You don,t have to fight against each other.Dr:Sammy D.James

Google fight Microsoft
Good Morning fight Good Night
George Bush fight with Hugo Chavez
Roger Federer fight Juan Martin Del Potr

me 276000000 results/fight with/ myself 259000000 results.
You have to know how to fighting with your ennemies.I think you have to fight with:
Poverty,misery,unjustice,distress or suffering caused by need, privation, or poverty.
great mental or emotional distress; extreme unhappiness,a cause or source of distress.tribulation, trial, suffering. 3. grief, anguish, woe, torment, desolation.This is your will ennemies.When someone have something against you,or doing something you don,t like,you don,t have to considering this person like your ennemy.For example Google and Microsoft they not fight because of they enemy.Google and Microsoft fight for good result.Coka and Pepsi,mc Donald,s and B.king they fight for good, spend thousand of Dollars for promotion an Radio and T V station.But you and I don,t know how to fighting to have a better life.Please learn from this great company.Your enemy is not Dr:Sammy,but it is all that i was talking before.

Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude. Dr Sammy D.James

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. Put your future in good hands-your own.The important thing is not to stop questioning. You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
You are the guy who'll decide where to go.
Promise yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution.
Dreams are free, so free your dreams.Dr Sammy D.James
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. Pablo Picasso
A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her.David Brinkley

God bless you.I love you all.Dr Sammy D.James

I spend more time to read books,more than eating and sleeping.Dr Sammy D.James

How to Be Great at Everything You Do in Life.You have the ability to be great at just about whatever it is. Success comes to those who thrive for it. To be great at things, you have to put the proper mindset into them. If you go around expecting to fail at things, then chances are you will. Talent helps, but it's not a given to allow yourself to become great at whatever it is you do. You need more than that.
Step
1Positive attitude. People who are great at whatever they do, it's because of the mindset they've set for themselves. They don't question whether why they can't do something, they think of all the reasons why they can.

Step
2Perfectionist attitude. Those who are obsessive and never passive are the ones who are great at whatever they do. A perfectionist is someone who always looks for improvement, and never settles. Settling shows your limits and makes it difficult to be great at whatever it is you do. You are allowed to be proud of accomplishments, but your willingness to always to do better is what makes you great at everything.

Step
3Hard work. Being great at whatever, very, very rarely ever comes natural. Even when you have talent. You must work to improve and become better. You can't just become great at something by not putting into the effort and time.

Step
4You ability to learn. Having the ability to truly learn from mistakes and those with more experience helps. If you think you can do it just by yourself, that you are always right, and others are wrong, you'll have trouble getting anywhere. Everyone needs help getting pointed in the right direction.

Step
5Never quit. Failing isn't about not having success with something. Failing is quitting. Everyone has, or will get knocked down at times. Sometimes you'll even be labeled as no good. If you listen to everyone who ever says something like that, then you''ll never get anywhere. Just keep plugging along, and you'll continue to learn, grow, and become better. Then you're on your way to being great at everything in life.

LOOKING FOR A VISION.

When you were little, some boring relative probably asked you the question,
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" Well, here you are grown up and
STILL don't know who or what you want to be. Maybe you don't even know where
you are heading in life. Join the club. One thing is sure however, Man is
trying to survive, individually, and as a species in all realms -- physically
and spiritually. When we imagine a "heaven" we usually think of it in human
terms, such as places populated with people, angels, cherubs, and saints, etc.
We never think of heaven as a place that is controlled by alien intelligences
that have 7 eyeballs, and who are governed by a being that came from the
Andromedia galaxy! So even mankinds "thought-projections" into a "here-after"
are based on human-based constructs of reality and not something entirely
"different." The same goes in the justifications of our actions. "Because God
says so" is a great excuse, and so it serves to calm ourselves from being
unsure of our actions. If there is ever to be a a shared vision, it will be
based on our vision of God and our place in "Gods plan" - (even if there is no
God or God's plan.) A evil person sees the world as a evil place, a clown sees
the world as a circus, and a person in bliss sees the world as a place of
beauty. It's no wonder that Mohammed said that God wanted him to kill the
unbelievers. Thats because Mohammed himself wanted to kill the unbelievers who
would thereby interfere with his "reform."

So it can be argued that in general man sees the world in a way that he expects
his God(s) to see the world. All too often men have killed due to their "God's
will." So the fact that the "Kamikazee's" of WWII were blessed as they were
arc-welded into their death-trap airplanes -- they "knew" that God was "on
their side." The same is true of the middle-east terrorist. He "knows" that God
agrees with his views and actions, and so will therefore go to a heaven when he
dies. All of these kinds of actions call for a reform in mankinds vision of
himself and his spiritual/physical reality. This view also explains the "New
Age" movement and all of the diverse sub-cultures springing up in the USA
because of this. Cults, Fringe Science, etc, are all a search for a better
vision or reality-contruct.

REALITY TUNNELS:

Why do we do such things? Why does God resemble a human? Why does everything
man imagines have to be a relative of the "here-now" reality? What would happen
if a new religion came along and told everyone that heaven was populated with
"nano-machines" that do everything in subservience to the will of the
"master-intelligence," ala TRON, instead of angels obeying God? Instead of
using the now "old" heaven-contruct, lets design a new construct so we can move
forward as a species without war and hate or discrimination. Lets make it
impossible for somebody to justify their actions because of a God(s). Lets make
the old-testament view of a wrathfull Jehovah God an invalid and useless model
for behavior. If such a new model for behavior were made, what would such a
model require? Since death and mayhem have been a "operating procedure" for the
last 10,000 years in mans history, what is required is a shift in our
fundamental view of the universe, God, and mankind. No easy task! One way to do
this is to eliminate God and the spirit from the picture completely. Another
tactic is to introduce new "archetypes" that can raise our expectations and
desires as a species. Another tactic is to completely dehumanize everything and
look at the universe as a "trap" -- ala Buddhism, Krishna, or Scientology. None
of those work. What else is there? Well, you have the subject of technology to
deal with. What about a vision of the universe as a Hologram, or Computer
Program. Would such a view serve to enhance the unity of mind and man or
destroy it? Science Fiction deals with such other realities and technologies by
anticipating their end-result on humanity. As our society becomes more
technological, does that mean our theology and beliefs will become more
technologically oriented also? Probably. God is dead, or hasn't anybody told
you? Thats seems to be the answer to such questions at present. If God is dead,
something else has to arrive to take his place. Does that mean we adopt "alien
invaders" and UFO's to take the place of Gods or the Devils minions? I dont
know the answer, but it seems that we may be headed in that direction. For
example, the ancient prophets used to commune with the Gods on Olympus, and now
of course, the secular-human prophets are "cummuning" with extra-terrestrial
intellegences! What comes after that? Probably something like "communing" with
a silcon chip of an A.I. computer!

The fact is our reality-constructs are changing, but there seems to be no
control over WHAT constructs we adopt for our new viewpoints. How long will it
be before aliens intelligences are being attributed for giving Moses the 10
Commandments? Or Ezekiel and the Chariots of Fire? Such things are so flexible
in truth and interpretation that anybody can come along and assign a new
"significance" or "truth" to such events with equal validity since there is no
"standard" or capital "T" truth to judge them by. You are the new
techno-shaman of the world. You are the Cyber-men/women of the future. You are
shaping reality every day by your actions. By your writings, actions,
conversations, arguments and opinions you are giving shape to a new
world-model. Remember this and keep close to your heart that todays vision's
become tommorrows reality. Lets explore the boundaries of our perceptions and
beliefs to come up with something workable before another all-too-real
cult-leader dictates what is real and what is not! Remember the famous
quotation: "Think for yourself, smuck!" Any vision(s) of the future should be
based on increasing human intelligence, ability, and life. There are NO other
goals to reach for. These three goals will be worthy of pursuit for
generations, because they coincide with our drives as a species. Lets try to
have control over what new models are used in shaping our views of the
universe. Lets get rid of the "justification trap" that has led all too many
"true believers" to their early graves. Lets get rid of the Jim Jones's, Ron
Hubbards, Reverend Moon's and Charles Manson's of the reality-contruct business
and develop a construct that makes nobody rich, hated or discriminated against.
Remember, if we dont take the initiative to direct and develop new contructs,
somebody else will develop them, and they may not be for the best future.

