Grit
Image credit In his “The Intangibles of Leadership” talk at The Global Leadership Summit 2015, Bill Hybels (the founder and senior pastor of the Willow Creek Community Church) retold with passion the story about the “The Little Engine That Could.” It’s from a 1930 children’s book named by the National Education Association, based on “an online survey in 2007,” as one of the “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.” [1] One version of the story goes like this: One morning [the little train] was waiting for the next call when a long train of freight-cars asked a large engine in the roundhouse to take it over the hill. “I can’t; that is too much a pull for me,” said the great engine built for hard work. Then the train asked another engine, and another, only to hear excuses and be refused. … “I think I can,” puffed the little locomotive, and put itself in front of the great heavy train. … As it neared the top of the grade, which had so discouraged the larger engines, it went more