Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together? The terms “Smashing success” “Beyond our wildest dreams” “Better than we could have hoped for” are just a few of the heady feelings the Granaderos y Damas de Gálvez of Houston are experiencing this morning. The Rice Symposium went off – we can now definitely […]
And once again, Bernardo de Gálvez offers us insights on learning from past mistakes. One wishes our current would-be-leaders might learn to do the same. Yesterday, we talked about Bernardo’s victories over the Apache and the British. He had also had numerous defeats. He had learned about the terrible feeling of a crushing rout during […]
Only success in adversity makes a real leader. In September of 1770, Bernardo de Gálvez stood on the banks of the Pecos River with 125 of his soldiers. Low on food, almost out of supplies, they staggered with exhaustion. Even their horses, the ones they rode, heavy laden with armor and spears, and the […]
Change is always difficult for a society. As we look forward to the upcoming Presidential elections, we all wonder what the future will bring. The only thing we know for sure is that there will be change. Are people’s attitudes and opinions going to change with the arrival […]
My friend Eduardo has inspired me again, this time to compare two leaders—Hernán Cortéz and George Washington, perhaps an unlikely pairing. Eduardo is currently reading Bernal Díaz del Castillo’s history of the conquest of Mexico. Titled Historia Verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain), this […]
Leadership, as we can learn from history–and business, and politics, and committees–is about others, not about oneself. As my friend Denton Florian beautifully commented on my post from yesterday, leadership is about building, not about personalities. Without followers, there would be no leaders. Without the support and efforts of those who are led, no leader […]
What creates a great leader? Or even a not so great leader? In our current political quagmire, leadership is needed—desperately. We look back to men like General Patton or President Lincoln, or even American Revolutionary War General and Louisiana Governor Bernardo de Gálvez. What did these men have in common? What made them great […]
All good Texans will tell you February 23rd was “a day that will live in infamy.” All good Tejanos will tell you it’s a day when a bunch of invaders got really stupid. I arrived in San Antonio to find the city abuzz with activity. Okay, not the whole city. Just a tiny area […]
Silver—that critical commodity of the Spanish world came from mines throughout Mexico. I hadn’t planned it as research, but after a memorable visit to Zacatecas with its magnificent churches and deep silver mines, I couldn’t help imagine what it must have been like for those who worked there. The native people worked in the […]
Terrifying, exhilarating, inspirational. It’s all of that and more. This SMA Writers’ Conference has everything for everyone, and don’t worry if you don’t write. My wild and wacky cousin Becca claimed not to know anything about writing and was hesitant to join me at the conference. But because she and her husband Bill are planning […]