Churchill: The Laws of Leadership
Comment: Winston Churchill, the greatest statesman, Prime Minister of Great Britain, military leader, and Nobel Prize laureate in literature, formulated the laws of leadership that allowed him to become a great strategist, tactician, politician, and orator. First law: “Enjoy the moment.”
My Response: That is true. Because without satisfaction in the very moment in which you exist, you cannot produce anything.
Comment: “Be a realist.”
My Response: Yes, one must necessarily weigh the dark and the light sides, the possibilities, and choose the middle line realistically.
Comment: “Define your destiny.”
My Response: Choose what you exist for, and gradually, constantly, and precisely realize it.
Comment: “Learn from mistakes.”
My Response: As much as possible.
Question: You mean to say, it is impossible?
Answer: It is possible, but only within certain limits. Because mistakes, in principle, are needed in order to learn from them. Not to regret past mistakes, but precisely to learn from them.
Question: And does a person really learn from mistakes?
Answer: He does not learn, he remakes himself. Mistakes are necessary in order to constantly rise higher.
Question: So he leans on them all the time?
Answer: Yes they are needed. In no case should one regret past mistakes. On the contrary, you should rejoice that you went through it and moved forward.
Comment: A person keeps thinking: “What a mistake I made! What have I done!”
My Response: Self-torment is the worst thing that can be!
Comment: It is unclear how. I catch myself so many times on this thought.
My Response: Then be ready for the fact that you are making a mistake even now, and everything will be fine. And then you already have a good mood, and you catch the right moment, according to the first point: “Enjoy the moment,” and everything goes well.
Comment: “Just do your job.”
My Response: Right, every day systematically do what you are obliged to do, and add one day to another, another day to another, so that they all add up to the realization of your idea, of the goal you set for yourself.
Comment: “Verify through your own experience.”
My Response: One must sometimes draw a line and make sure that, after all, you did do something, you did bring something into the world, you did actualize yourself in some way.
Question: So this check mark is needed?
Answer: That check is needed in order to move forward. Maybe make some correction, but in general it won’t change much, you will remain who you are. But it is necessary.
Comment: “Be fair.”
My Response: Be fair, first of all, to yourself. Try to put yourself in another’s place, and others in your place, and from this draw the conclusion: How much you are not better than others, and how much you, in principle, are fulfilling your function. At the very least, do not expect from others more than from yourself.
Comment: “Draw the line.”
My Response: Below which you cannot sink, and above which you would like always to be. That is, of course, a dream!
Question: And what is your line?
Answer: That is a cherished dream. One does not speak of such things. I would like to see my students as the great leaders of this world. That, yes.
Question: Do you want to dissolve in your students, or that they be your continuation?
Answer: Well, my continuation… Who am I? I want them to rise to such a level that they would be worthy of leading the world to its spiritual goal.
Comment: “Always remain yourself.”
My Response: That is, do not deceive yourself. Do not think of yourself higher than you are; get used to, agree with the fact that you, perhaps (perhaps!), are worse than everyone. And act so that you could always say: “I tried to do better than everyone and I am always at peace with how it turned out.”
Comment: But that you are worse than everyone, that won’t really please a normal person. If he feels that way, he will always be depressed.
My Response: But you are asking me, not some ordinary person. I exist in two lines: in the real one and in the desired one, and I try all the time to be between them.
Comment: “Speak the truth straight to the face.”
My Response: Well, I try. Although every day I feel from my students that perhaps it shouldn’t have been said at all.
Question: That is, too much truth straight to the face. You tell it to your students. But to another person, not your student, can one tell the truth straight to the face?
Answer: No, one must not. By no means! As it is said: “Do not put a stumbling block before the blind.”
Comment: “Follow your own compass.”
My Response: That, yes. That is, if you have an orientation in life, you will have to say many unpleasant things and, naturally, hear many unpleasant things. But you must go that way, because otherwise you are nobody.
There can be no compromise here. Otherwise, it will not be you, then go wash dishes. And that’s all.
Comment: You once said that your teacher Rabash prepared you so that after him you would not buy into something, into all those “offers” that exist.
My Response: Yes, because there were very many opportunities. There were very many enemies who said: “Come to us, and everything will be good. Here, we must create such a group, such a society. Otherwise…”
Comment: “No one will come to you.”
My Response: Not just “no one will come,” but “we will eat you!” Well! In the end they didn’t eat me. They nibble a bit at each other, and we exist.
Comment: “Accept the unknown.”
My Response: Yes, it is very good when you live in the unknown. That is, for you every next moment is something new, arising, that you did not expect, and it doesn’t matter to you how it will be. Because it is determined somewhere and descends upon you, and you are ready to accept it.
Question: But isn’t it important to you whether you will reach the goal or not? Or is it unimportant?
Answer: No! I strive toward it, but nothing matters to me. Nothing! No-no, these are different things. These are two lines.
Question: That is, the result, whether you reach it, does not matter to you?
Answer: Of course not.
Question: And what matters here: to go, go, go?
Answer: As long as I can, I go. And each next minute, whatever falls on me, I must meet it with blessing. And that’s all. It is as simple as that!
Otherwise, one cannot live. Could I have carried it for so many years otherwise? No.
Comment: To go out again to the lesson, and again to the lesson, again, to stir everyone, again to stir.
My Response: Yes. And it is not hard for me. People think it is such an effort, and again, and again, and each time, and so many times repeated. But I do not repeat myself, no minute is similar to another for me! None!
Comment: I am always amazed that for all these years with you, the same questions are asked! And so, you begin again, begin again…
My Response: For me these are not the same questions.
Question: Because you feel that the student is new, or that you are new?
Answer: Neither he nor I, we together reveal now some new quality in the world, something that did not exist before. Because minutes are all different.
And therefore, it is not hard. Not hard! But the world does not understand this. Kabbalah gives such an approach that all life is truly an adventure.
Comment: That is, you are like a child, constantly discovering a new world, with wide-open eyes…
My Response: Yes, and therefore, you have energy and ignition. Of course. It is simply God’s gift!
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman,” 10/29/25
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