A Blog about Leadership

I have spent some time contemplating the failed bid for the Democrat Presidential nomination of Hillary Clinton. Naturally, I also tied thoughts into the failed bid for the Presidency by Al Gore in the 2000 election. While Al Gore won the popular vote, he lost the election by the Electoral College vote following the Supreme Court decision of the Florida recount.

Since 2000, Al Gore has demonstrated that he is anything but a failure. While he never took the oath of the highest office in the United States, he has succeeded in bringing his top political issue to the forefront of American and Global conscience.

Since his political career began with a congressional seat from Tennessee, Al Gore’s public service has been known by one dominating issue – the environment. He was one of the first politicians to hold public hearings on the issue and to publically call for reduction in emissions from carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

After Al Gore failed in his bid for the Presidency in 2000 and left the office of Vice President in 2001, he dusted off a twenty year-old speech and toured the speaking circuit to discuss the issue of saving the environment. In 2006, he turned this speech into an Academy Award winning documentary – An Inconvenient Truth. In 2007, he won the Nobel Peace Prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.”

Today, Green Initiatives are commonplace in our business and social arenas. In no small part, this is attributed to Al Gore’s leadership after having failed in his bid for the Presidency.

Quote about Leadership from Al Gore:

“No matter how hard the loss, defeat might serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.”

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