What it takes to be great Dr Sammy D.James

In my Research now shows that the lack of natural talent is irrelevant to great success. The secret? Painful and demanding practice and hard work.
(Fortune Magazine)-What makes Tiger Woods great? What made Berkshire Hathaway (Charts) Chairman Warren Buffett the world's premier investor? We think we know: Each was a natural who came into the world with a gift for doing exactly what he ended up doing. As Buffett told Fortune not long ago, he was "wired at birth to allocate capital." It's a one-in-a-million thing. You've got it - or you don't.

Well, folks, it's not so simple. For one thing, you do not possess a natural gift for a certain job, because targeted natural gifts don't exist. (Sorry, Warren.) You are not a born CEO or investor or chess grandmaster. You will achieve greatness only through an enormous amount of hard work over many years. And not just any hard work, but work of a particular type that's demanding and painful.


Born Winner? Golf champ Tiger Woods (pictured at 3 years old) never stopped trying to improve.


Woods (pictured in 2001) devoted hours to practice and even remade his Swing twice, because that's what it took to get better.

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: Perfect Practice
1. Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it.
2. As you do the task, focus on what's happening and why you're doing it the way you are.
3. After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Make changes in your behavior as necessary.
4. Continually build mental models of your situation - your industry, your company, your career. Enlarge the models to encompass more factors.
5. Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work.

Wynton Marsalis, Google's Marissa Mayer and Craigslist's Jim Buckmaster reveal their personal strategies for success.
Play video

Buffett, for instance, is famed for his discipline and the hours he spends studying financial statements of potential investment targets. The good news is that your lack of a natural gift is irrelevant - talent has little or nothing to do with greatness. You can make yourself into any number of things, and you can even make yourself great.

Scientific experts are producing remarkably consistent findings across a wide array of fields. Understand that talent doesn't mean intelligence, motivation or personality traits. It's an innate ability to do some specific activity especially well. British-based researchers Michael J. Howe, Jane W. Davidson and John A. Sluboda conclude in an extensive study, "The evidence we have surveyed ... does not support the [notion that] excelling is a consequence of possessing innate gifts."

To see how the researchers could reach such a conclusion, consider the problem they were trying to solve. In virtually every field of endeavor, most people learn quickly at first, then more slowly and then stop developing completely. Yet a few do improve for years and even decades, and go on to greatness.

The irresistible question - the "fundamental challenge" for researchers in this field, says the most prominent of them, professor K. Anders Ericsson of Florida State University - is, Why? How are certain people able to go on improving? The answers begin with consistent observations about great performers in many fields.

Scientists worldwide have conducted scores of studies since the 1993 publication of a landmark paper by Ericsson and two colleagues, many focusing on sports, music and chess, in which performance is relatively easy to measure and plot over time. But plenty of additional studies have also examined other fields, including business.

No substitute for hard work
The first major conclusion is that nobody is great without work. It's nice to believe that if you find the field where you're naturally gifted, you'll be great from day one, but it doesn't happen. There's no evidence of high-level performance without experience or practice.

Reinforcing that no-free-lunch finding is vast evidence that even the most accomplished people need around ten years of hard work before becoming world-class, a pattern so well established researchers call it the ten-year rule.

What about Bobby Fischer, who became a chess grandmaster at 16? Turns out the rule holds: He'd had nine years of intensive study. And as John Horn of the University of Southern California and Hiromi Masunaga of California State University observe, "The ten-year rule represents a very rough estimate, and most researchers regard it as a minimum, not an average." In many fields (music, literature) elite performers need 20 or 30 years' experience before hitting their zenith.

So greatness isn't handed to anyone; it requires a lot of hard work. Yet that isn't enough, since many people work hard for decades without approaching greatness or even getting significantly better. What's missing?

Practice makes perfect
The best people in any field are those who devote the most hours to what the researchers call "deliberate practice." It's activity that's explicitly intended to improve performance, that reaches for objectives just beyond one's level of competence, provides feedback on results and involves high levels of repetition.

For example: Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day - that's deliberate practice.

Consistency is crucial. As Ericsson notes, "Elite performers in many diverse domains have been found to practice, on the average, roughly the same amount every day, including weekends."

Evidence crosses a remarkable range of fields. In a study of 20-year-old violinists by Ericsson and colleagues, the best group (judged by conservatory teachers) averaged 10,000 hours of deliberate practice over their lives; the next-best averaged 7,500 hours; and the next, 5,000. It's the same story in surgery, insurance sales, and virtually every sport. More deliberate practice equals better performance. Tons of it equals great performance.

The skeptics
Not all researchers are totally onboard with the myth-of-talent hypothesis, though their objections go to its edges rather than its center. For one thing, there are the intangibles. Two athletes might work equally hard, but what explains the ability of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady to perform at a higher level in the last two minutes of a game?

Researchers also note, for example, child prodigies who could speak, read or play music at an unusually early age. But on investigation those cases generally include highly involved parents. And many prodigies do not go on to greatness in their early field, while great performers include many who showed no special early aptitude.

Certainly some important traits are partly inherited, such as physical size and particular measures of intelligence, but those influence what a person doesn't do more than what he does; a five-footer will never be an NFL lineman, and a seven-footer will never be an Olympic gymnast. Even those restrictions are less severe than you'd expect: Ericsson notes, "Some international chess masters have IQs in the 90s." The more research that's done, the more solid the deliberate-practice model becomes.

Real-world examples
All this scholarly research is simply evidence for what great performers have been showing us for years. To take a handful of examples: Winston Churchill, one of the 20th century's greatest orators, practiced his speeches compulsively. Vladimir Horowitz supposedly said, "If I don't practice for a day, I know it. If I don't practice for two days, my wife knows it. If I don't practice for three days, the world knows it." He was certainly a demon practicer, but the same quote has been attributed to world-class musicians like Ignace Paderewski and Luciano Pavarotti.

Many great athletes are legendary for the brutal discipline of their practice routines. In basketball, Michael Jordan practiced intensely beyond the already punishing team practices. (Had Jordan possessed some mammoth natural gift specifically for basketball, it seems unlikely he'd have been cut from his high school team.)

In football, all-time-great receiver Jerry Rice - passed up by 15 teams because they considered him too slow - practiced so hard that other players would get sick trying to keep up.

Tiger Woods is a textbook example of what the research shows. Because his father introduced him to golf at an extremely early age - 18 months - and encouraged him to practice intensively, Woods had racked up at least 15 years of practice by the time he became the youngest-ever winner of the U.S. Amateur Championship, at age 18. Also in line with the findings, he has never stopped trying to improve, devoting many hours a day to conditioning and practice, even remaking his swing twice because that's what it took to get even better.

The business side
The evidence, scientific as well as anecdotal, seems overwhelmingly in favor of deliberate practice as the source of great performance. Just one problem: How do you practice business? Many elements of business, in fact, are directly practicable. Presenting, negotiating, delivering evaluations, deciphering financial statements - you can practice them all.

Still, they aren't the essence of great managerial performance. That requires making judgments and decisions with imperfect information in an uncertain environment, interacting with people, seeking information - can you practice those things too? You can, though not in the way you would practice a Chopin etude.

Instead, it's all about how you do what you're already doing - you create the practice in your work, which requires a few critical changes. The first is going at any task with a new goal: Instead of merely trying to get it done, you aim to get better at it.

Report writing involves finding information, analyzing it and presenting it - each an improvable skill. Chairing a board meeting requires understanding the company's strategy in the deepest way, forming a coherent view of coming market changes and setting a tone for the discussion. Anything that anyone does at work, from the most basic task to the most exalted, is an improvable skill.

Adopting a new mindset
Armed with that mindset, people go at a job in a new way. Research shows they process information more deeply and retain it longer. They want more information on what they're doing and seek other perspectives. They adopt a longer-term point of view. In the activity itself, the mindset persists. You aren't just doing the job, you're explicitly trying to get better at it in the larger sense.

Again, research shows that this difference in mental approach is vital. For example, when amateur singers take a singing lesson, they experience it as fun, a release of tension. But for professional singers, it's the opposite: They increase their concentration and focus on improving their performance during the lesson. Same activity, different mindset.

Feedback is crucial, and getting it should be no problem in business. Yet most people don't seek it; they just wait for it, half hoping it won't come. Without it, as Goldman Sachs leadership-development chief Steve Kerr says, "it's as if you're bowling through a curtain that comes down to knee level. If you don't know how successful you are, two things happen: One, you don't get any better, and two, you stop caring." In some companies, like General Electric, frequent feedback is part of the culture. If you aren't lucky enough to get that, seek it out.

