BubbaSmith.net » Success

Book Review: Think and Grow Rich

bubba — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:39:54 +0000

Pastor Nathan introduced me to Napoleon Hill! This guys is amazing. Think and Grow Rich is a project that Andrew Carnegie had Napoleon take on. Andrew Carnegie asked Napoleon to study the top 50 wealthiest men in the world at that time. I believe Napoleon said it took him twenty years to write this book. He spent 20 years writing this book! Studying the lifestyles of the wealthiest men in the world. He found a lot of common factors on how these men became successful and rich. This book the outcome of his research.

Biggest Takeaway: The major factor in all of these men’s lives was faith. An unwavering confidence that no matter what, they would be successful. I thought it was interesting how much faith is a factor.

To be honest, I have to go back and reread this book at least another 3-4 times before the principles will even start to stick and be applied in my life. This is a must read book. In fact I’d make it a must read 3-4 times book.

Some Highlights:

One of the most common causes of failure is the habit of quitting when one is overtaken by temporary defeat.

It taught me to keep on keeping on, no matter how hard the going may be, a lesson I needed to learn before I could succeed in anything.

Christianity is the greatest potential power in the world today, because its founder was an intense dreamer who had the vision and the imagination to see realities in their mental and spiritual form before they had been transmuted into physical form.

If you are influenced by the opinions of others, you will have no DESIRE of your own.

The world has the habit of making room for the man whose words and actions show that he knows where he is going.

Love is, without question, life’s greatest experience.

Man’s greatest motivating force is his desire to please woman!

NO MAN IS HAPPY OR COMPLETE WITHOUT THE MODIFYING INFLUENCE OF THE RIGHT WOMAN.

If you neglect to make the start, or stop before you arrive, no one will be to blame, but YOU. This responsibility is yours.

The fear of criticism robs man of his initiative, destroys his power of imagination, limits his individuality, takes away his self-reliance, and does him damage in a hundred other ways.

A busy person seldom has time to think about dying. He finds life too thrilling to worry about death.

“The first and best victory is to conquer self. To be conquered by self is, of all things, the most shameful and vile.”

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Grow Something

bubba — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 13:17:30 +0000

Serve Your Way to the Top – 7 Lessons I Learned While Serving My Way onto a Church Staff

Lesson 5 – Grow Something

⁸This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.” -John 15:8

This is probably one of the hardest lessons I learned and that I’m continually learning. To recognize that part of serving isn’t just showing up and doing what you’re told. It’s taking what you’re given and growing it. Making it better. Your ability to grow something will always result in your promotion. You’re inability to grow something will result in frustration and possibly demotion.

You won’t serve your way to the top just by showing up. You’ll serve your way to the top when you grow something.

So how can you grow the area you oversee?

1.) Get Coached - I’m a young leader – there is so much I don’t know it’s not even funny. To be honest, I don’t know a lot about how to grow an organization. So what do I do to make up for my incompetency? Surround myself with people who have grown something and ask them lots of questions. Experienced people will take your farther, faster.

2.) Steal Everything! – Don’t know what to do? Find out who is doing it well and steal their model! Steal their creative ideas! In time, you’ll be able to take others ideas and mold them with your own. Never stop coming up with creative ideas yourself, but never be afraid to copy someone or some organization that does it really well.

3.) Develop Potential Leaders - Find the potential leaders in your organization and develop them. When they’re ready – put them in charge of an area and help them grow it. To be honest, if you have the right leader, growth will take care of itself. Believe in people and let them go to grow!

What are some things you do to grow something in the areas you lead?

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Do Your Best, Forget the Rest

bubba — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:17:52 +0000

¹⁸But now God has set the members, every one of them in the body, as it has pleased him. – I Cor. 12:18

“Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best you are capable of becoming.” -John Wooden

I’ve just finished my first month of P90x and I was also going through this book by Coach Wooden over the weekend. I’ve also been listening to Keith Moore’s “Graces and Places” series. The theme throughout all of them is the same- Success is doing the best you can with who you are, your gifts, and your circumstances.

