During the UK’s darkest days…

Churchill returned to his old school Harrow to give an inspiring commencement speech.

Before the speech, the headmaster looked worrying across at Churchill, who had fallen asleep, and stayed that way for most of the ceremony.

But when introduced, Churchill made his way to podium, looked out over the students, and said:

“Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never – in nothing, great or small, large or pretty – never give in, except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force: never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

The learning:

Never give in. Be willing to change tactics. But never give up on your purpose, goal, vision to build a great organisation.

Along the way you’ve got to be willing to kill failed ideas, close failing long standing operations, but never give up on the purpose, goal, vision of building a great organisation.

Be willing to evolve into different activities (like when we closed our retail stores, and changed, to providing office technology solutions in affordable monthly subscriptions).

But never give up on the core principles that define your culture (for us it’s Simple Honest Service), and never give up believing you will prevail in the end.

…success is falling and getting up each time continuously.