Be the ball
Through the whole process, one of your goals is to build what the researchers call "mental models of your business" - pictures of how the elements fit together and influence one another. The more you work on it, the larger your mental models will become and the better your performance will grow.

Andy Grove could keep a model of a whole world-changing technology industry in his head and adapt Intel (Charts) as needed. Bill Gates, Microsoft's (Charts) founder, had the same knack: He could see at the dawn of the PC that his goal of a computer on every desk was realistic and would create an unimaginably large market. John D. Rockefeller, too, saw ahead when the world-changing new industry was oil. Napoleon was perhaps the greatest ever. He could not only hold all the elements of a vast battle in his mind but, more important, could also respond quickly when they shifted in unexpected ways.

That's a lot to focus on for the benefits of deliberate practice - and worthless without one more requirement: Do it regularly, not sporadically.

Why?
For most people, work is hard enough without pushing even harder. Those extra steps are so difficult and painful they almost never get done. That's the way it must be. If great performance were easy, it wouldn't be rare. Which leads to possibly the deepest question about greatness. While experts understand an enormous amount about the behavior that produces great performance, they understand very little about where that behavior comes from.

The authors of one study conclude, "We still do not know which factors encourage individuals to engage in deliberate practice." Or as University of Michigan business school professor Noel Tichy puts it after 30 years of working with managers, "Some people are much more motivated than others, and that's the existential question I cannot answer why.

The critical reality is that we are not hostage to some naturally granted level of talent. We can make ourselves what we will. Strangely, that idea is not popular. People hate abandoning the notion that they would coast to fame and riches if they found their talent. But that view is tragically constraining, because when they hit life's inevitable bumps in the road, they conclude that they just aren't gifted and give up.

Maybe we can't expect most people to achieve greatness. It's just too demanding. But the striking, liberating news is that greatness isn't reserved for a preordained few. It is available to you and to everyone.

How Greatness Doesn't Happen.

Greatness takes years of focused practice to become that top millionth at what you do; you can't get that overnight. Instead, the information age has made our minds bent on constantly looking for the next great opportunity. The common mindset among the business world and pop culture: "Give me a couple of months, and I'll become the greatest freakin' badass you'll ever see." For instance, you'll find these common themes:•Silicon Valley: founders with 2-month managerial experiences believing they know "intuitively" how to manage an eventual multi-million dollar corporation
•American Idol: singers with 2-month resumes blasting American Idol judges for not appreciating their "talents"
•Fashion District: designers with 2-month pedigrees thinking they'll kick the asses of Christian Dior, Betsey Johnson, and Yves Saint-Laurent in about a year
•Web 2.0: entrepreneurs with 2-month programming expertise declaring they'll learn and write the best application in the world, making billions in no time.
One problem with the above: Greatness doesn't take two months, or even a year. It takes years of focused practice to achieve even an ounce of it.

Why Conventional Wisdom about Greatness Sucks
When people hold onto the "I'll-be-the-greatest-badass-overnight" mindset, they trap themselves into a vicious never-ending cycle: constantly jumping from opportunity-to-opportunity trying to impossibly kick ass in something overnight. Think of any person you know trying to "re-invent" themselves. Likely:

1.It didn't happen.
2.It took them years to do it.
It's a reason why actors don't immediately become great singers. It's a reason why singers don't become great actors. It's a reason why practically all ridiculously successful entrepreneurs can't build another billion-dollar venture in a different industry. It's also a reason why track stars don't become great football wide receivers: We mean besides, common wisdom says amazingly fast 100-meter sprinters should become great football wide receivers, right? The quicker you beat your defender to a destination, the better you are at exploiting the defender, no? The reason why track stars have sucked as wide receivers in the NFL: They haven't developed the proper fundamentals, the footwork, the football instincts, and the play-making abilities that takes years to master. That concept also explains why soccer stars have failed miserably as field goal kickers in the NFL.

How Greatness Happens
Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Mohandas Gandhi, the Wright Brothers, Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Henry Ford, Bruce Lee, Whitney Houston needed more than ten years to develop their talents before the world started noticing. As did Warren Buffett, Nelson Mandela, Katharine Hepburn, Michael Jordan, Abraham Lincoln, Tiger Woods, and Michael Schumacher. As did anybody else who's rocked the mutha flukkin world. According to K. Anders Ericsson, achieving greatness takes years of strenuous and deliberate practice to achieve it. In a 1993 study, he explained what distinguished greatness:The critical difference between expert musicians differing in the level of attained solo performance concerned the amounts of time they had spent in solitary practice during their music development, which totaled around 10,000 hours by age 20 for the best experts, around 5,000 hours for the least accomplished expert musicians and only 2,000 hours for serious amateur pianists.Ericsson found the same theme with other musicians, chess players, and athletes (and according to Fortune Mag: surgeons, and salespeople). The point: If you want to majorly kick ass at something, start practicing like a fervent badass, knowing that you'll need years before you even see a hint of greatness.

How Do You Become Great at Kicking ?
Greatness comes not from just practicing," but practicing efficiently. For instance, you could shoot basketballs for ten years -- but you won't become the world's best unless you do what Ericsson calls: "deliberate practice." That means that you use every practice opportunity to deliberately improve what you do. Fortune editor Geoffrey Colvin describes that with a sweet analogy in his latest issue:
Simply hitting a bucket of balls is not deliberate practice, which is why most golfers don't get better. Hitting an eight-iron 300 times with a goal of leaving the ball within 20 feet of the pin 80 percent of the time, continually observing results and making appropriate adjustments, and doing that for hours every day that's deliberate practice.
The moral:Greatness comes from years of kicking in practice.
How to Aspire to be Great.
William Shakespeare said, in Twelfth Night, that 'Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' You are capable of a greatness far beyond and above your grasp of imagination. Your present situation in life is nothing but a crossroad for you to decide whether you want to be better or stay the way you are. It is definitely your call to make.

YOU CAN BE MORE AND DO MORE.You can do exceedingly, abundantly and above what you expect of yourself. Only put your mind, heart and will to it. There is nothing impossible under the sun. The only thing standing between you and greatness is your indecision.

DON'T BUY INTO LIES ABOUT YOU.It has been said over and over that a certain kind of person cannot achieve a certain kind of greatness. Blah-blah-blah. There is not a single expert on human greatness. Everyone is either a speculator or spectator. It is your life. Make it better by making the right decisions.

GO TO ANOTHER PLACE IF YOU HAVE TO.
Ira Alridge was the first black acting superstar in Europe. Born in the United States in 1807, Alridge realized that slavery and racism were real barriers to his acting career. Guess what he did? He moved to England and became the first black actor to play Shakespearean parts. Sometimes, the biggest barrier to your success is your location. Change locations and give yourself a chance to be great.

DETERMINE TO SUCCEED, NO MATTER WHAT.
Whatever happens, keep doing the right thing. Only death can stop your march to greatness. Apart from death, there is no excuse to pause or falter in your march to greatness.

CIRCUMSTANCES CHALLENGE DREAMS, THEY DON'T CHANGE THEM.
Lack of money, debt and bills. These things won't go away. Yet they should not be allowed to change our plans. Yes, they will challenge our dreams. They will slow down our goals. They will cause a setback but they must never, ever change our dreams.

YOU CAN BECOME ANYTHING.
Put it in your mind when you see Bill Gates, Barack Obama and Nelson Mandela that you can be like them. You know why these guys are great? They never gave up on themselves. They fell but they rose. They had challenges but they overcame them.

START RIGHT NOW.
So what are you waiting for? Get a pen and paper. Begin to write down what you want to do with your life. Stick to the plan you make. Work hard and happy. Do not let anything take your eyes off the prize.

Dr:SAmmy D.James

You can cross the lines,if you want too.Dr:Sammy D.James

I try to help you understand something.The reason why i took Bill Clinton has a reference.Obama,Oprah,Myles Munroe,Jean B Aristide,Jacob Zuma, Francisco P Gomez,Bill Gates,Lula,Billy Graham.Think of the greatest athlete, musician, artist or business professional that inspires you. The amazing talents that really stand out. Michael Jordan. Tiger Woods. Warren Buffett. They were each born with a special gift: wired from birth with talents and abilities that most of us don’t have access to, right?Research is showing that it’s not that simple. In fact, many child prodigies don’t go on to major success in the area of their early gifts. And many of the greatest performers, athletes and business people never showed any early signs of aptitude.

