Leadership is Challenging

Leadership is challenging. It is so much more than position. Most people say they want to lead but I find that basically too many want to just make decisions and really leave the leading to someone else. Leadership is demanding and costly. It can be downright painful. If you are not disappointing people and personally hurting then I would say that you are not leading.Here is a great thought by my friend Tim Elmore, who is a best-selling author and international speaker who uses his expertise on Generations Y and Z to equip educators, coaches, leaders, parents, and other adults to impart practical life and leadership skills to young adults that will help them navigate through life. His website is www.growingleaders.comNapoleon Hill wrote a classic book years ago, called “Think and Grow Rich.” Others have come along and re-written his thoughts that are based on timeless principles and universal truths about success.Hill suggests in his book there is a “rich” way to think and a “poor” way to think. And it’s not just about money. It’s an entire worldview that informs how we live our lives. Claude Bristol wrote, “Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.Brian Tracy wrote a book called, “Get Smart!” in which he updates this truth. Here is what he says in the chapter called, “Rich Thinking vs. Poor Thinking:”Rich people are always looking for ways to create value, to develop and produce products and services that enrich and enhance the lives and work of other people. They are always willing to put in before they take out. They do not believe in easy money or something for nothing. Rich people believe that you must justly earn and pay for, in terms of toil and treasure, any rewards and riches that you desire. Poor people lack this fundamental understanding, the direct relationship between what you put in and what you get out. They are always seeking to get something for nothing or for as little as possible. They want success without achievement, riches without labor, money without effort, and fame without talent. Poor people gamble, buy lottery tickets, come to work at the last possible moment, waste time while they are there, and then leave work at the first possible minute. They line up by the hundreds and thousands to audition for programs like American Idol, thinking that they can become rich and famous without ever having paid the price necessary to develop the level of talent and ability that enables them to rise above their competitors.One of the great secrets of becoming wealthy is to always do more than you are paid for. If you do, you will always be paid more than you’re getting today. And there is no other way.Go the extra mile. Be willing to put in far more than you are taking out. There are never any traffic jams on the extra mile.