Can you tell me how you unravel the secrets behind the transformational magic of highly effective leaders?

When I hear questions like these being asked about leadership, then I know there is still a bunch more work needed to be done:

1) Who should leaders lead?

2) What precisely are leaders actually supposed to be doing?

3) How should a group leader appear to be taking the lead?

Maybe you will use this article in learning how discerning leaders evaluate, define and perform their most imperative job - that is, to boost the competences of their group’s human capital.

It is my earnest wish you will appreciate this single essential truth: excelling at leadership means investing in and increasing the value of your “human capital equation”.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Human Capital Asset Enrichment Strategy:

Focus the Awesome Impacts of Our Capital Assets!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When you are focusing your attention on, sharpening your oversight of and magnifying the impacts for each of the four workplace-expanding areas of: Production, Knowledge, Social Capital and Utilization, you will certainly enjoy an inexhaustible treasure trove of positive outcomes.

However what other target areas might deliver even larger, more sustainable pay-offs if you concentrate your efforts on developing them?

Here are some ways your leadership efforts can help others produce mutually-beneficial results:

Value - you will increase the impact of this desirable benefit simply by constantly questioning the meaning of your group’s work engagements - are we doing this task to add value or because we have always done it or because we are supposed to do it this way?

Quality - improving the quality of the processes that your group uses to accomplish its work must be a continual process unto itself - how much and in what ways do we leverage the 4 areas to enhance our efficiency, improve our resourcefulness and increase our effectiveness?

Motives - what inspires you is many times just as important as what your motivation inspires you to achieve - does your group invest any of their time and energies into exploring the values, beliefs, meanings, purposes and objectives propelling their daily efforts?

Capacity - building upon the competencies, performances, know-how and knowledge, facts and figures and growth opportunities are critical in these days of disruptive, brutally dynamic, break-neck pace of change - how do you develop the capacity or potential for innovating each of those critical 4 areas?

————————————————————

Whether you are called a leader or think of yourself as just a follower you can enrich the human capital assets of the people within your operating circle.

If you work at creating or organizing knowledge, performing customer or supplier services or supervising the activities of people, you too can apply the lessons you have learned in this article.

Now that you understand the strategies of human capital appreciation, I would suggest you follow these guidelines:

First, test them out in your own activities;

Next, try these principles on your friends, families and associates at work;

Finally, master these techniques and make our world a precious treasure by enriching the space around you and your colleagues, today.

Jesus Christ wisely pointed out the easiest way to guage a person’s performance - he said: “You shall know them by their fruits!”

I implore you to apply this enrichment strategy and transform your knowledge into tangible actions which express your vision and become a glorious reality in your own career.

You don’t need a badge to act like a leader. Follow the sage advice of that famous advertisement which urges us to: “Just Do It!”

Copyright © 2007, Mustard Seed Investments Inc., All rights reserved.

Bill Thomas publishes “The Leadership Toolkit” - an in-depth, result-oriented training program designed to improve your leadership skills, energize creativity and transform you into a persuasive, empowering, effective leader. Inspire Confidence, Be Innovative, Strengthen Your Influence
Get “All the Tools You Need To Lead!”

Leadership-Toolkit.Com

On ground means a person is coming across to me as telling their own truth. When someone is on ground, I get it. There is little point in arguing with them. I can respond to them and state my truth. I can state a different opinion. I can state a different way to look at it. But forget arguing with their truth. It comes across so clearly that I feel the strength of their convictions. Off ground means that something is amiss. They seem to be saying something that is off base for them. Let’s look at a parent, a politician, and a leader.

Consider a parent: What difference does all this make? As a step-mother, my 16-year-old step-son will more easily drop his strategically, logical argument when I am grounded. Since I was clear out loud, that conversation went relatively quickly. I stated my truth. I showed empathy for what he wanted. I acknowledged his concern. I expressed understanding that he thought he was making a reasonable request. I let him know that he may see it from a different perspective than I did and thus he may not understand my answer. Shortly after that the conversation ended. Right or wrong, I was grounded in my answer.

