The Message of LeadershipSample

THE STREET WHERE YOU LIVE

"It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities."
-J.K. Rowling

You have a choice as to the street where you live. You choose not only your home but those who will live next door. Your choices affect your relationship with God and the outcome of everything you do.

In the coffee shop of the Atlanta airport, Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World Ken Norton sent an autograph seeker away with a terse remark—“Get out of here, can’t you see I am eating!” The dejected sailor turned and walked away from his hero and straight toward me. I felt compassion for the navy seaman dressed in his white uniform, so I tried to encourage him. As we talked over a cup of coffee, he opened up and our conversation went quickly to a much deeper level than either of us had expected. Soon we were talking about eternity, and he was giving his life to Jesus as his personal Savior.

That seaman had started out seeking his hero’s autograph and meeting disappointment; he ended up talking to someone just as ordinary as he was but meeting his Maker.

I was unimpressed with the boxer that day and pleasantly surprised by the sailor. In the eyes of many, the boxer had made all the right moves, but I saw something else. I was looking at a man whose choices had given him a black eye—at least in the mind of two people I knew. He had gone for fortune, fame, and money and lost his compassion for others.

Choices—we all make them every day. But in the end, they make us.

Essential Insight 8: Choose to cultivate your inner person, and don’t sacrifice your character on the road to success.