Our third President, Thomas Jefferson, is renowned for many inspirational quotes, but one that stands out for me is “In matters of style, swim with the current. In matters of principle, stand like a rock”.
Swimming with the current could be compared to the path of least resistance and probably the course many of us follow in routine matters every day. For trivial matters this is the least stressful way to approach life, to go with the flow.
But as we progress through our military career we will eventually find ourselves challenged to “stand like a rock” on matters of real importance. When pressured to “swim with the current” by your peers on a decision to take a shortcut or curtail policy, most of us will do the right thing.
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