Don’t Let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building others up. -Ephesians 4:29

This is such a powerful video clip! It’s only 3 minutes long, please take the time to watch it!

Takeaways:

God is Bigger than Anything that Comes Against You! - “Your pain is real, Your loneliness and brokenness are Real and their Big, but God is bigger.”

Your Words Matter – So much of our self-doubts and self-worth are based off of what people have said to us in our past. I love when he said, “We can either kill somebody with our Words, or Save somebody with our words.” It’s true. So many people have to spend years finding out who God says we are, instead of who people have said we are.

It’s Ok for You to be YOU – You’re are SPECIAL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE – this is probably the hardest thing in life to grasp. God made us just how He wanted to. We’re His masterpiece. We need to rejoice in who God made us instead of torturing ourselves wishing we were somebody else.

We Must know what the Truth Says! Without the Truth, We Cannot Fight the Lies – the only way we can know if what we’re thinking is a lie or not is if we know what the truth is. Truth is what God says. The Word of God is truth. We need to define ourselves, our thoughts, and everything in our lives by God’s Word (truth). If we do that, we won’t buy the lies that come to us on a daily basis.

When I was 18 years old, one of my mentors, Pastor Larry Bettencourt, handed me a CD with a leadership lesson on it. The lesson was called “Standing Tall” by John C. Maxwell. I never heard of him and I definitely never listened to a leadership CD before that time.

I put the CD in my CD players and within 5 minutes I was hooked! I didn’t know the lesson came with notes, so I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down everything John was saying. I rewound the lessons a few dozen times.

After listening to the lesson, I called Pastor Larry and said, “I want more of this! Give me everything you got!” Over the course of that next year, I’d literally take a lesson home each night and listen to it before bed. I would take some of Maxwell’s leadership DVD curriculum home and go through it over a weekend. I devoured everything I could!

John Maxwell has been a catalyst to so many changes in my life. So much of who I am and what I do is a result of John’s teachings.

To this day, I read everything he writes and still listen to his monthly leadership lessons. Without a doubt, he has been one of the most influential people in my life.

I love John because he was a pastor for 25 years and through his leadership training, he has positioned himself to be influential not only in the church world, but in the government world, education world, business world, etc. He uses the influence God gave him to make a difference for God. That’s definitely a dream and passion of my heart. I’m grateful for John paving the way!

Tonight I get to hear John speak in person for the first time ever. It’s always been a dream of mine to hear him live and get the opportunity to meet him! I’m hoping he’ll be doing a book signing after service so I get the chance to meet him. If I do, you’ll hear about it, trust me! I’m so fired up!

Who has had a huge impact on your life from a distance that you’ve never met or heard live before?

Recently I’ve become really interested in studying out entrepreneurial leadership. I actually started reading this book from a referral from a book I’m reading on Church Planting. The author said to read it and everywhere it  says entrepreneur, put in church planter instead. I’m glad I followed his advice and read this book.

This was one of the most practical books I’ve ever read. It covers everything you’ll need to know if you’re going to be an entrepreneur. The authors are very straight forward. They tell you exactly the kind of mentality you’ll need to succeed, the knowledge, the team, the right skills, etc.. Perhaps the greatest thing I appreciate about it is that it shows you the price you need to be willing to pay in order to be successful. Most people are not ready or willing to pay the price, and thus the business they start doesn’t last and fails miserably.

If you’re interested in becoming an entrepreneur, you need to read this book!

Buy it Here: Rich Dad’s Before You Quit Your Job: 10 Real-Life Lessons Every Entrepreneur Should Know About Building a Multimillion-Dollar Business

Some Highlights:

• “Our schools train young people to become employees. That is why so many parents say to their child, ‘Go to school so you can get a good job.’ I have yet to hear any parent say, ‘Go to school to become an entrepreneur.”

• “The reason most people who want to become entrepreneurs remain employees is that they have some excuse that keeps them from quitting their job and taking that leap of faith. For many people, the power of their excuse is more powerful than their dreams.”

• The worst thing about living a life of security is that you often lead two lives—the life you live and the unlived life you know you could be living.

• If I were starting my entrepreneurial career all over again, I would start with a network marketing or direct sales business, not for the money but for the real world business training I could receive, training similar to the type of training my rich dad gave me.

• “My point is that it is the fear of losing money that costs people the most money. They are so afraid of losing . . . they lose. They settle for a steady paycheck. They may not lose much money in their life, but they lose out on the potential for great wealth.”

• Start the business. Fail and learn. Find a mentor. Fail and learn. Take some classes. Keep failing and learning. Stop when successful. Celebrate. Count your money, the wins and the losses. Repeat the process.

• My rich dad said, “The main reason to start a business is to have a business to practice on.

• “You must get a job in sales. Being able to sell is the basic skill of all entrepreneurs.”

• The problem for most of them is that they cannot sell, which means they cannot raise money. The inability to raise money may be reason number one why most want-to-be entrepreneurs give up and go back to their jobs.

• “Work to learn, not to earn.”

• “If you want to have the best team around you, you need to be the best at something as well. If you are only mediocre at communications, then you will never need the best attorneys, engineers, designers, or accountants. You will only need mediocre ones because you are mediocre.”

• If your costs frighten you off, then maybe being an entrepreneur is not for you. High expenses are an everyday challenge in business. Taking on that challenge is one of the most important jobs of an entrepreneur.