Just Continue That Thought...

A thought by John C. Maxwell from his book, Beyond Talent (p. 5). HarperCollins Leadership. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Are you a person who has that temptation?   Are you? John says, “Fred Smith, author and former president of Fred Smith Associates, shared a bit of wisdom with me many years ago. He said, ‘The giftedness is usually greater than the person.’ By that he meant that the talent of some people is greater than other important personal attributes, such as character and commitment. As a result, they often fail to rise to the level of their talent. Talented people are always tempted to coast on their abilities. Or they want others to recognize their skills but overlook their deficiencies. “Haven’t you known people who should have risen to the top but didn’t? They had all the talent they should ever need, but they still didn’t succeed. Philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson must have known people like that, too, becaus

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 55). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Is competition outdated, is it wrong?   Good question Erwin says, “Our schools are not only eliminating the designation of winners and losers, but they have actually gone as far as to eliminate scoring altogether so no one knows who is ahead and who is behind. “We are far more comfortable with the language of cooperation and collaboration than we are with the language of competition. Our negative view of competition is often put on hold when we watch such events as the Olympics, the World Cup, the Super Bowl, and the NBA Finals. But as a whole, we have adopted a framework that suggests that competition is archaic and antiquated and must be eliminated from the human story. Yet without competition, we lack the necessary context to push ourselves beyond our own capacities. ” In a c

A thought by Erwin Raphael McManus from his book, The Way of the Warrior (p. 49). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.) Here is one of many makers to help you know if you are spending your strength in the right place, Erwin says, “An external marker can be the impact that your actions have on others. You may get sick every time you are invited to be a public speaker, but the influence you have on the audience is undeniable. Oftentimes I have seen highly talented people who are terrified by the callings that are on their lives, and the only thing that keeps them swinging the ax is a sense of responsibility for the good that is being accomplished in the lives of others. This for me is one of the most altruistic and noble reasons to be motivated to create wealth. For some, their responsibility is not simply to have a job but to create jobs. It’s not enough to simply gain wealth; they must create wealth so that