Update: My title didn’t appear as planned it is supposed to read “It Just Doesn’t Does Matter!” Hopefully that makes more sense.

A few weeks ago Alex Hutton sent me a link via twitter to this YouTube video in response to my “Compliance doesn’t matter” post. It was listed as “Motivation Speech from Stripes” and it got me to thinking about other motivational speeches from movies. Of course one of the all time classics is this one from Animal House where the late, great John Belishui not only inspires us but gives a interesting history lesson. :)   Next I shifted my thinking to how in information security we need motivation and inspiration and how nothing seems to really be changing. It makes me a bit mad when I see security professionals caving in and following the crowd and how we need a good call to action. That brought me to this classis clip from the movie Network. We need to get mad and actually do something about what is making us mad.

Since I had a little time I kept looking at some inspirational video clips and ran across this clip from the movie “Facing the Giants”. This is a very low budget movie with real people instead of professional actors so the acting is weak at points but the message is amazing. Some of the things that I took from this clip that can apply to all of us made me think and below are some of those thoughts.

Your attitude is like the aroma of your heart, if you attitude stinks it means your hearts not right.

I’m a believer in enjoying your job. If you are to be really successful you need to have passion for what you do. Those of us in the information security profession especially need passion because what we do isn’t easy. It isn’t a job that we can just drift through and be good at it. It takes time to learn the ropes and know what you are doing. You have to know what to look for, how to prevent the bad while allowing the good and keeping the users happy and productive. You have to be very careful or your solution can cause major problems. If you don’t have passion or you have a bad attitude it will affect your performance and in turn it will make your company less secure.

You are the most influential man on this team, if you walk around defeated so will everyone else!

This really spoke to me from several perspectives both personally and professionally. Often we are the only security guy in our office and if we are walking around defeated then others will follow. Even if you aren’t the only security person in your company you sphere of influence probably is bigger than you realize. You need to step up and have a good attitude even if you don’t want to. When others in IT see security with dour attitudes it often makes them wonder what’s wrong that they aren’t aware of and it can affect their work performance.

God has gifted you with the ability of leadership. Don’t waste it!

Not everyone is a leader. Being a leader isn’t easy and it’s not for everyone. If you are a leader then lead. There is a difference between a leader and a manager. Not all managers are leaders and not all leaders are in management. You can lead from where you are if you will just do it. There are far too few leaders and we can ill afford for those who are gifted with leadership ability to sit idly by and watch. This is very true in the world of information security. Too many are just following the crowd because it’s the “industry standard best practice” thing to do. If you are a leader you probably know it. The question is are you acting on it.

For the first time I feel good about Friday night. Why? Because I’m on board with what you’re doing. If they get a hold of it it’ll change their lives

This quote holds a lot of truth for those of us in information security. Imagine if we could get our entire IT department on board with what we’re doing. All of them would be working harder and smarter. Then other departments would catch on because good things are contagious. Then our users are working smarter and more secure and our lives are lots easier. We can sleep at night and not fear the call from the C-level offices.

The truth is that it really does matter and no one knows that better than us and it’s our job to make sure that others know it matters and what they can do about it.