The Research on Great Performance.
In 1993, Florida State University professor K. Anders Ericsson and his colleagues published a paper on ‘expert performance’ which, along with the additional studies around the world that it inspired, made some very interesting discoveries:

•Nobody is “great” without lots of work. Early aptitude is not a predictor for greatness in a given field without consistent practice over a long period of time.
•The most accomplished people in any field need about 10 years of hard work before they become “world class”. They call this the 10 Year Rule.
Many of these scientists are now saying that “targeted” natural gifts do not exist at all. You are not born a CEO or chess grandmaster. Rather, greatness is achieved by hard, focused work over many years.

Charlie Parker, widely considered one of the most influential of Jazz musicians, showed no sign of musical talent as a child. He started playing saxophone at age 11, and was thrown out of his high school band because he was so bad. But this drove him to practice intensively for many years, for four years up to 15 hours a day. It was many years after that before he was noticed.

Tiger Woods started practicing golf at 18 months, and was encouraged to practice by his father. He had been practicing intensively for 15 years before winning the U.S. Amateur Championship at age 18.

But you and I both know people who work very hard. Many work for decades at a job or hobby without approaching greatness. Why don’t they become “world class”, then?

It turns out that it’s not just hard work that is required. What is required is focused, consistent practice over a long period of time. Something the researchers are calling deliberate practice.

Deliberate Practice

Truly great people in any field devote many hours to deliberate practice. Deliberate practice is an activity that goes beyond repetition. It is consistent practice where the goal is to continually improve performance, reaching beyond your current capabilities, and seeking feedback on results.

The Deliberate Practice Formula
1.Approach each critical task with an explicit goal of getting much better at it. Set goals that are just beyond your level of competency.
2.As you do the task, focus on what’s happening and why you’re doing it the way you are.
3.After the task, get feedback on your performance from multiple sources. Don’t get emotional about it, and make changes in your behavior as necessary.
4.Continually build mental models of your situation – of your industry, your company, your career. Expand the models to encompass more factors. (A good book on the concept of mental models is The Power of Impossible Thinking by Yoram Wind and Colin Cook).
5.Do those steps regularly, not sporadically. Occasional practice does not work. Consistency is the key here.

What Does This All Mean?
We don’t have to be born with a special talent in order to be great at something. We just have to have the desire to constantly work at and improve our skill. This is huge: it means that you can learn to be good, or even great at nearly anything!

Most people won’t go through the long and difficult process of deliberate practice. But this is what can separate you from the pack. This is what makes great performance rare: most people either don’t believe they can do it, or aren’t willing to do the work to become truly great at their passion.

So ask yourself, what is your ‘mastery skill’? What should you work on to improve regularly, practicing, getting feedback, improving and pushing yourself to higher levels of excellence?

Is it your career? Is it a sport? Is it art or music? Now that you know that excellence is a choice, a whole world of possibilities opens up. Are you ready to pursue your dream and become “world class at it?
Dr:Sammy D.James

God is first.

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The Sammy Charisma: A Legacy of Leadership. coming Soon
The world eyes is upon you and I.

God's Vision for You!
In God's master plan everyone is created with many things in common. Yet each is distinct from any other human being.
God has a great plan, a vision. And that vision includes you. Yes, it does, or you would not be here. You are special. You are different from anyone else. The great Creator God personally designed and made you that way. Therefore, you have a contribution to offer that no one else can make.

It is said that the difference between a chump and a champ is dedication, and dedication demands purpose, faith and vision-daily vision.

Having vision means being able to visualize. Visualizing is the beginning of fulfilled vision. When we think of an apple, we see it in our mind's eye.

Christians have vision and are able to dream the impossible dream. A man or woman of vision (of faith) fully believes the impossible dream is possible. I believe in this type of vision. How about you?

God's master plan
In God's master plan everyone is created with many things in common with everyone else. Yet each person is distinct from any other human being.

In God's sight you are not a washout. You are not a complete failure. You are not a hopeless sinner. God says you are worth having. You are worth loving. God's greatest physical creation is you.

Accept this fact: You have value and are not inferior to anyone. Different. Yes, wonderfully different. Remember, you are God's idea; and He never makes a mistake. You were not made to be exactly like any other person. But each of us was made for a purpose. God had a vision about you and has a vision for you. If you don't know God's present and ultimate vision for you personally, right now, let me share it with you.

"And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams" (Acts 2:17).

The apostle Paul summarizes God's will and vision for all humanity in a nutshell: ". . . God our Savior . . . desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3, 4).

God, through His Son Jesus Christ, reveals the knowledge of truth Paul is referring to: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved" (John 3:16, 17).

That is God's vision prepared and outlined for mankind, including you. It is the offering of, and the way to, eternal life in the kingdom of God: "That whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:15). "They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God" (Luke 13:29).

Revealing! Exciting! Awesome!
But is such a thing really possible? Maybe you are skeptical. Well, so were some of Jesus' disciples. "But Jesus looked at them and said, `With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible'" (Mark 10:27). There's the answer. Jesus said all things are possible to him who really believes they are possible, and according to God's will.

In Acts 2:38 and 39, the apostle Peter outlines the process, the steps, to begin fulfilling God's vision for you. "Then Peter said to them, `Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.'"

Christ then begins to live within you through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Colossians 1:27; Ephesians 3:16, 17).

In the book of Romans, God continues to explain His personal vision for you, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Romans 8:11).

In subsequent verses He nails down in detail His ultimate purpose and vision for you: your magnificent destiny, why you were born. "For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:13, 14).

Hard to believe, but true. Your destiny envisioned by the Creator God is to become His very own son or daughter. His child. His family, His heirs. Read on in Romans 8:16, 17: "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ . . ." There is not, nor can there be, a greater hope or destiny.

Are you being called?
Will you act to fulfill God's vision for you? Those called now are invited to be living examples of a better way, a richer and fuller life. You are called to the joy of sharing God's vision for mankind with others, called to be trendsetters in high moral values and conduct, in physical and spiritual integrity. You are called to leadership through service, called to sonship. "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12).

The Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, does change lives, and for the better. Christians, bought and paid for by the death and blood of Christ, have been wonderfully invited by God to join Him in His vision for mankind. In baptism, we covenant with Him and fully dedicate our lives to His purpose for us.

In Matthew 20:26-28 Jesus said, ". . . But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave-just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many."

While still in this life, your opportunity is "by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service" (Romans 12:1). Wherever you are, work every day to be the best person you can be, doing the best you can do with what you have to do with, to the glory of God.
Yes, this is your destiny, God's vision for you!

God's Purpose for Mankind
We believe God's purpose for mankind is to prepare those whom He calls-and who elect through a life of overcoming sin, developing righteous character and growing in grace and knowledge-to possess God's Kingdom and become kings and priests reigning with Christ at His return. We believe that the reason for mankind's existence is literally to be born as spirit beings into the family of God (Romans 6:15-16; 8:14-17,30; Acts 2:39; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 3:5; 5:10).

The Feast of Pentecost: The Firstfruits of God's Harvest

In the process of revealing His plan of salvation for mankind, God established His annual Holy Days around the harvest seasons in the Middle East (Leviticus 23:9-16; Exodus 23:14-16). Just as His people harvested their crops around these three festival seasons, God's Holy Days show us how He is harvesting people for eternal life in His Kingdom.
The Holy Days have meanings that build upon each other. Together they progressively reveal how God works with humanity.

Earlier we saw Passover symbolizing Christ's giving of Himself for us so our sins could be forgiven. We also learned how the Days of Unleavened Bread teach us that we must remove and avoid sin, whether in actions or attitudes. The next Holy Day, Pentecost, builds on this important foundation.

This festival is known by several names, which derive from its meaning and timing. Also known as the Feast of Harvest (Exodus 23:16), it represents the firstfruits (Numbers 28:26) gathered as the result of the labor of those who completed the spring grain harvests in ancient Israel (Exodus 23:16).

It is also called the Feast of Weeks (Exodus 34:22), with this name coming from the seven weeks plus one day (50 days in all) that are counted to determine when to celebrate this festival (Leviticus 23:16). Similarly, in the New Testament, which was written in Greek, this festival is known as Pentecost (Pentekostos in the original), which means "fiftieth" (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, "Pentecost").

