"Nothing
ventured, nothing gained" said Þorkell in Hrafenkel’s Saga which means you
can't expect to achieve anything if you never take any risks. Does this proverb
sound undeniable to you? It does? But, only misery comes from the particular
undertaking that starts with Þorkell saying this. Sagas are long stories of
heroic achievement. They were written in the Old Norse language, mainly in Iceland. Hrafnkels saga
Freysgoða is one of them, a saga of wealth, revenge and power. Hrafnkel is
his name, godi means priest although it also came to mean
chieftain, and Frey was the Norse god of fertility. The saga of Hrafnkel the
priest of Frey, recites the struggles between chieftains and farmers in the
east of Iceland in the 10th century, it is characterized by its
logical structure and plausible, vivid characters.
The story
depicts and mainly focuses on how the eponymous hero Hrafenkel, who changes
from a religious practitioner to a self-interested character, realizes that
power doesn’t lie on the worship of Gods, but in the loyalty’s of one’s
subordinates. Is he right? Morally, this seems to be incorrect, because we know
that what is moral is determined by what God commands. What
about pragmatically?
In this
society you get reputation and high statues by strength. He is considered
leader the one who is good to his people and bad to the others as it is stated:
"he was a very unjust man, though able. He forced the men of Jökulsdalr
to serve as his supporters at the Assembly, and was kind and reasonable with his
own men, but harsh and inflexible with the men of Jökulsdalr, and they got no
justice from him. “
This means
that we are in a society where you need to be powerful to survive. Being
humble, kind and forgiving brings you only bad outcomes.
Having
a good understanding of the concept of leadership is fundamental to be a
leader. Whatever ethical plane to hold to, when someone is responsible for
people, its important for him to raise the bar even higher. The group is a
reflection of the leader himself, and if he makes honest, courage, confidence
and the ethical behaviors a key values, the team will follow and there will be
the leadership. Having self-confidence helps a person set his goals and achieve
them easily. As its explained by Dr. Branden (Psychologist) When
self-confidence is little, negatives have much more additional power over us
than positives. We are inspired further more by the wish to prevent discomfort
than to feel pleasure. If we do not trust in ourselves and in our value or in
our adorability and goodness then the universe will be a terrifying place. No
matter how intense you try to overcome it, breakdowns will happen. Which is
acceptable, you just need to know how to deal with them. Famous leaders take
them in steps. They persist to be calm and rationally think through the
situation. They use their resources. What they don’t do is descent apart and
expose to their team how concerned they are. This leads to negative confidence
and terror. Strong leaders do in fact guide, even when they’re confronted with
obstacles.
In order to insure everything will go in the right path no matter what gets in
their way and the most important thing is not to show to their team that there
is stress.
