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4 Leadership Lessons from John Wayne – My Blog

Am I seriously offering leadership lessons from Hollywood’s top cowboy? No. The leadership lessons are from The Quiet Man version of John Wayne.In The Quiet Man, Wayne plays Sean Thornton, an Irish-American boxer returning to the little village in Ireland he was born in. Thornton is seeking peace and quiet after accidentally killing a man in the ring back in America.

But there are obstacles to the peace and quiet he wants: his neighbor, “Red” Will Danaher (Victor McLaglen) loves to fight and wanted to own the little farm that Thornton buys upon his return, and Mary Kate Danaher (Maureen O’Hara) the beautiful, feisty sister of Will. The first time Thornton sees her, well . . . he’s head over heels. She’s keen on him, too, but expects to be wooed in a traditional manner. And if and when there’s a proposal of marriage, Mary Kate expects her brother to pay her dowry and her suitor to accept it happily. Thornton could care less about tradition or her dowry. Her brother has no intention of paying Thornton with anything other than his fists.In case you didn’t know, pugnacious neighbors and love are major problems when you want peace and quiet. But overcoming obstacles is what leadership is all about. So here are John Wayne/Sean Thornton’s lessons:1) Stay Focused. Sean wants to return to his roots and live in peace and quiet. No matter how hard “Red” Will Danaher tries to provoke him (even taking a swing at him), he refuses to fight. Fighting would be off-mission. How important is it to stay on-mission? Well, imagine all the pain that would have been spared if TimeWarner hadn’t allowed itself to merge with AOL. The supposed synergies in the merger never developed because the two companies really weren’t compatible. Eventually, TimeWarner rid itself of AOL, which is now an afterthought in the online industry.2) Be Flexible. Sean falls for Mary Kate. Not exactly part of his Peace & Quiet mission but not necessarily in conflict with it. Of course, in the movie, it is very much in conflict with it, because movies are all about conflict. Sometimes your dream or your plan brings you someplace unexpected – don’t be afraid to go after it. I know, this can be contradictory to Lesson No. 1, but to paraphrase John Wayne’s cowboy persona, “Sometimes a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” Putting John Wayne and Walt Disney in the same paragraph might seem strange, but Disney took a small but successful animation business and built an entertainment empire by following his dreams and going places no one expected: he created the first animated feature Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a huge success. His later dreams included live action movies, television programs and a theme park like no other: Disneyland. And then what may have been Walt’s ultimate dream: Walt Disney World. Today the Walt Disney Company is a global juggernaut — all because a man and a mouse followed their dreams.3) Seek Expertise. Sean and Mary Kate court and get married, but Will Danaher refuses to pay the dowry. Sean doesn’t feel it’s worth fighting to get the money, but Mary Kate feels that a man who loves his wife will fight for her dowry – it’s the same as fighting for her. Sean’s completely bewildered and seeks advice from the local priest, who was an amateur boxer in his youth and knows about Thornton’s past in the boxing ring. The priest tells Sean that if he loves Mary Kate, he needs to fight for her — it’s just the way things are. (He also tells Sean not to worry about hurting Will Danaher, who has a jaw like granite.) When the dot-com boom first began, companies like Microsoft needed lots of programming expertise. They needed it fast, and they needed people with the ultimate in current skills and technological experience. They hired folks right out of college and allowed them to work in a corporate setting that was an awful lot like college dorms: music blaring, food & beverages available at all hours, the work day going late into the night. The tech firms sought expertise and then enabled it to do its thing.
4) Slug It Out. Having tried every other way to win Mary Kate’s heart and her dowry, Sean fights Will in one of the screen’s longest and most epic fisticuffs. The battle seems to rage over the Irish countryside and last for hours. And the movie cuts away before the fight ends and gives the viewer only a small hint as to the final victor. But Sean does get the dowry and Mary Kate. Sometimes the only way to compete is head-to-head. Look at all the old-school retailers who’ve taken to matching Amazon’s prices so that people don’t shop the store floors and then order online.Sometimes, you gotta go punch for punch.

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John Wayne’s ”expensive” sayings made the fans ”nod”’. – My Blog

John Wayne (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979) was an American movie Actor, director, and producer, known in movies like Stagecoach, Angel and the Bad Man, Red River, and The Shootist.They say that life is a good teacher and through them who lived this life we can learn a lot, especially from great people like John Wayne a.k.a Duke.Today I am going to share with you Wayne’s 5 rules you should be remembering in your daily life:


1. Money cannot buy happiness but its more comfortable to cry in a Mercedes than on a bicycle.
This is a long debate everywhere, rich people say that “those who say money can buy happiness are the ones who don’t have” and broke people reply that “you don’t know how miserable we are just because we don’t have coins in our pocket”.John Wayne made it clearer that though money cannot buy happiness but when unhappy moments arrive money can make someone comfortable.


2. Forgive your enemy but remember the bastard’s name.
Forgiving your enemy is in your favor, most of the time carrying such burden in your heart is more painful while the bastard doesn’t even know.Just to be careful, put their names somewhere in your mind. Once a soldier always a commando and once enemy, I don’t know.

3. Help someone when they are in trouble and they will remember you when they’re in trouble again.
Do what is right, help people but never expect something in return.According to John Wayne, the only thing you can expect from people is that if you have helped them in the hard times, they will remember you when they’re in trouble again.

