Risk-Taking

How Big Is Your God? Part I

2019-12-17T09:03:08-06:00December 16th, 2019|Tags: , , |

Recently, I heard several amazing stories of God’s greatness that might bless you as well. At an event I attended, Francis Chan shared a couple of incredible stories that had happened to him in the previous 24 hours. While flying to Kansas City, Francis met a pastor who amazingly has a congregation of 25,000 members in Pakistan! This pastor felt ...

High Hanging Fruit

2019-09-18T16:10:03-05:00September 19th, 2019|Tags: , , |

A common business strategy is to focus the team toward tackling the “low hanging fruit,” pursuing quick wins instead of the larger, more difficult challenges. An article by The Balanced Career warns, “True rewards often come from climbing higher and stretching for the real treasure in the higher branches.” The high hanging fruit represents the more difficult challenges. These challenges will ...

Columbus’ Calculated Risks

2018-10-01T16:19:21-05:00October 8th, 2018|Tags: , , |

At times, I’ve risked my livelihood to start a new organization, but I've never risked my life like Christopher Columbus did when he went exploring. Even if Columbus’ premise of reaching the East Indies by sailing west had been correct, it was uncertain whether they would have adequate supplies, time, or weather. They took a big risk! In 2 Corinthians ...

Leaders Who Embrace Change Part IV

2018-06-29T16:25:56-05:00July 12th, 2018|Tags: , , |

Edith Onderick-Harvey wrote in Harvard Business Review about five behaviors of leaders who embrace change. Since change is constant, we’re discussing these five behaviors this week. The fourth behavior is to promote calculated risk taking and experimentation. When confronted with risky opportunities, many organizations tend to ask, “Why?” Companies that handle change well tend to ask, “Why not?” Without the ...

A Strong Weakness

2018-06-29T14:49:13-05:00July 3rd, 2018|Tags: , , |

Neal Jeffrey is a stutterer, but also a tremendous athlete. He became a quarterback for the San Diego Chargers. Because of his football success Neal receives many requests to speak publicly. Initially, Neal tried to cover-up his handicap. Then one day his wife said, “Why don’t you quit torturing yourself and proclaim that you stutter, then make some jokes about ...

The Dead Man

2017-10-04T10:12:36-05:00October 12th, 2017|Tags: , , |

When my friend, Steve, was a police officer, he once received a dispatch call to head for the morgue. When he arrived, there was a scared violent man inside the morgue. Steve fought with the man until he subdued and calmed him. Steve learned that this man had been pronounced dead at the scene of an accident! When this dead ...

Routines and Patterns

2017-08-01T12:40:03-05:00August 14th, 2017|Tags: , , |

While touring a manufacturing plant, Kevin, the plant CFO, shared with us his views on time clocks. He concluded that “time clocks can make for lazy managers.” Instead, Kevin’s company chose to change the procedure to one where people matter more than the process. Their managers strive to know their people’s timeliness and challenges well enough that time clocks aren’t ...

Elijah the Courageous Part III

2017-08-01T12:20:33-05:00August 9th, 2017|Tags: , , |

Like many courageous leaders, the prophet, Elijah was a pioneer. Until Elijah, many had seen God perform amazing miracles, but no one had seen the dead revived. Elijah had been staying with a gracious widow and her son, when the son unexpectedly died. Few would have ever considered that someone could bring him back to life. But not Elijah! He ...

Elijah the Courageous Part II

2017-08-01T12:12:26-05:00August 8th, 2017|Tags: , , |

The prophet Elijah’s faith was fortified when God provided for him during a long drought. Ravens brought food to Elijah daily, to a brook that seemed to have endless water. Then one day, the water ran out! In 1 Kings 17:9 Elijah was told, “Go at once to Zarephath in the region of Sidon and stay there. I have directed a ...

Fear of Success

2017-06-01T14:29:46-05:00June 21st, 2017|Tags: , , |

Someone I’ll call, Jim, and I were scheduled to study together our last night in college. Jim’s previous poor grades resulted in the dean requiring him to have a 3.0 grade point to be re-enrolled. Amazingly, Jim had a 4.0 going into his last final. That’s why it was shocking when I saw Jim, with his arms full of his ...

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