Invictus

Hints: Nelson Mandela in the film Invictus tries to use sport to unite a divided nation following the end of apartheid. Mandela asks the captain of the South African rugby team, Francois Pineaar, what his philosophy of leadership is. The answer comes back – to lead by example. In your own experience what characteristics should a leader have whose example we might be asked to follow? Can you think of leaders in your own experience that show such ‘good’ characteristics?

Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.

~ Invictus, by William Ernest Henley.