Compliance with Reality

Does anyone else feels that, as we grow older, we have less and less time to contemplate over meaningful thoughts? 
(No, I am not THAT old!)
I wrote this back in 2007, before I had even started this blog... which, consequently, meant I did not have a proper place to share it:

Your environment gives you clues as to where you position yourself. 

Following queues is only a means for cognitive shortcuts, a way to avoid wasting meaningful time on meaningless thoughts. However, sometimes it is the only way you can discern truth from lies.

Understanding is not necessarily done by digits and complex calculations. 

It is not made obvious by intriguing systems. 

A company’s health cannot be read in its income statement. 

Money gives you power but success does not come with influence, it comes with the capacity to efficiently exercise it.

I have come to realize what builds you up and places you on top of your industry is not the investment you generate. 

It is rather your resourcefulness and capacity to turn this investment into returns. 

Even better, it is not the return in itself that makes the difference, but people’s faith that you are capable of generating it that triggers its occurrence.

When you witness that your efforts are categorically copied, when your competitors avoid being confronted to you and when your employee's word ways heavy by simply citing their affiliation, you recognize the attestation of your leadership.