November 2014 Leadership Reflection

Leadership Reflection for November 2014

If at First You Don’t Succeed – Try, Try Again

Anonymous Victorian portrait of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

        November 1^st marks the beginning of the Keltik New Year, so in honor of this auspicious occasion, I’d like to share with you a traditional Keltik legend about patience and perseverance in leadership, which illustrates the famous couplet:

“If at first you don’t succeed,

Try, try again.”

à William Edward Hickson (1803–1870)

        Robert the Bruce (1274-1329) had been crowned King of Scotland in 1306, at a time when his country was fighting for its independence from the overlordship of England and its King, Edward II. The War for Scottish Independence lasted for more than a generation, and during the protracted conflict, numerous atrocities were perpetrated against the Scottish people, their institutions, and their country’s infrastructure by English forces. King Robert had fought bravely against the English invaders, but after losing a series of six battles, he was tempted to despair. A hunted man, he fled from one hiding place to the next, trying to figure out his next move. One day, while hiding in a hut, his whole outlook was changed by an encounter with a spider.

“Bruce and the Spider”

By Bernard Barton (1784-1849)

For Scotland’s and for freedom’s right

The Bruce his part has played; --

In five successive fields of fight

Been conquered and dismayed:

Once more against the English host

His band he led, and once more lost

The meed for which he fought;

And now from battle, faint and worn,

The homeless fugitive, forlorn,

A hut’s lone shelter sought.

And cheerless was that resting-place

For him who claimed a throne; --

His canopy, devoid of grace,

The rude, rough beams alone;

The heather couch his only bed --

Yet well I ween had slumber fled

From couch of eider down!

Through darksome night till dawn of day,

Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay

Of Scotland and her crown.

The Sun rose brightly, and its gleam

Fell on that hapless bed,

And tinged with light each shapeless beam

Which roofed the lowly shed;

When, looking up with wistful eye,

The Bruce beheld a spider try

His filmy thread to fling

From beam to beam of that rude cot --

And well the insect’s toilsome lot

Taught Scotland’s future King.

Six times the gossamery thread

The wary spider threw; --

In vain the filmy line was sped,

For powerless or untrue

Each aim appeared, and back recoiled

The patient insect, six times foiled,

And yet unconquered still;

And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,

Saw him prepare once more to try

His courage, strength, and skill.

One effort more, his seventh and last! --

The hero hailed the sign! --

And on the wished-for beam hung fast

That slender silken line!

Slight as it was, his spirit caught

The more than omen; for his thought

The lesson well could trace,

Which even “he who runs may read,”

That Perseverance gains its meed,

And Patience wins the race.

        At the Battle of Bannockburn (1314), King Robert won a decisive victory over the English invaders, secured the throne of Scotland for himself, and guaranteed sovereignty for the Scottish people. Six years later, on April 6^th, 1320, King Robert and the Scottish nobles promulgated the Scottish Declaration of Independence to announce to the family of nations that Scotland would remain a free and independent country. This document (also known as the Declaration of Arbroath) would later inspire the Founding Fathers of the United States to adopt their own Declaration of Independence at Philadelphia on July 4^th, 1776. J

Note: The full text of the Scottish Declaration of Independence can be read online (http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/090401.asp) from the National Archives of Scotland (in the original Latin, with an English translation).