Look at a politician: How many times do we look at politicians and think they are lacking credibility? It really happens when they are off ground. We often interpret off ground as slimy. There is something slightly off from what that person’s truth is. Sometimes it can be seen in a person’s movements. Those movements can be distracting. The movements may even evoke questions in the mind of the listener. The off groundedness reverberates through the message. Perhaps they are saying what they think we want to hear to get elected. Perhaps they are parroting someone else’s words. Whatever it is, it comes across as something other than the truth. Then where do our minds go? Does the politician want to manipulate us? What will happen when that person is in office? Can that person be trusted? Off ground can be as powerfully negative as on ground can be positive.

Reflect on a leader: Strong leaders have strong ground. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a strong leader. People may have challenged his beliefs, but not that he believed them. He stated poignantly what he believed. People followed. I believe people followed him because he was on ground. They could count on what he believed. He was consistent. He spoke his truth. Therefore, they could count on what he would say. They were willing to follow him, because they felt they could trust him.

And you? Are you on ground? Do you know your truth? Do you know how to find your truth? If you know and speak your truth, you will greatly increase the odds of people following you. You will be on ground. If you are, you have one important and critical aspect of a true leader.

Caron MacLane is a step parent who believes in speaking her truth. She fosters being on ground and other leadership characteristics through life coaching, training, and ski teaching. Contact Caron through her web site at http://www.CoachCaron.com

It is often said that two brains are better than one and of course that makes sense. It is also often considered that two plus two does not equal four in small groups that are put together for the purpose of innovation. It appears that there is a synergy which occurs that allows the four people to get out quite a bit more than the sum of their knowledge, observations and experiences.

Why is this? Well, consider if you will adding energy to an already existing energy of a different form. Often you get more than the two put together. Consider also sending a wave along with another wave which causes a spike in amplitude and the spikes are often larger than the two waves put together.

But this doesn’t only happen with energy and waves or in groups of humans getting together for the purpose of innovation. We also see rogue waves in the ocean where one wave runs into another wave and causes a rogue Peak Wave that is often powerful enough to capsize a ship. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but that doesn’t mean we cannot find additional efficiencies by combining different kinds of energy.

Next time you think about it, you might wish to consider this truth and why this synergy works so well in innovation endeavors. There are natural laws and things in this realm that just are and this energy force multiplier is one of them; study it, look for it and use it to your advantage. There is a perfectly good example and reason for it and it is time that you stop fighting it, start applying it and begin to understand it.

L. Winslow is a Economic Advisor to the Online Think Tank, a Futurist and retired entrepreneur. Currently he is planning a bicycle ride across the US to raise money for charity and is sponsored by http://www.Calling-Plans.com and all the proceeds will go to various charities who sign up.

Ever heard of a Cult Manager? No - but you have heard of a cult leader, right? Were Patton, Montgomery and Churchill managers or leaders? I have been a leader in various area in my life, including religious, military, business, community, service clubs and sales. I encountered very few real leaders, but I would like to tell you about two of them to illustrate a point. I encountered both of them while I was a manager in the hotel industry.

Arthur Honey was an ex pro boxer and businessman extraordinaire. He owned the hotel that I managed. One morning I was eating breakfast with my family when I saw Mr. Honey (one would never call him “Arthur”) go by carrying a table. Next thing he was carrying chairs. I got up and asked him if I could help him. He relied quit calmly, “Actually, Robin, you forgot to tell the conference staff to set up for the Rotary meeting in thirty minutes so I stepped in to help. Finish your breakfast.” He could have scolded me, but instead he calmly embarrassed me. I never missed another event. Great leadership.

The other true leader was a Swiss Executive Director in a huge casino where I was a Food and Beverage Manager. When I first started on the job, he asked me to organize a big event. When I had done the work, I reported back to him. He said, “Mr. Elliott, I gave you a command and I expect it to be done. I take it for granted that it is done. You don’t need to tell me it’s done, thank you.” What an excellent way of establishing expectations and responsibility. Excellent leadership. When I had a problem with difficult servers who were on a go slow strike, he said, “Shame them into work” and proceeded to clear tables himself. Soon the embarrassed waiters were back at work.

