Enthusiasm Is a Marker of Success Despite Failures

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill (1874–1965) was a British politician who was the prime minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was the first person to be made an honorary citizen of the United States.

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” — Sir Winston Churchill

In his Big Think interview, Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz discusses the capricious nature of politics and what he sees as a vacuum of leadership in governments throughout the world. Contemporary political bureaucracy punishes big ideas and charisma — how would Churchill fair in an election today? Probably not well, says Dershowitz.