I'm Still Learning

Michelangelo Buonarroti is arguably one of the most intelligent brains that has ever walked the earth. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and I dare add, a leader. He never for once took his status for granted. His words at age 87, two (2) years before his death, were "Ancora imparo" ("I am still learning").

What was Michelangelo still learning at the more than ripe age of 87, after all his achievements? The wise keeps learning and growing, even to their dying day, because they understands knowledge is always in part. There is always something more to learn and room to grow. What worked yesterday, might not necessarily work today. The cheese is always moving.

"The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool." (William Shakespeare) The fool pars because he supposes himself to have arrived. Unknown to him, the cheese is always moving. One season follows after another like night and day follow each other. Nothing is constant. Everything is in a state of flux.

"Those who keep learning will keep rising in life." (Charlie Munger) Continuous learning and personal growth create a permanent advantage in life and career. Growth requires active flexibility, continuous learning, and letting go of old paradigms that no longer serve the current environment.

Are you still Learning? Are you a Leader or pretending to be one?

The Saint.

In this series:

Here to Win.

Here to Win:

Here to Win: 

The story is told of a farmer, whose farm someone was appreciating as a handiwork of God. The farmer replied, "You should have seen the farm when God had it to himself." I know that might sound somehow to religious folks, but there is much wisdom in the farmer's reply.

You ought to have seen gold or crude oil before they are refined. Opportunities hide in work clothes. That is why a lot of people are poor and impoverished. They are looking for finished products. They have a sense of entitlement as to how things ought to be and get to them.

The 97% forget why they were not given an empty skull. They assume themselves lower animals, only reacting to instincts and supposed "acts of God." They refuse to move out of the "dark ages" into the "age of knowledge and reason." They are still looking for who to blame, while refusing to accept the truth "their cheese has moved."

We are here on an adventure to conquer. We are no incidents of nature or creation. We are here to leave our own definite marks on the sands of time and civilization. We are here to live to the highest and greatest expression of all we were created to be.

This requires occupying our own corner of the wood; taking responsibility for all that is in our charge, control, and influence. It is not moaning and groaning about the things that are outside our charge, control, and influence. That is what dead people do.

We are alive. So, let us show it. Let us live it. Let's leave an enduring legacy along our path.

The Saint.

In this series:

Touched by a Leader.

I'm Still Learning.

Touched by a Leader:

You are a great leader when your people don't need you, yet they want you. 'Tis one of the paradoxes of true power. Another is, “Those who need power, to have people follow them, don't have it. Those who have it don't need to use it.”

Great leaders work themselves out of a job. They grow their people to be self-sufficient and capable leaders, thus leaving an enduring legacy by default. To quote Lao Tzu, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.”

This is one of the secrets to building an enduring organization and culture, that grows from merely being good to being great. It is not how imposing the supposed leader is that matters. It is how the leader can help the people see what the leader sees, feel what they feel, and thus see themselves as a part of the whole.

Think about the cleaner at NASA, who when asked what her role was, answered, "It is to take the man to the moon." She had evolved from being just a mere cleaner to embodying the mission of the whole organization. She had been impacted by a leader and thus became one herself.

The Saint.

In this series:

An Enabler.

Here to Win.

I'm Still Learning.

An Enabler:

A leader is a life giver, not just one who is alive, but one who gives of the life within to others. A great leader once said, "I did not come to be served, but to serve." He said, "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive."

This is the hallmark of living things, that they affect the environment where they are found. Any dead thing can be acted on or given to. ONLY living things give to others. That is what leaders do. They serve others in such a way as to help them come alive - be turned on.

Leaders help others grow to the fullest expression of all they have been created to. They create both the tangible and intangible, visible, and invisible, environment that enable such. They in effect are enablers. They are ONLY able to do this because they themselves are winning the inner war of their being. And are thus being enabled themselves.

Are you a leader? Are you enabled? Are you enabling?

The Saint.

In this series:

The Hand of Leadership.

Touched by a Leader.

Here to Win.

The Hand of Leadership:

Rabbi Daniel Lapin lets us know, the Hebrew vocabulary only contains or refers to a leader as per what they do, not the position they occupy. Leadership, in the Hebrew vocabulary, is revealed by what a person does when faced with the occasion of life.

Leadership is the capacity to perform the act and art of moving people from one position to another in such a way that they intrinsically see themselves as a part of the movement. It is as though it is what they would have done if they were left alone to do the things themselves.

The hands of leadership are invisible, yet very visible. They blend in with the hands of nature in helping direct a course. They find the right rhythm and frequency for and of the team, such as to make it blend in producing the needed orchestra, that meets the organizational objectives and vision.

Leadership occasions the right people, the right thought (culture, tradition, etc.), and right action (execution) in taking people from just being good to being great.

Do you know such a leader? Are you one?

The Saint.

In this series:

It Starts with a Seed.

An Enabler.

Touched by a Leader.

It Starts with a Seed

It Starts with a Seed:

We are the prophets over our lives, not any other person or thing. It is what we accept over and in our lives that germinate and bears the fruits that become who and all we manifest. It all started with a thought, then a word and over time becomes our reality.

Everything that is visible came from that which is invisible, otherwise known as thoughts and words. If we take care of the invisible, we determine the visible. The visible is no accident of nature or any other thing. It is predetermined by the activities of the invisible - thoughts and words.

Everything produces after its kind, including thoughts and words. You cannot plant a mango seed and expect an orange tree. You cannot plant an orange seed and expect a mango tree. Every thought and word will answer for us and to us according to their kind.

To create the future of your dreams, you must plant the kind of seeds - thoughts and words - that produces them. Everything starts with a seed. You pick the seed, you pick the fruits, you pick your future. You nurture the seed, you nurture the fruits, you nurture your future.

What are you waiting for?

The Saint.

In this series:

Our Leverage.

The Hand of Leadership.

An Enabler.

Our Leverage:

Different animals are endowed with different things, assets, to necessitate and enable their survival. Some were given size, others strength, speed, ability to camouflage, amongst other qualities. Man (unisex) was given one thing and one thing alone, his mind. Without his mind, he is nothing. With his mind he is everything.

Our mind is our leverage position, our greatest and possibly only indispensable asset. It determines our personality, sense of self, and general disposition and outlook to life. As one who has been in depression, I know this intricately personally. In one day, I was poor. In one day, I was rich. My account balance did not necessarily change. My mind made it so.

Our mind creates our own reality. NONE of us sees the real reality. We ONLY see the map our mind creates of it. The map is never the same as the territory. It is only an interpretation of it. That interpretation is what we call perception. Perception is how reality affects us - our extraction of it, which is truly within our power.

This power is determined by the extent to which we have control of and use our mind. Our mind was given to us to use, not to be used by it. The extent to which we control and use our mind determines the soundness of it and thus our mental wellness. The extent to which it runs riot on us determines or exposes how deprecated it might be.

The call of life is to own our mind and exploit it to actualize in becoming the fullest expression of all that we have been created to be. Anything short is a failure.

Do you own your mind?

The Saint.

In this series:

Empowering People.

It Starts with a Seed.

The Hand of Leadership.