Leaders are passionate, effective and dedicated. They don’t make excuses and they don’t accept excuses. They set a high standard and example. They do a LOT of training. They take the lead, initiate, innovate and make it happen. They don’t tolerate losers or laziness and they genuinely care about the people they lead. They take the time to get to know their people and demand loyalty and commitment. They earn the respect of their followers: I worked for nine months straight for Arthur Honey, during which time I only took one day off - the day my son was born. And I learnt so much from him.

Management Tip

Turn work into a game and a competition. I once had a problem with two employees who had to unload a beer truck every Tuesday - they were slow and lazy. I said, “I’ll bet I can unload more crates than you can in four minutes. I placed my watch on a crate and got to work. Within a short while, the weekly “Unloading the Beer Truck Competition” attracted chefs, bar tenders, manger and gardeners. No more problems and lots of fun.

Motivational Quote

“Blessed is the leader who seeks the best for those he serves.”

About Robin J. Elliott

For more than 19 years, Robin J. Elliott has worked with thousands of businesses in over 49 industries across the United States, Canada, and Africa. He specializes in helping small business entrepreneurs build wealth and gain access to new markets and profit centers through Joint Ventures. Through his Joint venture Seminars across North America he has thought thousands how to create increasing, multiple streams of income without cost or risk and very little time.

Get Robin J. Elliott’s FREE: “How To Grow Serious Wealth Using Joint Ventures” Mini-Course, and The Prophet of Profit e-Zine along with video blogs, world class articles, free video, and access to top Joint Venture Partners at http://www.jvwisdom.com

Why Are Values Important?

Values drive individual behavior. Your values are like a compass. This compass does not point north, south, east or west. It points to what is right. Every decision you make is guided by this compass. It is imperative that you clearly understand, and can articulate, your values - this articulation is similar to a properly calibrated compass. When you understand your values, you will have the confidence to challenge the status quo based on what you believe. You will be able to make decisions confidently and consistently, and you will be able to explain the reasoning behind your decisions.

People who do not have clearly articulated values, or who have no values at all, are like ships without sails being tossed about on stormy seas, drifting wherever life takes them. These people are not consistent in their decision-making, as they have nothing on which to base their decisions. They just go wherever the wind blows. This can have a disastrous effect on them personally, and on the people around them.

I was involved as a project manager on a large offshore oil and gas drilling and production facility. This facility was being constructed in Ulsan, Korea in Hyundai Heavy Industry’s construction facility. This vessel is about three football fields long and about ten stories high. An un-powered vessel, it does not have a rudder.

Korea is susceptible to seasonal typhoons. These are very similar to the hurricanes that are common in North America. During construction of the offshore vessel, Ulsan was hit by a powerful typhoon. The typhoon blew the vessel, its moorings and part of the quayside out to sea. Then the typhoon then blew it back toward shore, where it collided with, and crushed, a berthed freighter. Fortunately for our project, the vessel was only slightly damaged, although the freighter was a write-off.

Unfortunately, this is what happens to individuals who do not have clearly defined values. Without values to securely anchor them and without engines and a rudder to keep them powered and on track, when a storm hits they end up causing a lot of damage to themselves and to sadly to those around them.

Spend some time reflecting on your most important values and record these. Share them with your family and friends. Have them work through the same process and then discuss the values differences. Can you see where and why values based conflicts could arise? Now that your values differences have been identified what can be done to avoid potential conflicts.

To read more about values see What Are Values and Why Are They Important? - Part 3 and take the online values assessment at http://www.strengthzone.ca

A graduate from the University of Alberta in 1989 with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, David M. Taylor is a professional engineer with seventeen years of electrical engineering and project management experience. Over the past ten years, he has held project management and leadership roles, working with management and staff to improve overall performance in the development and implementation of business and project execution standards in North America, Europe and Asia.

David is the author of Strength Zone: Discover Your Place of Maximum Effectiveness and the CEO of Strength Zone Inc.

Definition of Values

Let’s start with the Random House Webster’s Dictionary definition of values:

“The abstract concept of what is right or worthwhile. To consider with respect to worth or importance.”

