We came across a 360˚ aerial view of Saint-Malo on the city's website and thought it was pretty impressive. So we posted it on our Facebook page and thought we should put a link to it here, as well. Enjoy.
Struggling = Understanding
It turns out (SpaceX and Tesla founder) Elon Musk is also a firm believer in "experiential education." In a recent interview he said, "When you struggle with a problem, that's when you understand it." And, in fact, he said that when he interviews job applicants, he'll often ask them how they solved certain problems. If they can't articulate the layers of the process, the details of the struggle, he knows they're lying about their experience—"anyone who's struggled hard with a problem never forgets it." With the struggling comes a thorough understanding.
Most People Have No Idea...
(c) Fareham Borough Council; Supplied by The Public Catalogue Foundation
Many people are amazed at all the things there are to see and do in ports along the English Channel—truly remarkable museums, historical sites, and attractions. Here's one that's been in the news recently.
In 1510 Henry VIII ordered the building of an impressive flagship, the Mary Rose, to help defend England against the ever-present threats posed by the Scottish and French navies. In service for 34 years, she sank during an engagement with a French invasion fleet—larger than the Spanish Armada—in 1545. The wreck was discovered in 1971 and carefully raised in 1982. Now in the final stages of conservation, she is taking a place of honor in a stunning new museum in Portsmouth. In addition to the ship, some 19,000 artifacts are on display. There are of course several other historic tall ships to see in Portsmouth, including HMS Warrior and HMS Victory. But the Mary Rose is one of a kind. You'll find an extremely interesting BBC piece here and the official website at www.maryrose.org.
Our Lives Are What We Make Of Them
Photo: Patrick Roberts
Many of the ELS's enthusiastic supporters and generous patrons attended boarding school at Aiglon College, a British international school in Chesières-Villars, Switzerland. The ELS's founder once taught there. Aiglon was established in 1949 by an Englishman named John Corlette, who, while teaching at Gordonstoun in Scotland, met Kurt Hahn and was introduced to his ideas about the importance of challenging students with various demanding experiences. Convinced that Hahn was right, Corlette integrated rigorous hiking and skiing expeditions into his own school's basic curriculum. He also required all students and faculty to gather every morning for a meditation—an inspirational message followed by several minutes of reflection. The following is an excerpt from a meditation he personally delivered:
"... an awful lot of so-called grown-ups, many of whom are really only children with grown-up bodies—an awful lot of these grown-ups spend an awful lot of time complaining about their own lives, how uninteresting their lives are, how they never meet any interesting people, how dull their jobs are, how small their pay is, how silly their [partners] are, how idiotic their children, how unreliable their cars, how tasteless their food.
Well, all this may be true and a lot more, but if they are complaining to other people, and invariably they do, they are complaining to the wrong person. They should be complaining to themselves, for they are themselves to blame.
Our lives are what we make of them, and if they are dull and uninteresting, frustrated, colourless and unsatisfying, it is because we make them so.
[...] it is no good blaming those mysterious people 'they' at whose door we like to lay so many of our misfortunes. It is no good blaming God [...] As Shakespeare says in Julius Caesar, 'the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.'"
He then went on to prescribe three remedies:
1) Accept responsibility for your own life.
2) Spend the time to know yourself.
3) Have the courage and self-confidence to be yourself.
That philosophy is in our DNA. And that is why, year after year, we do what we do.
Leadership, An Evolving Definition
INSEAD, one of France's leading business schools, now has campuses in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, as well as in Paris. Instructive. And it's interesting to read what they have to say about leadership on their web site. Among other things, they assert that it's the ability to lead multicultural teams. In today's world, the skills to motivate and resonate with people from different cultural backgrounds is seen as a non-negotiable requirement for managers and entrepreneurs. In their own words, they want "to provide business leaders with the knowledge and sensitivity to operate anywhere." If you're a student, you should be thinking seriously about moving beyond your own cultural comfort zone. And the sooner the better. Once upon a time, foreign travel was seen as a luxury. Today, in a global economy, it's an important part of an education. If you don't already have plans this summer, we'd love to show you around our amazing neighborhood. We'll provide the transportation.
Chateaubriand
St.-Malo is the birthplace of François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768–1848), one of France's most famous writers and historians. If you ever studied French literature, you studied Chateaubriand. In a leadership school blog, it's interesting to take note of an observation attributed to him:
"As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects that we have never before perceived."
That's really what experiential education is all about. It's about pushing body and mind to the point where, all of a sudden, something true reveals itself and shines a light. And in a sort of chain reaction, that sudden illumination can inform our character and insights for years to come.
January Rumblings in St-Malo
It's the middle of January and the boats are wintering in St-Malo. It's amazing how much work has to be done to prepare for the summer season. There's required maintenance that will need to begin shortly. We're interviewing some new mentors for our three-week leadership courses. Itineraries are being tweaked. We'll shortly be rolling out a new website. And we're busy setting up U.S. marketing and customer support. Importantly, the global Aiglon network has come together to provide substantial help this year. It's all exciting stuff, and we're looking forward to a great season on the water!