God gave us our gifts, talents, and abilities. He surrounded us with the people were surrounded with, He’s opened doors for us, He’s given us favor, He’s done for us more than we could ever imagine (Eph. 3:20).

Instead of taking what He’s given you and comparing with what He gave others or instead of wishing you had what somebody else has, be thankful for what you do have. See every gift as one to develop, every opportunity as one to sieze, every relationship you have as a God given one to cultivate.

Recognize that all you can do on any given day is simply give your best effort – do that, and God will take care of the rest.

“Make each day your masterpiece.” -John Wooden

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This is to have Succeeded

bubba — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:53:42 +0000

“Let your lives be built on Him . . . then you’ll overflow with thankfulness.” -Col. 2:7

“The blessings of the Lord makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.” – Proverbs 10:22

Everybody wants to enjoy life. God wants us to enjoy life. I know a lot of people who have the desire to enjoy life, but aren’t. Often we are looking for joy, success, and happiness in all the wrong places. I’ve found that enjoying life comes from:

Having a relationship with God – this is the foundation and fulfillment of true joy and happiness.

Having great relationships - There isn’t anything more important in our lives than our relationships with others – cherish and cultivate them.

Recognizing that changing a life, not drawing a crowd, is true success.

Creating great experiences and memories – not gaining more material possessions. Create them often.

Living with High Standards, Integrity, and Character - I live my life according to the Bible. God created us and He knows the way we should live to enjoy life. He gives it to us in His Word!

Serving - “A life not lived for others, is hardly a life.” -Mother Theresa

Giving your life for others – right now I give my life to the students at Revolution – I love all of them so much and it is one of the greatest joys to go through life with them, pour into them, and have them pour into me.

I think Ralph Waldo Emerson sums it up well:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of earnest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Are you enjoying life? If not, start doing some of the things I mentioned and watch as joy comes into your life.

What have you found joy and happiness come from?

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The Only Lesson You Need

bubba — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 12:44:36 +0000

I love to learn, read books, blogs, listen to podcast’s, and ask people questions. I try to learn as much as I can, as often as I can. However, I’ve found one lesson that keeps coming back to me over and over again. It really is the best lesson ever:

Love God

Love People

In a world where we over complicate everything, Jesus made the true secret to success very simple, didn’t he?

What if we just focused all of our time and energy loving God and loving people?

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You Won’t Get to Do This Again (Part 2) – Life, Success, and Two Poems

bubba — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:06:33 +0000

“For He remembered that they were merely mortal, gone like a breath of the wind that never returns.” -Psalm 78:39

One of the ways I’m learning to enjoy the journey through life is to not take myself so seriously. That’s hard isn’t it? To go through life not trying to impress others with your accomplishments and not strive to climb to the top of the success ladder. In order to enjoy the journey I think we need the right perspective on life and success.

I love John Wooden’s definition of success, “Success comes from knowing that you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.”

Right now, I’m having success redefined for me. I’m at Jeanne Mayo’s house and in a lot of ways she is living out a lot of the dreams I have in my heart. As I look at someone like Jeanne who has a lot of the things I’d like to have and is doing a lot of the things I’d like to do, I realize that I can have all of that and still not be content if I’m not becoming the best I can be and impacting as many peoples lives as I can. Changing peoples lives is really all that matters, and that’s one of the great lessons I’ve learned from her.

I love going through quotes, poems, and stories that give me perspective on life. Two poems that have always impacted me are “The Indispensable Man” and “The Man In the Glass”. The purpose of the poems is to allow you to see the reality that no matter who you are, where you are, or what you do in life, you’re not indispensable and you aren’t truly successful unless you pursue the dreams in YOUR heart. So what is a successful life? Doing the best you can and becoming the best your capable of becoming. Hope these add value to you!

