Precepts of Success

In his book, “The Knockout Entrepreneur,” George Foreman, excites us with many great insights from his tenured boxing career to illustrate truths.  If you like George foreman or a fan of sports, I believe you will enjoy this book and easily identify with the many life experiences that are presented in this book.

What I found to be most spectacular was the story surrounding the overwhelming success of his George Foreman Grills. This one story I believe was worth reading the book alone

Here are some of the values that George puts forth:

· The importance of having great people around you

· The Success Factors

· You decide your success by your personal invest of yourself

· Don’t let “downturns” keep you down

· It’s important to know what others are doing in the area that you want to be successful in. Be diligent in studying the field of interest

· Make sure you have the “faith” in the product you produce or represent because your reputation is all you have

· George reminds us it not what you make, it what you leave as a legacy.

If you are thinking of starting a business or have a desire to start a business. This may be a good book to inspire you to dig a little deeper.

“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”  ~ Abraham Lincoln ~

Those closest to a leader have great influence as a leader’s character develops. Read 1 Kings 21:25-26.

Ahab’s marriage to Jezebel, the Princess of Tyre, didn’t help his character. She zealously promoted the worship of Baal and imported an army of pagan priests in defiance of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Ahab complied with his wife’s demands and came to hate the prophets of Yahweh. Thus, “There was never a man like Ahab, who sold himself to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, urged on by Jezebel his wife.”

Second Peter 1:3-9 says it all:

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to faith, goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

Peter tells us that building character is the process by which a leader participates in the divine nature and escapes corruption that keeps us from being ineffective and unproductive.

Character isn’t shaped by intellectual comprehension of truth. It’s forged by Biblical truth that penetrates the depth of the human heart. That only occurs when a leader studies for understanding, receive revelation and becomes disciplined enough to apply these truths God’s Word to their personal lives. Ultimately, the goal of such diligent study of God’s revelation is the “fear of the Lord” (Proverbs 2:5). A wise leader has an awe of God, holding Him in high regard. And that high view of God shapes character, which in turn controls our thoughts and actions.

Character is so important in a leader that if someone on your team or staff has impressive skills but defective character, you should not promote that individual or allow others to be put in a position of having to follow them as a leader. It has to be about more that the performance.                     

Principle-Centered Planning

If you've ever gone whitewater rafting, then you know the importance of planning. Whenever the raft approaches rapids, the guide has to plan the best route to navigate safely through them. If the guide fails to plan, then the raft can easily smash into a rock or capsize.

Four Types of Planning

Passive Planning happens when leadership allows the raft to travel downstream at the mercy of the current rather than steering, rowing, and turning. This kind of non-planning eventually leaves you unprepared to face whitewater rapids. Worse yet, in the absence of a plan, the current may take the raft over the edge of a dreaded waterfall.

Panic Planning happens only after the raft is in trouble. At this point, all of the organization's resources are scrambled in a reactionary pattern in an attempt to solve the problem. With panic planning, you may or may not come out alive and well, but you are guaranteed some bumps and bruises.

Scientific Planning is viable, but can be laborious, mechanical, and often ends up abandoned in the process. Imagine if a raft guide constantly tried to measure the depth of the water, the distance between rocks, the wind speed, and the water current. Although the information might be helpful, oftentimes the water would be moving too swiftly to take the measurements. In a like manner, leaders often have to respond to change in an instant. There's no time to collect scientific data on all of the variables before deciding which course of action is best.

Principle-Centered Planning is the key to effectiveness. It is the artistic or leadership approach. Principle-centered planning recognizes that life in general (and people in particular) can't be graphed on a chart, but sees that planning still remains essential.

Feerless by Max Lucado

I read this book and found it to be a great book. This book seems timely to me, during a much needed time in the lives of so many that are being driven by fear. Fearless by Max Lucado is such a book that speaks to what our nation needs to overcome all the negative reports and the spirit of fear that most america seems to be facing.  Amidst all of the uncertainties that seem to lurk on  every hand, Max’s latest book does a great job of uncovering man's fear and it roots.  

