Happy Friday, Friends!
I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day as a glorious new day begins to dawn in my Sweet Home Alabama! This day is going to be a great one! 😊
This week’s Happy Friday is, hopefully, going to be thought-provoking. It is my sincere hope, based on these thoughts, you and I are inspired to live the lives we envision.
I am reading a simply amazing leadership book titled, Leadership Not By the Book: 12 Unconventional Principles To Drive Incredible Results by David Green with Bill High. Mr. Green is the Founder and CEO of Hobby Lobby and this book is simply amazing! I would strongly encourage you to get and read it!
I want to start off by sharing a couple of excerpts from the book that challenge and inspire me.
“humble stewards, who are keen to learn from the previous leader, and who are more concerned about the organization they’ll leave behind than how it looks while they’re there.”
“Hobby Lobby doesn’t exist merely to sell arts and
crafts. Selling merchandise is essentially a means to an end. I’ve always had
several purposes in mind for our company, including to provide for my family;
to offer a decent living to my employees; to bless the community where we live
and work; to introduce men, women, and children to the salvation found only in
Jesus; to advance God’s kingdom worldwide; and to glorify the Lord. I want
Hobby Lobby to endure long past my lifetime so that the company can
continue to pursue all these things.
But allow me to ask, Why do you want your business or organization to endure?”
“Do you want to leave your children and descendants
an inheritance or a heritage? There’s a big difference between the two.
An inheritance refers to material resources you bequeath to your children and heirs upon your death. A heritage refers more to the spiritual riches and deep-seated treasures of character that wise parents leave to their children.”
Pretty powerful stuff, isn’t it? Why? Why do we want our business/work to endure? What are we trying to accomplish? What will it look like if we are successful? Not through the lens of profits and margins but through the lens of the lives we touch every day. Will they be better because of the season of life we shared with them? Is it something that we want to endure for generations?
Here is another way I want to ask the question; because of you [fill in the blank]. Let me say it another way; when you are gone, what will have happened because of the life you lived? Will we live a rich heritage of “spiritual riches and deep-seated treasures of character”, or will we leave behind lost, broken souls in need of healing? Will we have lived high character traits that we modeled through all seasons of life or will we leave others wondering what an honorable man or woman looks like. Will this world be a better place because you and I lived in it or will the purpose for which you and I were created, individually, go unfulfilled? Because of you, what happened?
Friends, I want to respectfully ask each of us to thoughtfully consider these questions, answer them, and then order our lives accordingly. My spirit soars as I think of what I want to leave in the lives of my family and every precious soul I have the privilege of having in my life. I am not near the man I want to be however I am committed to being him. It is a journey, a process, that each of us can choose to take. Our lives matter! Our purposes matter! The legacies that we live matter! Let’s be highly intentional with them!
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.
Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well!
Kev
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