I recently read parts of "The Politics of Aristotle".  I did enjoy the read and one passage in particular resonated with me:

"...the State will be ruled by its best men, not by persons of no
special excellence, and by statesmen who make peace rather
than war their end, and who are not only men of action,
but also men of philosophical aptitude, not by mere soldiers
to whom war is the one thing worth living for."

and "...On minor contrasts we need not dwell."

THE LACEDAEMONIAN STATE. xxxix

Wow, in a few sentences Aristotle summed up a lot of what I believe in. I believe in the renaissance man or women. I believe in the scholar, warrior, student, musician and artist and I aspire to be of all of those. One phrase in particular resonates with me and make me think of one of my all time favorite movies "The Princess Bride":

"We are men of action, lies do not become us."

Much of what I do is help drive action. We get stuff done. We act, we think and we plan. We don't act simply for the sake of action, but, we advance the ball. We make decisions that are meritorious only if they are right. This is a particularly strenuous methodology for judging success or failure, but at the end of the day, if you have to lay somebody off, they really don't care all that much about the whys. They care that they no longer have a paycheck, health insurance or the ability to pay their mortgage. Results matter. Delivering product matters. Financials matter. If we the leaders fail to run our business, our teams suffer. It is a responsibility that is worthy of being lived up to.

 Sort of reminds me of another great movie, The Replacements:

Shane Falco: I wish I could say something classy and inspirational, but that just wouldn't be our style.
[pause while everybody is in the huddle]
Shane Falco: Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory... lasts forever.

Shane Falco: I want the ball.
Jimmy McGinty: Winners always do.

When I talk to my teams I remind them at the end of the day we get stuff done. The stuff we get done needs to be the right stuff, and, it needs to be the stuff that will help us win. A culture of excellence and a culture of execution breeds more excellence and more execution. Get stuff done. Win.