to Quack or to Soar?

Baylor Business Review, Spring 2007 by Blanchard, Ken

The third and fourth go together. The third is patience. You want results quicker than you deserve them, and God is on a different timetable. But you have to keep moving, so the fourth is persistence. You're still doing what you need to do, but you don't try to short-cut the deal. You've got to keep moving but you've got to be patient.

The fifth is perspective. We get this from prayer, solitude, the study of Scripture, a small accountability group. You take a helicopter to the ceiling and get a distance from what you're about to do. A lot of us don't take that time, and don't have people in our lives that give us feedback.

One of the problems we have in this country is that a lot of people are pushing for success, and success is defined by how much money you make, how much recognition you get, and how much power and status you have in your job. There is nothing wrong with making money, and nothing wrong with power and status unless that's who you think you are. People like that miss significance.

Do you know the game Monopoly? I have a friend who used to play it with his grandmother when she came to visit. She was a tough competitor. They'd play for hours, and at the end she would always own everything.

When he was about 12, a kid moved in next door, and his new neighbor loved Monopoly. They played every day. The next time the boy's grandmother came to visit, he asked, "How about a game of Monopoly?" Her eyes lit up. They played their game, and this time, the boy had everything at the end. He said it was the greatest day of his life!

"That's great," his grandmother said, "but let me teach you a lesson about life: it all goes back in the box." The only thing you get to save in the end is your soul.

I have been married 45 years to Margie, who once told someone who asked her to define leadership, that "leadership is love, it's not 'about' love. It's loving your mission, loving your customers, loving your people, and loving yourself enough to get out of the way so that other people can be magnificent."

Go out and spread love.