Which body of water are you?

Happy February 2015 to all readers!

A mentor told me years ago, “you can’t out give the giver.”  I’m a firm believer in the scripture that says “give it shall be given unto you”. Now, most of think of financial giving, but it can also be giving of your time, your knowledge, your information or your wisdom (whatever that wisdom may be). The more you give, the more that comes back in return. In a certain scripture, it says “some will come back one hundred fold, and some one hundred times over” -- that’s what this business is all about.

To illustrate this, I use an analogy of the region in the middle East that contains the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee, specifically the analogies of water. The Dead Sea is a very large body of water, its very salty (similar to the great salt lake in Utah). It is so salty, that very little to no life can grow.  It’s size is shrinking so much that it’s said if you want to see it, you had better do so in the next few years because it is shrinking and getting smaller and smaller each and every year. It won’t be long before the Dead Sea will evaporate and be gone altogether.

When you contrast that to the Sea of Galilee, it is almost the exact opposite. It is thriving, flourishing with life (botanical life and marine life). It has beautiful beaches and a gorgeous body of water. The thing about it is this, and people may not realize -- the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea are actually fed from the same source…the River Jordan!

So you have to ask yourself a question.  If two bodies of water are being fed from the same source why is it that one is flourishing and the other is dying?  Here’s the difference: The Dead Sea does not give one ounce of water that it is fed into it from the River Jordan yet the Sea of Galilee gives out one hundred percent of its water.  Literally, every single ounce that comes from the top goes out to the bottom.  It is a constant “wellspring” of life that is circulating throughout the Sea of Galilee.

Contrast that to the business world.  A company can have two Distributors/Employees/Sales people/etc, both of which have the same start date, same potential prospect base, same resources, the same product and yet one is successful and the other is not.  Why is it that one body is flourishing (creating life in the form of new Customers) and the other one isn’t.   In other words, think of an organizational structure as a body of water.  If that body of water is like the Dead Sea and doesn’t flow the life source out to the body of water below it, then it dies.   On the contrary is the organization that takes every drop that is fed into it and feeds it out to another.  This means taking the training, the information, the events, the seminars, the coaching, the calls, literally everything coming from above and teaching it into the organization.  100% taken down. 

That’s the challenge I have for you - take a look at your organization.  How much of the information coming from above is being spilled out down below?

If you want to create the duplication adopt this mantra, what counts is not “not what’s right or wrong but its what’s EXACT.”

This is something a mentor of mine years ago taught me. It’s not your way, it’s not my way, its the system’s way. So often we join an organization we want to create success.  The challenge for most people is that they don’t take down 100% of the information coming from the top of the company.  In other words, they’re not the Sea of Galilee -- they’re not taking down one hundred percent of what's being trained down onto them. They may take down a portion of it, but what we don’t realize is this: anything that’s less than 100% of what’s being taken down throughout your organization is guaranteed to ultimately lead to failure …even 99 percent creates what’s called “negative duplication”.

Your followers will do what they see you do, not what they hear you say!

With that being said, I’ve got to warn you: Be very careful who you follow.  Pick a champion.  Pick a winner.  A person with integrity.  Be aware who you take your coaching from.  Find a leader who is where you want to be and take 100% of their coaching! 

Helen Keller said, “the only thing worst than being blind , is having vision with no vision.”

My wish, my challenge and my prayer for you is that you continue working toward your dream of success in your life... Every. Single. Day.

Hear you then and in the meantime, may you create many “Sea of Galilee’s in your own organization!

Steven

A celebration of the leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr

Today is the day we celebrate the life of one of my hero’s, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr as we do on every 3^rd Monday in January.  As I write this to you today, I’m sitting outside at my home in Dallas on a beautiful January morning. The sun is shining among the crisp cool air.  Normally my time to read, write and reflect would be done inside my home office but like it is for so many others the house is a hustle and bustle of children running and playing.  You see in the U.S. this holiday means no school!  Here in America, today has been a day of honoring the life and work of Dr. King and what a life and work it was.   Ever since I was a child I’ve known the importance that MLK had on this nation and on the lives of millions of others.  Those of you who know me or who have followed the prosperity diet blog know that one of the things I am most passionate about is leadership and studying the lives of the history’s great leaders.  What you may not be aware is that Dr. King is one of those men, a great hero in terms of leadership.   He is one of my hero’s.  Martin Luther King, Jr remains one of the greatest, if not the greatest leader ever born in the history of this great nation.  That’s right!   For the last ten years, I have followed his life and studied everything I can find as it relates to his leadership philosophy, style and lessons, hoping I could grow to be a better leader as a result.  The lessons that I’ve learned are countless, the example he set is enormous…for any leader of any kind.   This week for the prosperity diet and in honor of Dr. King, I will share just one small lesson I learned from his leadership that has been a cornerstone in our success.

Never ask others to do something you’re not willing to do!

Dr King accomplished many great things and he understood that anyone who desires greatness can never ask others to do something they aren’t willing to do themselves.  What most people don’t think of though is that Dr. King’s natural tendencies were not always to take action and put himself in the fight.  For example, in late 1960 his hometown of Atlanta was beginning to feel the impact of the spreading civil rights movement.  People were inspired by what was going on around the south and were beginning to hold sit-ins and other peaceful protests around Atlanta.  Students at local colleges planned a major initiative in October 1960 aimed at all the downtown Atlanta department stores and central to this plan was to get Dr. King to join them.  Get this…they called Dr. king at his home in Montgomery the day before the protests and asked him to come to Atlanta and join them at the sit-ins and go to jail with them!  Can you imagine getting that phone call the day before?!   You’re asked to drop what you’re doing, leave your family and most likely end up in jail the next day for an unknown period of time.  Well, guess what? The next morning right on schedule Dr. King joined them and was arrested at Rich’s department store with 35 others.  When offered his release, Dr. King refused to pay the $500 bond and resolved to “stay in jail for ten years if necessary.” 

What most people don’t realize is that after receiving the phone call, Dr. King told his Wife Coretta he didn’t really want to accept the invitation of the students.  First, he was in the process of making other plans that would have to be cancelled if he went to jail for any length of time and second, Dr. King didn’t like being locked up in jail.  His wife Coretta said, “Jail wasn’t easy for him.  He never liked to be alone.”  However, overriding his natural resistance to being alone was something even more important.  He knew that he couldn’t ask others to do something he wasn’t willing to do himself. 

This one innate, natural desire won out over any internal conflicts he may have had.  In other words, he would rather try something-even if that meant landing in a jail cell-than to do nothing.   This reminds me of what Nkrumah, the first prime minister of a free Ghana said, “I prefer self-government with danger to servitude with tranquility.”  WOW.  That’s powerful.  You see, leadership is scary, it’s dangerous.  Nothing great is achieved without facing that fear and without sacrifice.  The greater the sacrifice the greater the reward. 

My question to you as a leader today is, are you taking action in spite of your fears and inconveniences?   If we’re honest, this isn’t easy.  Dr King said, “we will take direct action against injustice without waiting for other agencies to act.”  He believed in the philosophy of his mentor Gandhi who said, “action is my domain.”

Is living in action your domain?

If you have a dream, a burning desire, a passion to achieve, start by taking massive action and no matter what, NEVER ask others to do something you’re not willing to do yourself! 

To your success,

Steven