This definition, although articulate, seems rather nebulous. Now consider how Arthur Burk defines values:

“A value is an abstract concept that is embraced at the expense of personal comfort.”

This definition suggests that to live in harmony with their values, people are willing to sacrifice their personal comfort. If this is true, these people may even be willing to do things that others do not agree with, so they can stay aligned with their values. But does this definition also suggest that differing values between people, organizations and ethnic groups may actually cause conflict? Is this some great new discovery?

Of course not. As members of the human race, we have recognized for thousands of years that differing values can and do cause conflict. However, if we respect each other properly, differing values don’t have to cause conflict. I would like to propose the following definition of values:

“A value is an abstract concept that a person is willing to embrace at the expense of personal comfort.”

Most people will sacrifice their personal comfort for their most important values and it happens often but if we, as a society, are more aware and respectful of others and their values we can reduce the rate and severity of values-based conflict. So why don’t we spend more time trying to understand each other’s values? Why don’t we try to ensure that our values are aligned with our organization’s values? And if alignment is not possible, why don’t we at least try to understand why people react the way they do? Why don’t we build a plan to deal with these differences?

These are interesting questions that each of us really need to give some deep thought. If we could spend some time listening to those around us and understanding their values and building a relationship with them that is based on mutual respect of the differing value systems there would be a lot less conflict in our world.

September 11th, 2001 I was sitting in a bid review meeting in Houston, Texas (about 3500 miles from my home in Calgary, Alberta) when the news of the World Trade center was delivered like a ton of bricks to me via a cell phone call from my wife. This event stirred up many emotions from every person all around the world. The people in the meeting reacted with shock and disbelief and most were driven by their basic, most important values which were security of self and family. Due to this commitment, many people left what they were doing and returned home to be with their families. Outside our meeting, many people across North America were driven by their faith/religious values and spent time praying for the victims and their families. Others were driven by the values of loyalty and commitment to their country and left their homes and relatives and headed for New York to do what they could to help out. Still others (New York fire and police departments) were driven by their value of courage and stepped into harms way to help others in need at the site of the tragedy itself.

Everyone has differing concepts of what they are willing to embrace at the expense of personal comfort. This difference in values is one of the things that makes us, as people, different from each other. It is also important to note that individuals in society must have different values in order for our society to function properly. Can you imagine what would have happened after the events of 9/11 if everyone in the US would have went home to be with their families and not one person went to the site of the tragedy to provide support and assistance? Or if everyone went to the site and no one went home to be with the children and other family members that needed support and comforting?

Values between individuals can be and should be different. However, it is up to us to ensure that these differences in values are viewed positively as well as used positively. Do not fall into the trap of values based conflict.

To read more about values see What Are Values and Why Are They Important? - Part 2

A graduate from the University of Alberta in 1989 with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, David M. Taylor is a professional engineer with seventeen years of electrical engineering and project management experience. Over the past ten years, he has held project management and leadership roles, working with management and staff to improve overall performance in the development and implementation of business and project execution standards in North America, Europe and Asia.

David is the author of Strength Zone: Discover Your Place of Maximum Effectiveness and the CEO of Strength Zone Inc. (www.strengthzone.ca)

The Inspirational Leader is one who can instill passion and direction to a group. To become such a leader requires an understanding of how YOU as a leader affect the Psychology of a group, and how the group’s reactions affect you and each of the individual members of that group.

A leader’s actions and reactions not only affect the psychology of individuals, but affect the entire culture of the organisation or group. This three part series will deliver new possibilities of how you as a leader can use psychology to cultivate a passionate and effective workforce or team.

Leadership Psychology deals with the psychology a leader must embrace and use to modify their own behavior as well as influence the behavior of a group. This process and application is often referred to as Organizational Behavior or Organizational Culture.

In numerous Group Dynamic Disciplines such as “Directive Communication” and theories like “The ripple effect” by Sigal Barsade, leadership is a product of awareness and command of the reactions and influences of a group on the individual.

So what is Inspirational Leadership? And how does “Leadership Psychology” make the cultivate passionate teams and individuals who love their jobs and work at their peak?