Among Jews the most popular name for this festival is the Feast of Weeks, or shavuot, in Hebrew. When celebrating this festival, many Jewish people recall one of the greatest events in history, God's revealing of the law at Mount Sinai.

But Pentecost doesn't just picture the giving of the law; it also shows—through a great miracle that occurred on the first Pentecost in the early Church—how to keep the spiritual intent of God's laws.

The gift of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit
God chose the first Pentecost after Jesus Christ's resurrection to pour out the Holy Spirit on 120 believers (Acts 1:15). "Now when the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues [languages], as the Spirit gave them utterance" (Acts 2:1-4).

The speaking in various languages occurred as a crowd of people gathered in Jerusalem, with each visitor hearing the speech of the disciples in his own native tongue (verses 6-11). These astounding events demonstrated the presence of the Holy Spirit.

At first the people of Jerusalem who witnessed this miraculous phenomenon were astonished, with some attributing the actions of the Christians to drunkenness (Acts 2:12-13). The apostle Peter, now filled with the Holy Spirit, boldly explained the event to the crowd as a fulfillment of Joel's prophecy: "And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh" (Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28).

Peter explained how his listeners could also receive this Spirit: "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:38-39).

God used these miracles and Peter's preaching to add 3,000 people to His Church in one day. These converts were all baptized and received the Holy Spirit (verses 40-41). From this pivotal point, God's Spirit has been available to all who truly repent and are properly baptized. The Day of Pentecost is an annual reminder that God poured out His Spirit to establish His Church, the group of believers who are led by His Spirit.

Why we need God's Spirit
Humanly speaking, no matter how hard we try not to, we still sin (1 Kings 8:46; Romans 3:23). Acknowledging this inherent weakness of humanity, God lamented in Deuteronomy 5:29, "Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments that it might be well with them and with their children forever!"

Here God explains that humankind has a heart problem. Academic knowledge of the law does not enable us to think like God. Becoming godly in our thoughts, attitudes and actions is beyond the comprehension and ability of men and women without an additional ingredient: God's Spirit.

God's way of thinking produces peace, happiness and concern for others. Jesus complimented a lawyer who correctly quoted the essence of God's law: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind" and "[love] your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). This man cited Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, from two books of the Pentateuch. Jesus here confirmed that the Old Testament scriptures are based on these two great principles of love (Matthew 22:40).

The essence of God's law is love (Romans 13:8-10; 1 Thessalonians 4:9). God gave His commandments because He loves us. Writing to brethren who had God's Spirit, John said, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome" (1 John 5:2-3).

Because God's Spirit was now residing in the Church, its members could express genuine love. "A new commandment I give to you," Jesus had said, "that you love one another; as I have loved you ... By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34-35). God's gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost made it possible for the Church to fully express God's commandments of love.

Jesus Christ: the firstfruits of eternal life
Firstfruits are the first agricultural products to mature and ripen. Throughout the Bible, God uses the analogy of the harvest—and, particularly on Pentecost, firstfruits—to illustrate aspects of His plan of salvation. Israel observed this day in the late spring after the barley and wheat harvests. A special offering of the first ripe grain during the Days of Unleavened Bread, called the wave-sheaf offering, marked the beginning of these harvests, which continued during the next 50 days and led up to Pentecost (Leviticus 23:11). This spring harvest was the firstfruits of the yearly agricultural cycle.

One of the first harvest lessons of the New Testament is that Jesus Christ "is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20). The wave-sheaf offering represented Jesus Christ, who was the "firstborn over all creation" and the "firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:15, 18). He presented Himself to God the Father as a type, or example, of firstfruits on the Sunday after His resurrection, the same day during the Days of Unleavened Bread on which the first sheaf of grain of the spring harvest was waved before God.

Early on the first day of the week (Sunday morning), while it was still dark and Jesus had already been resurrected (John 20:1), Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and discovered that the rock in front of it had already been rolled away. She ran to notify Peter and John that Jesus was no longer in His grave. The two men hurried to the tomb and verified that Jesus was gone (John 20:2-10). After Peter and John left for their homes, Mary Magdalene stood outside Jesus' place of interment (verse 11). As she wept, Jesus appeared to her but would not allow her to touch Him because He had "not yet ascended" to the Father (John 20:17).

Later that same day Jesus appeared again. This time He allowed certain women to touch Him (Matthew 28:9). His own words show that, between the time Mary Magdalene saw Him and the time He allowed the women to touch Him, Christ had ascended to, and had been accepted by, the Father.

The wave-sheaf ceremony God gave to ancient Israel thus represents Jesus Christ's acceptance by His Father as "the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:20).

The Church as firstfruits
Romans 8:29 speaks of Jesus Christ as "the firstborn of many brethren." Yet the New Testament Church is also considered to be firstfruits. In speaking of the Father, James said, "Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures" (James 1:18).

God's Spirit within us identifies us and sanctifies us-sets us apart as Christians. "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ," wrote Paul, "he is not His," and "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God" (Romans 8:9, 14).

Paul also referred to the brethren as those "who have the firstfruits of the Spirit" (verse 23). He alluded to several first-century Christians as the firstfruits of God's calling (Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:15).

The significance of the Bible writers calling these people of God firstfruits becomes evident when we consider John 14:6. Here Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

How many, throughout the centuries, have really accepted and practiced the way of life Jesus taught? Even today many people have simply never heard much, if anything, about Jesus Christ. How will God offer them salvation?

Few people understand that God follows a systematic plan, symbolized by His Holy Days, to save all humanity by offering all people eternal life in His Kingdom. In this world we are simply at the beginning of the harvest for the Kingdom of God.

The apostle Paul understood this: "But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep ... For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ's at His coming" (1 Corinthians 15:20, 22-23). Anyone who is now called and chosen by God is included with Christ as God's firstfruits (James 1:18).

The Bible teaches us that God must call people (John 6:44; 6:63). Our Creator, therefore, controls the timing of His harvest. When God founded His Church by imparting His Spirit to certain believers on the Day of Pentecost in A.D. 31, He was expanding His spiritual harvest. It was the beginning of what Joel prophesied, that God will ultimately pour out His Spirit on "all flesh" (Joel 2:28-29; Acts 2:14-17).

The Holy Spirit at work
The coming of the Holy Spirit dramatically changed the lives of these early Christians. The book of Acts is filled with accounts of the early Church's remarkable spiritual impact on the surrounding society. A transformation was so evident that nonbelievers accused the Christians of "turning the world upside down" (Acts 17:6). Such was the dynamic, miraculous power of the Holy Spirit.

To fully grasp how God's Spirit can work with us, we must comprehend what the Holy Spirit is. It is not a person who, along with God the Father and Christ the Son, forms a "Holy Trinity." In Scripture the Holy Spirit is described as the power of God at work in our lives (Acts 1:8; Romans 15:13, 19), the same power that was at work in the ministry of Jesus Christ (Luke 4:14; Acts 10:38).

This divine power allows us to be "led by the Spirit of God" (Romans 8:14). It was this same power that transformed the lives of the early Christians and is the power working in the Church today. Paul told Timothy that God's Spirit is a "spirit of ... power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7).

Pentecost serves as an annual reminder that our Creator still works miracles, granting His Spirit to the firstfruits of His spiritual harvest, empowering them to carry out His work in this world.


Understanding God Through Christ
He who has seen Me has seen the Father.(John 14:9).
The Bible is full of often-overlooked keys that can resolve many of our misunderstandings about God and His Word. In reading the Scriptures one may vaguely sense these things but somehow never clearly see them because of misleading misconceptions about Scripture.

Jesus Christ came to reveal God the Father (Matthew 11:27). Yet mainstream Christianity continually deemphasizes the role of the Father and focuses almost exclusively on Christ. Such thinking never originated with Jesus Himself. He told us to pray in this manner: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:9-10). Jesus always endeavored to acquaint people with the Father and point them toward Him.

Not truly comprehending the four Gospel accounts, the world suffers from a grievous misunderstanding of God the Father. The biblical reality is often the opposite of the way many, even those in the mainstream religious establishment, usually picture Him.

The Father is intimately concerned with the whole creation. Even the falling of a sparrow gains His attention. Yet Christ said that human beings are of more value than sparrows, and the Father is deeply concerned with His master plan for humanity.