4. Many people are alive only because it’s illegal to shoot them.
Everyone has enemies and some people do harm to us to the level we even wish to kill them. Not only our enemies would be killed if to kill was not illegal but also some innocents and powerless people.About this rule, something you have to learn is that we’re surrounded by people that don’t kill us only because it’s illegal.
5. Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then again, neither does milk.
Haha this rule is somehow funny but it is true on the other hand. You will find people telling you stop drinking alot it will solve nothing but at least you’ll have that sedative moment.Alcohol does not solve any problems, but then again, neither does milk.

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Interesting things happen at the “Duketober” celebration at the John Wayne museum . – My Blog

The enduring legacy of actor John Wayne, America’s ultimate cowboy, was celebrated last month, fittingly enough, by the Cowboy Channel in association with the John Wayne: An American Experience museum in Fort Worth, Texas.


The “Duketober” celebration is a month-long airing of classic John Wayne movies via broadcast and streaming. It will culminate with a 50th anniversary live panel discussion on Nov. 3 in remembrance of Big Jake, the 1971 movie that bought Wayne together with sons Ethan and Patrick, who will participate in a discussion about his films and career.Wayne’s legacy has taken a few hits in the last couple of years.

A 50-year-old Playboy magazine interview outlining some of his controversial views on race surfaced, sparking his USC alma mater to remove an exhibit on him. There’s also a movement to remove his name from the Orange County airport. So far, that action has failed to gain ground . But Wayne’s cinematic legacy, particularly his western movies, continue to rank among the finest ever produced by Hollywood. Such films as The Searchers, True Grit, Stagecoach and Rio Bravo are considered classics of the genre.

“The John Wayne: An American Experience (JWAAE) museum in the Fort Worth Stockyards has created a perfect synergy for the Cowboy Channel to highlight this incredible western film legend and showcase many of his classic films for our audience,” said Cowboy Channel CEO Raquel Koehler Gottsch.

“Our fans absolutely adore John Wayne, and we couldn’t be happier to have a great relationship with his family and be able to share his movies with our audience and dedicate an entire month to such a western star legend.”“He would be thrilled to learn that so many people still cherish his films after all these years and I know he’s smiling somewhere,” said son Ethan Wayne.

The Cowboy Channel will also feature a Halloween movie marathon of Wayne films, and fans can tune-in to such classics such as Rio Grande, Sand of Iwo Jima, and The Shootist.

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James Caan shares a memorable collaboration with John Wayne on the set of El Dorado. – My Blog

In 1997, James Caan joined The Late Show with David Letterman to starred on John Wayne after they alongside one another on the hit movie El Dorado.While Wayne portrayed the noble elder gunfighter Cole Thorton, Caan plays his loyal friend, Mississippi. Furthermore, the movie was directed by esteemed producer Howard Hawks.


James Caan notes that the first big-name he worked with in Hollywood was John Wayne. Wayne was 33 years older than Caan and already had boomed success in the industry, so naturally, James Caan admired the Duke.“He was great because he could intimidate you,” explains Caan. “He’d stay on you forever, and you’d just crumble. I mean, he’d just try you.”However, on the set of El Dorado, James Caan recalls getting directions from Howard Hawks, also known as Coach.

“So this one night I remember I was between he and Mitchum and Howard Hawks was about 72 at the time, and we’re outside in this old Tucson. This big old western town and Hawks comes up and says, ‘now look, Kid, when you say that line, here’s what’s going to happen. Duke, you go down the middle of the road right down the center because we are going to surround this bar. Mitchum, you go around that way, and Kid, you go around.’ I said, ‘alright, Coach.’ because that’s what we called him, Coach.’

“He was coach,” notes Letterman. “John Wayne was Duke, and you’re the Kid.” After Hawk gave the instructions, he began walking back to the cameras. James Caan, who does a perfect John Wayne impression, reflected on when Wayne tried to offer the then-youngster a few tips.“So now he has to walk back up 50 yards back to the camera. There’s all kinds of extras, and he’s walking back, and the dude looks at me and goes, ‘now look, Kid.’ He says, ‘when you say that there line, I want you to turn around and give me that look you give me.’

“Give Me That Look That You Give Me.”The men begin to laugh hysterically because Jame Caan has no idea what John Wayne is talking about. Regardless, Caan still gave it a try.“I have no idea what he’s talking about. But the truth is that Mitchum explains me that I was laughing at him all the time. Every time he talked because you had to. How can you take him seriously? That ‘why did you do it’ look. So he said, ‘give me that look that you give me.’ I said, ‘alright. Alright Duke.’

At this point, it isn’t Wayne who is mad about Cann’s performance. It is Hawks. However, the Duke still offered his advice. James Caan must.“He gets behind the camera everything starts going, and they go ‘ACTION!’ and I send my one line and I take a step, and I turn around. Coach goes ‘CUT’. Comes running up, and he goes, ‘look, when you take the step. Don’t take the step. I want you to say the line and go. Just go!’ He starts to walk back to the camera, and Wayne goes, ‘now look, Kid. Don’t take a whole step, take a half a step and then turn around and give me that look you give me.’

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