In personal studies of over 218 leaders and the organizational cultures they create through their influence, as well as my own experience in running organizations, I would like to suggest what I believe leadership is not so we have a platform to start from.

Leadership is NOT about changing the mindset of the group, but in the cultivation of an environment that brings out the best and inspires the individuals in that group…

It is NOT the ability to influence others to do something they are not committed to, but rather to nurture a culture that motivates and even excites individuals to do what is required for the benefit of all.

It is NOT carrying others to the end result, but setting the surrounding for developing qualities in them to so they may carry each other.

Each individual has various environments that bring out different facets from their own Identity, and each facet is driven by emotionally charged perceptions within each environment… To lead, one must create a platform through education and awareness where individuals fill each others emotional needs and become more conscious of when and how they might be taking away the emotional gratifications. This is accomplished by knowing Why people may react favorably to a situation in environment A, but get frustrated or disillusioned in environment B.

When a leader changes his/her actions in accordance with their awareness of what those actions really mean (not reactive interpretations), they affect the emotional and psychological perspectives of the group. By taking control of the “standard” reactions to the actions of the group, a leader can in effect change the psychology of the group and through them, change the culture of the organization.

For this dynamic of leadership to happen, for a leader to be able to cultivate an environment where leaders are nurtured within the group, he/she must ascend to the class of an Inspirational Leader. To attain this requires 8 ascents of psychological awareness.

The next part of this article will explain the 8 ascents and why they make the difference in cultivating a leadership enriched environment.

Arthur F Carmazzi is the principal founder of the Directive Communication Psychology and a renowned Speaker and Author in the Asian Region. For more information and articles, visit the Directive Communication website at: www.directivecommunication.com Or Arthur Carmazzi’s personal web at: carmazzi.net

It’s time to question the traditional assumption of leadership’s fundamental purpose. The textbook account focuses on the leader’s role in maximizing employee performance. All the decades of writing about leadership style beginning over 50 years ago focuses on how different styles affect the motivation and productivity of employees. When we question the conventional purpose of leadership and offer a different foundation, we get a very different conception of leadership. Until we recognize the need for a radical shift in perspective, our vision of leadership will remain stuck in the past.

Having an internal focus on employee performance was acceptable for leadership prior to the 1970’s. But since the success of the Japanese commercial invasion, business has increasingly operated in an era of hyper-competition where rapid innovation changes whole markets overnight. In the old days of leadership theory, business was not so competitive. Then, business’s only task was to execute as cost effectively and profitably as possible. Today, there is also the need for businesses to be constantly re-inventing themselves, to be continuously creating new futures. For leaders to be successful now, they must have an external focus.

The new purpose of leaders is to ensure that new futures are created as rapidly as their external markets evolve. All organizations now have two equally important tasks: to deliver today’s results and to create the future. The principle of division of labor suggests that we need two separate functions for these very different tasks. Management needs to be upgraded from a narrowly controlling, mechanistic function to take care of today’s business, leaving leadership to champion changes to enhance competitive advantage.

So, what are the implications of this shift in emphasis? Well, if your sole reason for being is to maximize employee productivity, you need to be in charge of the people whose performance you want to improve. You need a formal position of authority over them. You need the authority to promote, move, develop, train and pay in accordance with merit. People can be motivated by informal leaders but none of the other productivity enhancing decisions can be made without formal authority.

Not so with the new leadership. Promoting new products, services or better processes can be done by anyone, regardless of their formal roles. Even a consumer group criticizing an existing product line could show leadership from the outside to the organization. This new conception of leadership is the only way to make sense of bottom-up leadership. If leadership is merely the successful promotion of new products, then front-line employees can do it. The Sony employee who invented Playstation is a good example. He showed bottom-up leadership to the senior executives at Sony whose initial reaction to the idea of Playstation was to protest that Sony doesn’t do toys.

The role of senior executives is now more multifaceted. They need to both lead and manage. But leadership, as conceived here, has nothing to do with motivating employees to perform better, contrary to the textbook account. So-called transformational leadership became popular because it was felt that employees needed to be really inspired to give of their best. But now, we need to shift everything to do with motivating employees to management, leaving leadership free to promote enhancements to competitive advantage. Why? Because we need a definition of leadership that makes sense of how leadership can be shown bottom-up which has nothing to do with motivating employees to work harder. The sole purpose of leadership, therefore, is to promote new directions. It is management’s job to execute them.