He sends rain on the just and the unjust. He is kind to unthankful and evil human beings. He is merciful (Luke 6:35-36), putting up with much from a wayward mankind. He is patient towards us all, always hoping for full repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

God the Father is especially concerned with the "firstfruits"—those called to eternal life now in this age—and particularly those vulnerable "little ones" who are in the first stages of conversion (Matthew 18:6-14). Christians who are more mature are firmly advised to be cautious and not to offend "one of these little ones" (verse 10).

The Son, Jesus Christ, while human demonstrated the way the Father thinks and lives. Truly He came to reveal the Father. It is through Christ Himself—through His life and work, through His sterling example—that we more completely comprehend the Father's nature and character. Many often overlook this crucial biblical principle.

Christ reflects the Father

The New Testament sheds much light on how we are to understand the Old Testament, especially matters about the Father and the Son.

Again, Hebrews 1:2-3 tells us: "[God] has in these last days spoken unto us by His [or 'a'] Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who [is] the brightness of His [the Father's] glory, and the express image of His Person . . ." Christ was exactly like the Father.

In this particular verse image is translated from the Greek word charakter. This term means "'a tool for [en]graving' . . . [or] 'a stamp' or 'impress,' as on a coin or seal, in which case the seal or die which makes an impression bears the 'image' produced by it, and, vice versa, all the features of the 'image' correspond respectively with those of the instrument producing it" (Vine's Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words, 1985, "Image," p. 319).

No wonder Christ told Philip, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). Christ is the express image of God the Father. We can gain much understanding from Jesus' conversation with His apostles. He had said to Thomas, "No one comes to the Father except through Me" (verse 6). Jesus came to reveal the Father. Christ continued, "If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him" (verse 7).

It is easy to speedily read right over these words and not grasp their significance. The Bible is not a book for speed-reading or careless skimming. Understanding its depth of meaning requires calm meditation and deep thought. We should make it a habit to pause to reflect on the meaning of what we read.

The disciples were not yet converted—not yet begotten of the Holy Spirit—and therefore did not comprehend the incredible meaning of what Jesus was saying. Christ had told Peter in another place, ". . . When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren" (Luke 22:32, KJV). During the first foot-washing ceremony, at the time of the Passover, He had said to Peter, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand" (John 13:7, NRSV).

After Christ's resurrection, God would send His Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and then the disciples would begin to understand (John 14:16-17; 16:12-13). But let's return to Christ's discourse with the disciples.

Philip joined the conversation. He said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us" (John 14:8). Plainly Philip had not understood what Christ had just said to Thomas in verse 7.

"Jesus said to him, 'Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?" (verse 9).

Jesus gently rebuked Philip for his lack of understanding. Yet the other disciples were in the same boat. Even today most people don't fully realize the spiritual impact of Christ's words. Though They were two separate individuals, Jesus was the express image of the Father. Jesus Christ was exactly like God the Father—yet the Bible clearly shows that They were and are two separate Beings.

We understand God the Father through Christ. We comprehend the Father's nature and character through the Son—not through ancient philosophies or the incomplete, often-misleading knowledge of fallible human beings.

Comprehending the nature of spirit

Through the actual experience of Christ, the four Gospel accounts throw much light on how we are to comprehend the nature of spirit when comparing it with flesh in the person of Christ.

Consider the spirit world and ask yourself: Do spirit beings have form? Do they have discernible spirit bodies? Do they possess personality? Do they have faces? Do they have voices?

Can human eyes see God? Under certain protective conditions, yes, as God testified of Moses: "He sees the form of the LORD" (Numbers 12:8). Putting all the pertinent scriptures together, we see that this divine Being was the preexistent Word of John 1:1 rather than God the Father.

Unique in all Scripture, under protective measures Moses was even allowed to see the back parts of God in His glorified form (Exodus 33:18-23). However, he was not permitted to view God's face in full glory because, since it shines as the sun in full strength, Moses would have perished on the spot (verse 20).

On another important occasion, after the giving of the Ten Commandments, Moses, Aaron, Aaron's two sons and 70 elders of Israel "saw the God of Israel. Under His feet there was . . . a pavement of sapphire, clear blue as the very heavens" (Exodus 24:9-10, REB). Presumably in this situation, too, the preexistent Word shielded them from the full intensity of His glory.

The face of God

Such questions become even more intriguing if we apply them to God the Father, "Lord of heaven and earth" (Matthew 11:25), Great Ruler over the entire universe. Christ gives us much insight as we explore the answers—not only by His own testimony, but by His appearances to the disciples after His resurrection to eternal spirit life.

Obviously the angels in heaven can see the Father. The plain biblical evidence is found in Matthew 18:10. Jesus said, "Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven."

In his book The Human Face, Daniel McNeill asks: "Does the Christian God have a face? The Bible says he made people in his own image, which suggests he does" (1998, p. 140). That would be the normal conclusion of almost anyone not previously indoctrinated by erroneous philosophies that date back to ancient times.

The apostle John recorded much of what Jesus said about the Father. John 1:18 is a case in point: "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him." Again, Christ came to reveal the Father. God can be seen, but Jesus is the only human being who has ever seen Him face to face in His full, glorified form.

A little later in John's Gospel account, Christ said to a Samaritan woman, ". . . The hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth" (John 4:21-24). God the Father is not physical; He is spirit—yet that does not mean He is without form and shape.

Christ stated: "And the Father Himself, who sent Me, has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form" (John 5:37). Yet it is plainly implied from these passages in the book of John that the Father can be both seen and heard, but not by human eyes. He has been seen only by the Son (John 6:45-46) and the angelic host—plus a few human beings, including the Hebrew prophet Daniel and the apostle John, through visions.

Because Jesus said, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father" (John 14:9), the resemblance between the Father and the Son must be strong in more ways than we could humanly imagine. Still, They are two distinctly separate Beings who continually plan and confer with each other.

Restoration: Not by Might nor by Power

September marks the 70th anniversary of the start of World War II in 1939. Ceremonies across Europe will note this time as leaders of former antagonists, Germany and Russia, will commemorate it with speeches about peace, unity and better understanding. Unmentioned in all this will be a fundamental cause of the great global conflict.

World War II, like any past war, sprang from failed ideologies of nations bent on creating utopian world orders based on their views. Hitler wanted a world based on Nazism. Stalin desired a rule based on the totalitarian views of communist socialism. Both men created monstrous systems of evil that led to the death of tens of millions of humans. So much for peace and happiness.

This has been the legacy of every humanly devised government and social system intending to create the perfect world. No system created by man has brought about the utopian world promised by God through the prophets of the Bible. These images of a world at peace have inspired the ages.

Isaiah's vision of the wolf living with the lamb, the leopard lying down with a goat and a little child in the midst of this pastoral scene is one of the most beautiful and hopeful in the entire Bible. Venomous snakes are rendered harmless as children interact safely with them. "They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:6-9).

This scene has been drawn by artists as "the peaceable kingdom" and stands as the ideal hope for mankind. Yet sadly, despite the best efforts and intentions of philosophers, politicians, religious leaders and social reformers, it has not happened. At no point in history has any human agency been able to create this scene for any appreciable length of time.

Reading through the prophets you must conclude that only God can bring about the reality called the Millennium, the thousand-year-long reign of Christ on the earth as the long foretold Messiah. Every revolutionary of the modern world has tried to impose his or her vision of a perfect and just world. The murder of millions of people has been justified in the human pursuit of this goal.

In this issue we have an article about the age-old dream to have the entire world at peace. Reading the scriptures on the subject and studying the historical path of the teaching, there is only one conclusion you can draw. It is that if you believe in God and His Word, the Bible, you must believe it is in His power to bring about the conditions of the messianic age. You must also conclude that it is only God, not any humanly devised system or substitute, who can create this perfect world of peace, justice and harmony. Its creation rests only with God and no other human effort.

The words of Zechariah 4:6 remind us such realities must come from God. "This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of hosts."

To believe God and live with this vision of the future in your mind is to anchor your life around the most important goal and hope a human can have. Living by the laws and principles of that coming Kingdom can make all the difference in your life today. The reign of the Kingdom of God on this earth is more than a dream. It is a living reality that can lift your life beyond anything you can imagine for yourself. Seize it now and begin to live it today.

God's Great Purpose for Man

God's ultimate purpose for mankind is inextricably linked with the ancient question "What is man?"—the question that King David and the patriarch Job posed so many centuries ago.

In what general context did David ask, "What is man?"
"When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet" (Psalm 8:3-6).

Under what circumstances did the patriarch Job ask the same question?
"Let me alone, for my days are but a breath. What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?" (Job 7:16-18).

