Reggie Riser is one of these people. He’s been a very valuable resource for our team and
he will be missed. Good luck, Double-R!
What we do in JCT echoes in the Go-Live.
We who are about to code salute you.
Strength & Honor.
