Values Quotes – Alexander Hamilton on Firmness

Todays quote is from Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the United States who was chief of staff to General George Washington, and became the first Secretary of the Treasury.

A powerful quote from Hamilton is:
“Real firmness is good for anything; strut is good for nothing.”

Hamilton was a man who personally demonstrated firmness in his beliefs, even challenging the principles of the U.S. Vice-President, Aaron Burr.

As a differentiating value, Firmness means securely established; reliable determination; strength; permanence; or stability.

A person without principles lacks firmness. But a person of character and quality is securely established in what they know and believe. Their strength lies in their self-confidence and ability to remain unwavering in their convictions, even willing to die for them.

As Hamilton suggests, those who openly “strut their stuff” and appear in public as somebody, are actually nobody if they do not possess firmness.

This was the case when Hamilton openly opposed Aaron Burr and was a major influence in Burr losing the presidency to Thomas Jefferson. Why? Because Hamilton found Burr to be unprincipled and thereby lacking firmness.

And Hamilton didn’t stop there. His influence also worked to prevent Burr from even becoming governor of New York State. It was as if he wanted to prevent Burr from having any major role in government.

So when Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel – which was illegal – Hamilton remained firm on his principles, even to the point of being mortally wounded by Burr.  Now that’s firmness in action!

Imagine if our leaders today were willing to stand on sound principles, instead of politics, and demonstrate their firmness – even if challenged to a duel. It would really stand for something if they would embrace the value of firmness.

 

Today’s value was selected from the “Determination-Focus” category, based on the e-book Developing Your Differentiating Values.