From "The Accidental Creative" by Todd Henry
“A lifetime of mediocrity is a high price to pay for safety. Paranoia undoes greatness.” ~ Todd Henry ~
Needs not be elaborated on.
I’ve moved from a professional Church worker to a non-professional Church worker.
My income used to come from the offering plate. Now it doesn’t.
Here are some differences that are important for all you church workers to know about those you interact with that aren’t church employees:
At work today, I was commenting about my poor results the past week. I had just got off the phone with a company that was in no shape the buy what I was selling. They’re a large, nationally known company whose product is directly tied to new home builds. Bad time for that sort of business…
Our CEO stopped me and – rather than coaching me on how to smooth talk my way into their pocketbooks, he spoke to me (and my team) about the way he sees America’s current economic climate. He explained how our time is similar – and different – than many times before.
I jokingly stated, “Sound like a great time to start a business.” (Our company was founded in 2007)
He went on to tell story after story of business people who caught economic waves in the 80s & 90s. They made money young. Bought expensive houses. Started new, riskier companies. They’d never failed.
Until now….
In fact, they’d never really struggled for their success.
You see, if your success is directly tied to the economic wave your company has caught, you don’t really have to be good. Or smart. You just have to follow common practice and you’ll be fine. (Examples: Investing in .com before the bubble, taking out huge housing loan in 2006 & calling yourself a social media expert in 2011).
The problem with those people is that they never developed their core. They never had to build the habits needed to weather ANY economy.
Slow growth is golden. Better than golden.
Learn the hard work. Erase entitlement from your worldview. Learn to hunt your food, even if there’s a buffet in the next room (a buffet only slowly kills you anyways…).
In fact, don’t just learn to hunt, get really good at it. Learn to teach others to hunt.
I turned 26 on Monday. Sometimes people try to make the birthday boy pump out a speech. Here are a few thoughts…
My 26th Birthday is September 19th, rather than write on my Facebook Wall, I’d LOVE it if you’d take a few seconds and help me draw the outline of my life thus far.
More info here.
My wife is beautiful.
But like so many wives (and husbands too), she has a hard time seeing it.
Once – while doing a photo shoot – she sent me of a picture of her hair all done up. She looked gorgeous. Stunning. Made me breathe a bit harder. Get the picture?
I text her back, “the best thing you could do for me would be to realize how beautiful you are.”
When someone simply delights in you, they don’t need you to perform, they just want to you be happy.
When looking at us, I’d bet God feels the same way.
In a world where Christians have spent lots of time and money explaining the reality of God using science, facts & research, it makes sense that Christians today would have an underdeveloped imagination. This is deadly to our faith.
Throughout Scripture, God spoke to people in dreams, visions & crazy circumstances. He used a variety of means to guide His children.
Dreams and visions require a bit of imagination and – it pains me to report – we’re not very good at it.
A newly acquired practice of mine is to use my imagination in order to experience God. Nothing has proven so vital to my faith. Repeat: nothing. Not music, not songs, not preaching, not mission trips, not small groups.
Historically, my prayer time has looked like me with my eyes closed shooting some thoughts up to God either verbally or in my head.
Now, however, I imagine myself somewhere with Jesus. I ask him to show me something. I wait for his guidance. Several times he’s taken me back to a childhood memory to reveal truth I’d missed. Other times I’ve found myself in a car riding with him as we talk.
Its a remarkable experience. The first time I was lead through this sort of imaginative prayer, I had the most profound Jesus-experience of my life, it was physically overwhelming. It was ultra-personal and deeply intimate.
I’m sure to be writing more about my experience with imaginative prayer over time. If you’d like to learn more, I’ve got several resources I could point you to. Leave a comment below and I’ll shoot you an email.
I eat at Chipotle. Too Much.
One time, I ordered 2 burritos for my wife and I. I was standing at the check out and realized that I had left my debit card at home.
