After watching the Soderini republic fail to fully maintain its citizen-soldiers militia, whose moral declined, and a terrific beating taken by them at Prato at the hands of the Spaniards, Niccolo Machiavelli counseled, and against the clamor of the republic's political enemies:
Lost once... remedy the reason for the loss.The advice is so simple, yet sublime. (Nor was it followed in his day: the loss at Prato led to the fall of the republic and the return of the Medicis.)
One of our greatest strengths is in fixing things that are wrong. We do it by empowering the individual with the common goal. What a beautiful example of it happening in this letter. Thanks, BufordP.