Book 1: The Power of WHO!

The Power of WHO! by Bob Beaudine

I had the opportunity to hear Bob speak at a luncheon hosted by Leadership Tyler in August of this year. He talked about a way to be a steward of your relationships that was really a paradigm shift for me. I realized that many of my relationships tend to center around common interests such as work, church, or hobbies. The thing that challenged me about what Bob had to say was that I should be approaching my relationships with the question, "how can I serve you?" rather than "what do we enjoy doing together?"

Although the book's underlying premise is "You already know everyone you need to know to get anything you need in life" what I walked away with is not using your friends to get what you want. It's more about helping your friends get what they want and from the overflow of that, they will help you in return.

Bob talks about 'Your WHO world' in terms of a few different levels. The Inner Circle follows Jesus' discipleship of 12-3-1. That's 12 that you are really close with, 3 that you have a special relationship with, and 1 that is your best friend. Outside of your inner circle will be the rest of your WHO. Bob defines WHO as:

... a “community of friends” that’s been built over many years with love and unconditional giving. These are friends who genuinely care about you and share your core values. This particular network of friends, if asked, will actually come to your aid. They want you to succeed. They want you to achieve your goals.

While we all have goals in life, Bob explains that WHO comes before WHAT. Relationships are really what life is all about. Jesus said, "Love God... and love your neighbor". While these WHO relationships will be the catalyst, it's important to know what you want because "you can never get what you cannot see."

Using a principle that Bob refers to 100/40. First you identify 100 'Who' in your life that meet the description above, then identify the 40 'What' in your life you've always wanted. Pursue your WHO and find out what their WHAT is, and help them get there!

The last thing I really walked away with was the idea of having a personal board of directors. These are people who know and love you and will speak wisdom into your life when you need direction or help considering a decision. The reason Beaudine recommends a Personal Board of Directors is:

There are many more paths that lead to failure than there are that lead to success. I’ve come to believe one of the very best strategies you can implement to achieve maximum protection is to create your own “Personal Board of Directors.

I would highly recommend The Power of WHO! to anyone.

I Might Be Crazy, Part 1

52 Books in 52 Weeks


I had this crazy idea about a month ago: I have all these books on my bookshelf that I've purchased because I thought they would be a good read or they were recommended to me, but for one reason or another I never have read them. Although this allowed me to use one of my favorite office quotes when someone would ask me if I've read a particular book, "Read it? I OWN it. But no, I haven't read it." -Michael Scott, the books weren't doing anyone any good sitting on the shelf. So ambitiously, I'm setting out to read all of them and a few more by the end of September 2011.

After I committed to reading a book a week, it also got me thinking that I've always wanted to read through the Bible in a year, but have never had the discipline to get it done. So, I decided that accomplishing that goal was at least as important as reading all these other books. This makes for quite a bit of reading each day.

But you know what, it's amazing how much time I "found" when I reclaimed my mornings and cut back on how much TV I watch in the evenings. I get up at 5:00 am most days (yes, coffee has become a much bigger part of my life) to read for a couple of hours before I have to get ready for work, and I try not to turn on the TV when I get home from work because I've found once it's on, it's really difficult to turn off. The first book I read was called "You've Got WHO!" by Bob Beaudine, and he inspired me in my quest to reclaim my time when he said:

I believe that working to pay the bills is one of the most common causes in forgetting your dream. So many people are just too tired at the end of the day to work on or even think about their dream. Too bad. Turn off the damn TV! The TV will suck your dream right into the black hole of oblivion. Refuse to veg—unless, of course, your dream is to become a vegetable.

I'll talk more about what I learned from Bob in my post about You've Got WHO! In the mean time, I'll keep on reading and I'll keep you updated about what I'm learning as I go.

Dinosaurs!!!

January 14-16 I attend the CCCA Texas Sectional Conference at Riverbend Retreat Center in Glen Rose, TX. The retreat center is locate right off the Brazos River and here are some photos I put together to capture the view of the river and plains. The conference was surprisingly good. I had the opportunity to teach a seminar on the role of retail gift shops in Christian camping. I also learned a few things, which is always good.
We had some free time on the afternoon of the 15th, and Dinosaur Valley State Park is located in Glen Rose. A guy named Hans from Frontier Camp is amazingly intelligent, and took us on a guided and commentate tour of the park, explaining his thoughts on creation, the flood, and bunch of other really interesting stuff. Most of the tracks in the park are from sauropods, probably Pleurocoelus, and there are some carnosaur tracks, probably Acrocanthosaurus.
This one just couldn't resist me. That and she threatened to step on me if I didn't kiss her.