Now know this … I’m a regular. I’m the mayor of my local chipotle on Foursqure and I’m the Duke on Yelp. I write gushing reviews for every Chipotle I go to.
Now back to my moment at the cash register….
The teenager rocking the cash register tells his manager. The manager looks at me and uses his magical manager key and comps the food & drinks. 14 bucks they lose (they were gonna throw it away anyways).
I was floored. I felt like giving the manager a hug. He just got back to work.
A few weeks later, I ordered using the Chipotle iPhone app and Chipotle screwed up my order. I didn’t catch it until I was home.
What did I do? Shrug it off.
I will continue to frequent Chipotle. They will continue to hook me up. There is a trust developed between Chipotle’s brand and myself.
They’re not perfect. If they screw up, I won’t care. If I have to wait in line for 27 minutes, I’m not gonna complain. In fact, I’m likely to say a kind word to the workers there in hopes that I can brighten their day.
Speed of Business. It takes Chipotle a WHOLE LOT less time to make me happy. Less work. Less attention from the staff.
Increased ROI. My trust of Chipotle is a multiplier on their marketing efforts. A Chipotle billboard makes me smile. Their bag stories get a read from me each time. An app developed by Chipotle is DEFINITELY on my phone. Each of these efforts cost time & money. The ROI for these efforts is dramatically increased because of trust.
Word of Mouth. I try to talk everyone into Chipotle. Nearly each day at work, I’ll comment, “Some Chipotle sounds GREAT right now.” Most days I don’t each Chipotle, but I spread the word. I argue with Chipotle haters. I push for people to see Chipotle as a healthy diet option. I even write blog articles about Chipotle….
Foregiveness. They comp my meal when I forget my card. Saves me money, time & energy of getting different food.
Enjoyment. My trust of Chioptle makes me enjoy my experience so much more. Appreciation for the speed, atmosphere and attitude of Chipotle increases exponentially.
Invites. So many folks know that I’m a Chipotle nut. I get invited to Chipotle a ton. I get Chipotle gift cards. My wife “treats me” by suggestion Chipotle for lunch on the weekend.
In college I was on a men’s ministry leadership team. Historically, that team had primarily focused on hosting a conference for men. That conference was the primary use of our budget.
The year I was on the team, we wanted to do something different. We wanted men’s ministry on campus to infuse the lives of students, not pull them into something else (a conference).
So we started a campus-wide campaign. I wanted to title it “give a damn” encouraging men to care about their brothers, to get out of alpha-male competitions (girls, pranks, sports) and get into respecting and caring for others.
Unfortunately, the campaign ended up being title “give a rip.” I think it was a fine alternative….
Lots of folks are fighting for our attention with words, shiny objects and sexy models. Our society has developed a pretty strong radar for detecting whether or not someone cares about us or if they’re just after our wallets.
You can’t fake caring. You can’t fake respect. You can try, but it won’t last very long. Giving a rip about your customers is the hard work that’ll set you apart from the competition. It’ll cause you to work long and hard on their problems. You’ll go above and beyond because you sincerely respect them.
Want to build trust? Care. Give a rip.
At one point, the automobile industry – and her largest companies – was run by engineers who built the cars. At this time, the industry exploded. Companies grew & grew & grew.
At some point in the 70s, engineers were replaced by MBAs. A bunch of finance guys took over and started running companies out of a passion for numbers rather than a passion for car-making. For several decades, America experienced a steady decline in car quality.
Right now, the tech industry is run by engineers. The “makers” of the product are leading the companies. Zuckerberg is driving Facebook, Jobs in Apple, Crabb at Google, Gates in Microsoft.
What industry is growing by leaps at bounds? Tech. What industry has the most “makers” leading its companies? Tech.
The world thrives when the “makers” aren’t content in sitting behind a computer program to design or engineer a product.
If you’re making something, step out and lead. If you’re leading without making, best stay close to the makers and keep an open-channel for feedback.