Leaders must have an external focus to be effective; managers can focus internally. Both leadership and management are equally essential organizational functions, but only management is a formal role. Leadership is an informal, occasional act, like creativity, not a role. Senior executives are managers by virtue of their roles, not leaders. If their businesses are operating successfully and don’t need innovation or process improvements to succeed, then these organizations don’t need any leadership. This is a second radical implication of the new vision of leadership, the first one being that leadership has nothing to do with managing people or getting things done through them.

Keep in mind that, if leadership equates to the successful promotion of new products, services or process improvements, and if anyone can do it regardless of position, then employees with no one reporting to them can show leadership. This is a liberating conclusion, but one that has revolutionary implications for our understanding of leadership.

See http://www.leadersdirect.com for more information on this and related topics. Mitch McCrimmon’s latest book, Burn! 7 Leadership Myths in Ashes was published in 2006.

Skin color or content of character? This is a question we all must decide upon when dealing with people.

As leaders will we be persuaded and polarized by skin color? Character, inner values, and one’s life direction are far more important. When evaluating and assessing future employees and co-workers, it is vital that we take an inventory into what really matters and not be sidetracked by race.

Affirmative action says give everyone a fair chance, with which I agree. However by no means should anybody have to be put on hold at the back of the line because their skin color doesn’t meet government quotas or isn’t desirable.

Equally so, no ethnic minority should be disqualified solely on the basis of their skin color. If they are polite, hard working, industrious, and desirous give them a chance. Africans, Hispanics, Haitians, and Asians are all wonderful people.

Don’t be blinded by color. I have traveled to over 50 countries of the world and interacted with all types of people. Most human beings are very kind, courteous, and industrious. Every society has a few lazy folks who have an angst against someone or something. Don’t fall into that minority by excluding and withholding rightful opportunities from those who have been subject to racial prejudices in the past.

It’s a new day! Let’s live and let live. Kindly accept everyone and afford them some self-respect. What you sow, you shall also handsomely reap in return. Be a progressive, fair-minded, and level-headed leader. Let your example reconcile the racial divide, revolutionize stereotypical prejudices, and lead the way into an unprecedented future.

Paul Davis is a worldwide minister, peacemaker, mediator, and life purpose coach (relational & professional).

Paul is the author of several books including Breakthrough for a Broken Heart; Adultery: 101 Reasons Not to Cheat; Are You Ready for True Love; Stop Lusting & Start Living; Waves of God; Supernatural Fire; Poems that Propel the Planet; and God vs. Religion.

Paul’s compassion for people & passion to travel has taken him to over 50 countries of the world where he has had a tremendous impact. Paul has served in many war-torn, impoverished and tsunami stricken regions of the earth. His Dream-Maker Inc. is building dreams, breaking limitations & reviving nations.

Paul’s Breakthrough Seminars inspire, revive, awaken, impregnate with purpose, impart the fire of desire, catapult people into a new level of self-awareness, facilitate destiny discovery and dream fulfillment.

Contact Paul to minister, speak at your event or for life coaching:

RevivingNations@yahoo.com
407-284-1705

http://www.DreamMakerMinistries.com
http://www.CreativeCommunications.TV

Avoid holding on to ideas just because you are used to them
~a recent Fortune in a Fortune Cookie

The world was created by radical “rule breaking” people. You know the type: The ones who broke the rules and then became famous for it. That is why we now have electricity, freedom, telephones, flight, equal opportunity etc. Someone, with a passion for knowledge, people or change decided to step away from the current rules and blaze a trail through the wilderness of common thinking to arrive at the destination of their wildest dreams. They willingly submitted themselves to criticism and ridicule, just so that they could forward their ideas and create something extraordinary.

Take Christopher Columbus for example. I can’t even begin to imagine how he felt as he was preparing for his journey to find a better trade route across the uncharted ocean and trying to convince the kings and queens to support his expedition.