Max talks about the ability for us to live a life without fear. In order to imagine a life without fear, we first must comprehend why we are afraid in the first place? While fear may seem elementary to understand, Lucado offers his way of telling stories by methodically uncovering the root causes of fear. My full attention was given when I read the following in the first chapter: “Fear never wrote a symphony or poem, negotiated a peace treaty, or cured a disease. Fear never pulled a family out of poverty or a country out of bigotry. Fear never saved a marriage or a business. Courage did that. Faith did that.”

Max Lucado does a superb job of sharing how fear manages to poke his ugly head into our lives.  I believe he does a good job identifying fear and giving scriptural reference points for even a novice to understand on how to break out of the four-walled prison called fear. However, what was totoally unexpected was the discussion guide that not only allows the holy Spirit to minister to you but gives room for the Spirit to minister to others in a group setting.  I really like the section which focuses on you, the reader. The discussion guide deals with three crucial areas: Examining Fear, Exposing Fear, and Battling Fear. This study  make this a personal encounter because it asks questions that will challenge you to face your fears and seek God.  This discussion guide forces the reader to recon with the issues at hand concerning fear and what it is that really cause us to fear.  

Fearless by Max Lucado is an easy-to-read book that keeps you reading. It seems as though God had this release perfectly time to arm the body of Christ that fear does not consume, control, or overwhelm us.  This book, Fearless was written and released at a perfect time, when fear seems to be at an all time high.

I was reading this article about  "Creative Leadership in the Global Knowledge Economy" and came upon the following eight key tenets for creative leadership as set forth by Dr Kalam, former President of India in his presentation recently:

1.The leader must have a vision for the organization

2.The leader must have the passion to transform that vision into action

3.The leader must be able to travel into an unexplored path

4.The leader must know how to manage both success and failure

5.The leader must have the courage to make decisions

6.The leader should have nobility(a quality of being excellent ) in management

7.Every action of the leader should be transparent

8.The leader must work with integrity and succeed with integrity Leaders drive change and lead people in the pursuit of a vision.

This means leaders are often faced with the challenge of venturing into the unknown and the unfamiliar. On any journey into unfamiliar places requires that the leader adjust and respond to unexpected situations. The ability of the leader to navigate in these times requires the traits of a creative leader.

A Different Angle                              

Angle (definition)

 A) to turn sharply in a different direction  B) To use every available means to reach one's goal

You can learn many things from those who agree with you. You can often learn even more from those with whom you disagree. (How many times have we heard that one?)

Your own perspective is important, for it enables you to make sense of this world. Always keep these two things in mind: First, it is indeed your perspective. Secondly, your perspective  is not the only perspective.

  You can listen to others, learn from them, and successfully work with them even though you may not agree with them on all issues. If everyone held the exact same opinion on every subject, then knowledge and wisdom would become stagnant and outdated.

  Your own perspective will grow stronger and more useful when you regularly allow it to be challenged. When people respectfully agree to disagree, everyone benefits from the diversity of opinion.

Living a life of success and fulfillment does not depend on always proving that you're right and that others are wrong. To make real progress you must let go of the assumption that you already have all the answers and  always seek new angles (a different point of view)

Stay true to the values you treasure, while thoughtfully considering the different perspectives of others. Look at life from a different angle, and you'll always find new horizons, unimaginable possibility, and untapped riches.

Ronald Benjamin

Welcome to Podbean.com. You can edit this post by clicking "Manage" Tab then "Posts" sub-Tab after you log into your Podbean Dashboard. Podbean.com provides an all-in-one service for video and audio podcast/blog. You can customize your podcast/blog site on mouse clicking, see where your audiences come from on a geographic map powered by Google, moderate your comments with a built-in anti-Spam filter, easy to customize your iTunes podcast page in the iTunes preview page. Learn more at http://news.podbean.com. Have question ? Check out Podbean.com FAQ. Happy Podcasting!