David was overwhelmed by the awesome majesty of God's purpose for man and expressed His thankfulness in grateful praise to His Creator. In contrast, suffering Job protested that man seems too temporary and insignificant to justify God's perpetual concern and asked God to leave him alone in his misery.

Yet both men pondered why God—having such greater power and majesty—should take such a conspicuous interest in the human race. We need to understand the sense of both scriptural passages so we can fully comprehend the majesty and breadth of God's purpose.

What apostolic book quotes these words of King David?
"What is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You take care of him? You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honor, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet" (Hebrews 2:6-8).

Perhaps more than any other New Testament book, the letter to the Hebrews helps us grasp the basic truths God gave to mankind in what we call the Old Testament.

Does the book of Hebrews elaborate on David's poetic words?
"For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now [in this present age of man] we do not yet see all things put under him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone" (Hebrews 2:8-9).

In the Bible's first book, God gave man dominion over His earthly creation—an awesome responsibility that mankind has only partially fulfilled. The chaotic state of the modern world bears witness to this reality. But the real fulfillment of this whole passage occurs at the time when Jesus Christ returns to reign on earth. All things will be placed under the feet of human beings who will have been resurrected to immortality. We will rule with God and Christ forever in the Kingdom and family of God.

In this particular passage suffering is brought into the picture. Jesus Christ suffered in the flesh so each one of us could be a part of God's Kingdom. The suffering is first, and the glory comes afterwards.

What was the unrealized purpose of Job's sufferings?
"For it was fitting for Him [Jesus], for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Hebrews 2:10).

This is what the patriarch Job did not yet fully comprehend. But Jesus Christ is not the only one who had to suffer. Though our sufferings in no way can compare with His, we must tread the same path. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him," wrote Paul (2 Timothy 2:12, KJV). Indeed, Christ set us an example of how to suffer without complaint. "For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow in His steps" (1 Peter 2:21). Partially through suffering, God is creating in His children His own divine nature and His holy and righteous character (2 Peter 2:1-4). (The subject of suffering will be covered in depth in Lesson 4.)

Those who become like Jesus Christ at the time of the resurrection will be more than just spirit beings similar to Him. They will share the very nature of the Father. God gives that godly nature to such people when they receive the Holy Spirit, but over time they must grow in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18).

Salvation in God's Kingdom is the ultimate purpose of all our lives. It makes worthwhile the good times and the sufferings we experience. Many will be brought to eternal glory—possessing the awesome righteous character of God Himself.

Never underestimate the value of your life. You were born to become one of God's children. You were born to receive His nature. You were born to become a member of the very family of God!

How to Believe in Yourself.
It is the decisions you make, when you have no time to make them, that define who you are"

Believing in yourself is one of the first steps to success. If you don't have confidence in yourself, it will be difficult to succeed in anything.

1. Learn how to make decisions based on your experiences that you believe.If you don't have your own thinking, you can never be successful.
2. Set goals. When you set goals, you have control.
3. Recognize when you achieve your goals, so that you will build your confidence.
4. Consider reasons you fail. Everyone fails to achieve some goal, but if you learn from the failure, you will be more likely to succeed.
5. Use realistic expectations to judge your success. Do not expect to run a four minute mile, until you have trained and conditioned for running.
6. Listen to critics, but never let them convince you that you are less than you are. Some critics will tear you down to make themselves look bigger and better, while others will offer critical advice to help you make changes to improve yourself.
7. Give your time and energy to others. When you do this, you will get positive feed back and get respect from others. These are building blocks for self respect, which is essential to believing in yourself.
8. Believe in yourself, you will do your best.

You and I born to be great,but our greatness is depping on us.Not where we are coming from,or country,or race,or family,Dr:Sammy D.James

It All Began in a Place Called Hope
President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946, in the small town of Hope, Arkansas. He was named after his father, William Jefferson Blythe II, who had been killed in a car accident just three months before his son was born. Needing to find a way to support herself and her new child, Bill Clinton's mother, Virginia Cassidy Blythe, moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, to study nursing. Bill Clinton stayed with his mother's parents in Hope. There he was surrounded by many relatives who gave him love and support and who played a significant role in his upbringing.

Bill Clinton's grandparents, Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, taught him strong values and beliefs. They owned a small grocery store just outside of Hope, and despite the segregation laws of the time, they allowed people of all races to purchase goods on credit. They taught their young grandson that everyone is created equal and that people should not be treated differently because of the color of their skin. This was a lesson Bill Clinton never forgot.

His mother returned from New Orleans with her nursing degree in 1950, when her son was four years old. Later that same year, she married an automobile salesman named Roger Clinton. When Bill Clinton was seven years old, the family moved to Hot Springs, Arkansas. Known for its natural mineral hot springs, its scenic beauty, and its racetrack, Hot Springs was bigger than Hope and offered better employment opportunities. Roger received a higher paying job as a service manager for his brother's car dealer-ship and Virginia was able to find a better job as a nurse anesthetist. In 1956. Bill Clinton's half-brother, Roger Clinton, Jr., was born. When his brother was old enough to enter school, young Bill had his last name legally changed from Blythe to Clinton.

In 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected President. Two years later, when Bill Clinton was a senior in high school, he was selected to go to Washington, D.C., to be a part of Boys Nation, a special youth leadership conference. The young men of Boys Nation and the young women of Girls Nation were invited to the White House to meet President Kennedy. Bill Clinton was one of the first in line to shake President Kennedy's hand in the Rose Garden. That event was one of the most memorable, important experiences of his youth. After that, he knew he wanted to make a difference in the lives of the people of America by becoming President.

That same year, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Bill Clinton watched the speech on television and was so deeply moved by Dr. King's words that he memorized them. He admired Dr. King's gift for communicating a clear vision and his ability to pull people together to work toward a common goal. Dr. King became one of Bill Clinton's heroes.

Inspired by the success of these leaders, young Bill thrived on the hard work that his academic and extracurricular activities required. As an active member of his church, he raised money and organized charity events. Most important, he learned about working with people and being a good citizen. In his spare time, he enjoyed reading. Some of his favorite books were The Silver Chalice, The Last of the Mohicans, The Robe, and Black Beauty.

Playing the saxophone was his favorite pastime. He loved music, practiced every day, and played in jazz ensembles. Each summer, he attended a band camp in the Ozark Mountains. His hard work paid off when he became a top saxophone player at his school and won first chair in the state band's saxophone section.

Bill Clinton recognized that although college would be expensive, it would give him the education he needed to accomplish his goals. His hard work in school, combined with his musical ability, earned him many academic and music scholarships. With the help of those scholarships and loans from the government, he was able to attend Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He chose Georgetown because it had an excellent foreign service program; he was also excited about going to school in the nation's capital.

While earning his Bachelor of Science degree in International Affairs he worked as an intern in the office of Arkansas Senator J. William Fulbright. There he learned how government worked and what it was like to be a politician. He admired Senator Fulbright for his accomplishments and beliefs.

When Bill Clinton finished college in 1968, he won a Rhodes Scholarship, which allows select students to study at Oxford University in England. While at Oxford, he studied government and played rugby. Upon his return to the United States, he began law school at Yale University. At Yale, he continued to work hard. He maintained his interest in government by campaigning for a Senate candidate in Connecticut. He also met Hillary Rodham, whom he would later marry.

When he graduated from law school in 1973, Bill Clinton returned to Arkansas to teach law at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. There he could concentrate on his goal of running for political office. In 1974, he had his first opportunity when he ran for Congress against Republican incumbent John Paul Hammerschmidt. Although he lost the race, Bill Clinton learned much about politics and met people who have remained his lifelong friends. Hillary had joined him in Arkansas and helped him campaign. She also began teaching at the University of Arkansas. They were married on October 11, 1975.

In 1976, Bill Clinton was elected Attorney General of Arkansas. Two years later, at the age of thirty-two, he became the youngest governor in the United States. As governor of Arkansas, he concentrated on improving the state's educational system and building better roads. On February 27, 1980, the Clintons' daughter, Chelsea Victoria, was born. The Clintons describe this day as the happiest one of their lives.

Later that year, in a close election, Governor Clinton lost the race for a second term to Republican Frank White. Feeling that he had not accomplished all that he wanted to do, he ran as the Democratic candidate in the next gubernatorial election. Campaigning throughout the state, he assured the voters that he would address their needs, and he was re-elected in November 1982.