Chris: Hi king, I’d like to take a few small ships out into the ocean and see if we can find you somewhere to get your spices from, other than sailing all the way around Africa, and I want you to fund it. I’d like to leave in the spring? Is that good for you?

King John II of Portugal: You want to what? Sail out into the ocean, with three of my ships, and not be back for a year… or more? You must be daft.

Chris: Yes, but think of the benefits. There will be a shorter route, and you will get a stronghold in the east! All I ask is that when I do this, you make me Great admiral of the ocean, I’ll be the governor of all of the lands that I discover and I get, as payment, one tenth of all revenues generated in these new lands in perpetuity. I think that that’s fair…don’t you?
King John II: You ARE daft.

Of course the king was going to say no; He was rooted in the past and in the impossible. He didn’t have the same vision as Columbus. What Columbus was proposing was something that had never been done before; I think that the real story here was that the king and his advisors were more afraid of risking their money than they were of gaining new territory.

Columbus first presented his plans in 1485, some 7 years before he got the OK and the funding to go. As a matter of fact, he presented his case 4 times: twice to the king of Portugal, and twice to Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain. Each time they would listen to him, but they always said no. He was on his way to king Henry of England when Queen Isabella, probably out of greed, decided to support him. In the wild chance that Columbus was right, she didn’t want the English to get the glory. The rest, as they say, is history. But through it all, Columbus never gave up. For seven years, he never lost his passion or his vision that another way was possible. He was ridiculed, embarrassed, shunned and shut out, but that didn’t sway him, he just clarified his vision and tried another way. And, like any radical idea that has future merit to it, Columbus stayed true to his vision that there was another route until he was given the resources to go.

And throughout history, we’ve had many radical thinkers, both good and bad, whose persistence and persuasion changed the world. There was Noah who took over a hundred years to build his Ark. Can you imagine what the neighbors said? And Socrates who challenged common thinking practices. He was so passionate about it that he was put to death for his passion and ideas. There was Einstein who broke and discovered new rules in physics, and DaVinci who revolutionized engineering and art, and the Wright brothers who broke the rules of gravity with powered flight, and before that the Montgolfier brothers who launched their hot air balloon. Of course there were people like Dr. Martin Luther King who convinced a nation that all people were created equal and what about Mikhail Gorbachev who introduced Perestroika to a communist nation? These were all radical thinkers who dared to believe that there was another route, and they were willing to withstand the ridicule, embarrassment and pain of going against common opinion. They all knew that the enemy of progress is conformity and consistency, and they dared to step out of line and create their own.

Do you dream of making a difference in yours or someone else’s life? Have you taken action on it, or are you afraid of what others would say? Do you rock the boat, or do you sit demurely in the centre with the other 80% of the world, hold on tight and “go with the flow”?

What extraordinary ideas are you holding on to, that if released would create an extraordinary change? I have talked to thousands of people over the years, and I can tell you that everyone has great ideas, but only a very minute few will actually put them into action. These are the world changers. Everyone can be one; But first they must have belief; belief in themselves and belief in their ideas, and then they must have persistence to stay the course while all around them they will be getting criticism.

Do you want to see a better world? Do you have ideas on how to improve our children’s education? Do you have a better way to run a business…or save a life? Please don’t hold on to that idea, share it with the world. We are right now at a place in history where we need radical thinkers who are willing to break some rules to create a better world, to solve terrorism, to improve our environment, find alternate energy sources or to eliminate poverty. It CAN be done; we just need people like you to be willing to share your mind and ideas with the world.

Will you discover a new route? Will you create something extraordinary?
Paul

For 22 years, Paul Kearley has thrived in the personal development and coaching business. As a Master Coach for the past 10 years, Paul’s passion is in developing and creating increased potential with both clients and other trainers.
A columnist for two newspapers in Eastern Canada, and editor for his own weekly ezine, Paul writes articles that address the everyday challenges we all have and face in life and in business, and offers suggestions for success.

If you’d like to connect with Paul or subscribe to “E-Motion” his weekly ezine, simply goto the web site at http://www.mustfactor.com or by calling 506 433 4722.