The Indispensible Man

Some time when you’re feeling important;

Some time when your ego’s in bloom;

Some time when you take it for granted,

You’re the best qualified in the room;

Some time when you think that your going,

would leave an unfillable hole;

Just follow this simple instruction

And see how it humbles your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water;

Put your hands in it up to your wrists;

Pull them out – and the hole that remains;

Is the measure of how much you’ll be missed.

You may splash as you please when you enter;

You may stir up the water galore;

But stop – and you’ll find in a second ,

That it looks just the same as before.

The moral of this is quite simple;

Do just the best that you can,

and be proud of yourself – but remember;

There is no indispensable man

The Man in the Glass

When you get what you want in your struggles for self

And the world makes you king for a day,

Just go to a mirror and look at yourself

And see what that man has to say.

For it isn’t your father or mother or wife

Whose judgment upon you must pass,

The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life

Is the one staring back from the glass.

Some people might think you’re a straight-shooting chum

And call you a wonderful guy.

But the man in the glass says you’re only a bum

If you can’t look him straight in the eye.

He’s the fellow to please, never mind all the rest

For he’s with you clear to the end

And you’ve passed your most dangerous test

If the guy in the glass is your friend.

You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years

And get pats on the back as you pass

But your final reward will be heartache and tears

If you’ve cheated the man in the glass.

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11 Rules in Life

bubba — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:16:07 +0000

I shared these with our summer of service students yesterday and I thought it’s something that might interest you. They are from a book by Charles Sykes entitled “Dumbing Down our Kids”. Definitely hits home… Let me know what you think.

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

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My Thoughts on Youth Ministry (Part 2.1) – What is Success?

bubba — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 13:28:23 +0000

¹²Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. I Tim. 4:12

What is Success in Youth Ministry?

Over the past several years I’ve been to several conferences on youth ministry and met a lot of youth pastors. I often laugh because I hear the same things over and over and over again – “If only we had a bigger budget” “If we had your youth center we could do something big” “If, when, if, when, but . . . etc.” I like what John Maxwell says, “If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas.”

Personally, I think all of that stuff has VERY LITTLE to do with having a successful youth ministry. You may say, “Yea, Bubba, but you have a nice youth budget, a big staff, and your own youth center… it’s easy for you to say.” But I can tell you that just because we have that stuff does not mean we’re successful… it depends on how you measure success.

If you were to ask me what I think makes a successful youth ministry after 6 years of serving in a sweet one, I’d tell you this:

A Leader with a Vision – The youth pastor MUST believe in the youth ministry. He/She must believe in it where it is and must believe in what it could become. Proverbs 29:18 says, “Without a vision, people perish – it’s no different in youth ministry.

A Leader that Walks with God – Where your students are at spiritually will be a direct result of where your relationship is with God (I recognize it’s not the only factor, but it’s a huge one). Disappointed with your students spirituality? Look in the mirror…

Measuring Spirituality over Numbers: Numbers are VERY important, But Can’t be the Only Measuring Stick. Anyone can get a room filled with hundred of students if they really wanted to…. but are they giving their lives to God? Are they walking with Him? Growing spiritually? If not, I don’t care how many students fill your room, you’re missing it.

A Culture where Students can Encounter God – Buildings, Budgets, etc. are Nice, but mean very little when it comes to success – while these things might bring students in the door, it certainly won’t keep them there. What will? An experience with God, and they can do that without a youth center, a big budget, etc.. You must create an environment where students can encounter God.

Authentic Relationships – Show me a successful youth ministry and I’ll show you one where students and leaders all around have great relationships. Brad Cooper once told me that, “As we get bigger, we must become smaller.” As your youth group grows – you must find more and more ways (small groups work great) for students to find and build authentic relationships.

This is getting a little long… Tomorrow I’ll go over some more things that make up a successful youth ministry…

What do you think contributes to a successful ministry?

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TED: John Wooden – The Difference Between Success and Winning

bubba — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:38:18 +0000

This Video goes right along with what I’ve been teaching along the lines of teaching… it’s worth watching!

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