Leadership Lessons from Confucius: the pursuit of goodness

Confucius said: “Dedicating yourself to the pursuit of goodness leaves no room for evil.”

Focus! Focus! Focus! There are no big secrets to the successful pursuit of goodness. Simply take a deep breath and put your best foot forward. The bright shiny objects that appear along the way will soon lose their luster as you build up your momentum. You’ll soon understand that they’re only there to distract you from your true purpose.

The same rule applies to any endeavor in life. The more you put into something, the more you will gain from it. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, there are no short cuts to success.

Note

This article features a translation of Chapter 4 of Book 4 of the Analects of Confucius. You can read my full translation of Book 4 here.

I took this image at the Taipei Confucius Temple.