“True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job anyhow, that’s what courage is.” ~Norman Schwarzkopf

The latest version of “Call Of Duty” is coming out, and you can hardly wait.  Finally, you get your copy and rush off to play.  It gets you out of the real world and into one where you have control.  Or does it?

At this point there are several things you can be assured of when the new version comes out:

1. You’re going to get shot.  It’s a new game and you don’t know it as well as others, so it’s going to happen.  Just like in real life leadership.  Unfortunately, like COD, it’s ever evolving and becoming more difficult.  The higher you go (the difficulty settings) the more challenging it gets.  If you accept these setbacks as short term, rather than fatal, you’ll be better.
2. It’s easier with allies.  People to watch your back and be a team of people with a common goal.  We all do better as a part of a team than we do as a leadership maverick.  That stirs emotion in the souls of those who always have to win, and thereby never learn.  They probably operate in single player mode anyway.
3. There’s always something new.  If there weren’t new features there’d be no sales.  You’ll run into road blocks in leadership too.  You’ll encounter tough areas and new challenges on a regular basis. But players don’t give up or ignore them, they keep learning and trying until they master them.
4. There are do-overs.  Like the game, you can try again when you have a real life setback.  It doesn’t have to be the end of your life or your career.  You may have to go back to the beginning of that scene, but with renewed information about how not to die.
5. You’ll never be done.  After you’ve worked your way up from novice, a new version of the game comes out, and you start all over again.

Alright, let’s go play.