Again, his most important goal as governor was to enhance the quality of education in the state. He raised teachers' salaries and began a program of testing students after the third, sixth, and eighth grades. He also encouraged parents to participate in their children's education. His new educational standards ensured that every child in Arkansas, regardless of the size or wealth of his or her community or of family income level, would receive a quality education.

From August 1986 to August 1987, Governor Clinton served as chairman of the National Governors' Association. During that time, he led the governors' efforts to reform the welfare system and the educational systems of the states.

By the fall of 1991, Governor Clinton believed that the country needed someone with a new vision and plan, and he decided to run for President. He also felt that he had the experience and the best ideas for changing our country for the better. He wanted to strengthen the health care system, to improve the school system, and, most of all, to bolster the economy and create new jobs. He brought his message to the country by going door to door, holding one-on-one talks with people in town hall meetings, and appearing on various talk shows.

After a long primary process, Governor Clinton was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate. He chose Senator Al Gore, of Tennessee to be his vice-presidential running mate. Together, Bill Clinton and Al Gore set out by bus to meet the people of America and to hear about their concerns and their hopes for the future. They campaigned on the concept of "putting people first'---preserving the American Dream, restoring the hopes of the middle class, and reclaiming the future for the nation's children.

When election day arrived on November 3, 1992, voters turned out in record numbers to cast their ballots. Bill Clinton was elected the 42nd President of the United States and Al Gore the 45th Vice President. They had succeeded in bringing the people together in their efforts to change our country.

Throughout his life, President Clinton has worked to make a difference in the lives of others. To him, Hope means more than a small town in Arkansas; it means working to ensure that each American has the opportunity to fulfill his or her dream.

In 1996, the successful Clinton-Gore team ran for re-election, pledging continued leadership in building the bridge to the 21st century, meeting the nation's challenges, and protecting our values. On November 5, 1996, Bill Clinton was once again elected by the American people to serve a second term as President of the United States.

During both Administrations, Bill Clinton has worked to lead our country forward and to ensure that all Americans can make the most of their own lives. This is an age of enormous possibility -- a time when more Americans will be able to live out their dreams than ever before. But it is also a time that poses many challenges. President Clinton believes that to make the most of this exciting era, we must offer opportunity, demand personal responsibility, and come together as a national community.

Learning About Leadership

Be Prepared for Opportunity/
Be a Life Long Learner
Bill Clinton may have been born to a family that suffered a many economic hard knocks. However, his mother and his teachers encouraged him to achieve his full potential. As a result, he attended George Washington University, graduated from Yale University Law School, and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship. He returned to his native state of Arkansas to teach law before becoming governor of Arkansas,Bill Clinton visited the White House as part of a Boys Nation delegation He put himself in position so that if President John F. Kennedy decided to shake hands, he would be among the first to get that handshake. Clinton had created a photo opportunity that he could proudly show his mother.I want to show you something.
Conclusion
Clinton knew how to inspire people to do their best. He knew how to learn from his mistakes so that he could go on. Clinton had an inner vision of himself that could not be shaken by the nay saying of his critics. Time will tell if his leadership and his goals remain timeless.

Why Leadership?

In most football teams the quarterback is the team leader. Why is that? Is there something magic about the position? Does he automatically become the leader -- the guy who makes the team go -- when he is named quarterback by the coach?

No, there's more to it than that. Lots more. Usually he is named quarterback because he's already a leader. He's already the kind of guy the other players like to follow.

And if the coach is wrong about him, he probably won't stay quarterback very long. If he can't lead the team, he won't have much value even if he can hit a receiver at 40 yards. Because every successful team must have a leader.

That goes for your Scouting team, too -- your patrol and your troop. In fact, if the patrol and troop are to succeed, you need several leaders. Guys like yourself who want to try "quarterbacking" in Scouting. One of the aims of your local council Junior Leader Training Conference is to show you how to become a better leader.

Let's begin by being honest about it. This handbook is not going to make you a good leader. You are not going to find 5 or 10 simple rules to follow to become a good leader. If leadership were as easy as that, almost everyone would be a good leader. And you know that most people are not.

There are no rules for leadership. But there are certain skills that every good leader seems to have. You learned about them at your local council Junior Leader Training Conference and have practiced some of them in your troop at home.

Some of these skills you may already have even without knowing it. That's the funny thing about leadership -- a good leader doesn't necessarily know how he does it. He just does what comes naturally and the others follow him. Although he may not know it, he has mastered the skills of leadership.

This doesn't mean we guarantee that you'll be elected student council president next year. Or that you will be the Super Bowl quarterback 15 years from now or President of the United States in 35 years. But we do guarantee that you can make yourself a much better leader in just a few weeks or months.

What Is Leadership?

Leadership is a process of getting things done through people. The quarterback moves the team toward a touchdown. The senior patrol leader guides the troop to a high rating at the camporee. The mayor gets the people to support new policies to make the city better.

These leaders are getting things done by working through people -- football players, Scouts, and ordinary citizens. They have used the process of leadership to reach certain goals.

Leadership is not a science. So being a leader is an adventure because you can never be sure whether you will reach your goal -- at least this time. The touchdown drive may end in a fumble. The troop may have a bad weekend during the camporee. Or the city's citizens may not be convinced that the mayor's policies are right. So these leaders have to try again, using other methods. But they still use the same process the process of good leadership.

Leadership means responsibility. It's adventure and often fun, but it always means responsibility. The leader is the guy the others look to to get the job done. So don't think your job as a troop leader or a staff member will be just an honor. It's more than that. It means that the other Scouts expect you to take the responsibility of getting the job done. If you lead, they will do the job. If you don't, they may expect you to do the job all by yourself.

That's why it's important that you begin right now to learn what leadership is all about.

Wear your badge of office proudly. It does not automatically make you a good leader. But it identifies you as a Scout who others want to follow -- if you'll let them by showing leadership.

You are not a finished leader. No one ever is, not even a president or prime minister. But you are an explorer of the human mind because now you are going to try to learn how to get things done through people. This is one of the keys to leadership.

You are searching for the secrets of leadership. Many of them lie locked inside you. As you discover them and practice them, you will join a special group of people-skilled leaders.

Good exploring -- both in this handbook and with the groups you will have a chance to lead.

The Tasks of Leadership

In this section, we will consider several common statements about the people who serve in leadership positions throughout our world. After you have read the statement, decide for yourself whether you feel it is true or false and why you think it is.

Here is the first one. True or false?

The only people who lead have some kind of leadership job, such as chairman, coach, or king.

Do you think that's true? Don't you believe it. It's true that chairmen, coaches, and kings lead, but people who hold no leadership position also lead. And you can find some people who have a leader's title and ought to lead. But they don't.

In other words, you are not a leader because you wear the leader's hat. Or because you wear the patrol leader's insignia on your uniform. You are a leader only when you are getting things done through other people.

Leadership, then, is something people do. Some people inherit leadership positions, such as kings, or nobles, or heads of family businesses. Some are elected: chairman, governor, patrol leader. Some are appointed, such as a coach, a city manager, or a den chief. Or they may just happen to be there when a situation arises that demands leadership. A disaster occurs, or a teacher doesn't show up when class begins, or a patrol leader becomes sick on a campout.

Try this statement. Is it true or false?

Leadership is a gift. If you are born with it, you can lead. If you are not, you can't.

Some people will tell you that. Some really believe it. But it's not so.

Leadership does take skill. Not everyone can learn all the skills of leadership as well as anyone else. But most people can learn some of them -- and thus develop their own potential.

You don't have to be born with leadership. Chances are, you weren't. But you were born with a brain. If you can learn to swim or play checkers or do math, you can learn leadership skills.

How about this statement. True or false?

"Leader" is another word for "boss."

Well, what do you mean by "boss"? A guy who pushes and orders other people around? No, a leader is not one of those. (But some people try to lead this way.)

Or do you mean a boss is somebody who has a job to do and works with other people to get it done? This is true. A leader is a boss in that sense.

True or false?

Being a leader in a Scout troop is like being a leader anywhere else.

This one is true. When you lead in a Scout troop, you will do many of the same things as any leader anywhere.

The important thing now is Scouting gives you a chance to lead. You can learn how to lead in Scouting. You can practice leadership in Scouting. Then you can lead other groups, too. The skills you will need are very much the same.

What Does a Leader Deal with?

Every leader deals with just two things. Here they are: the job and the group.

The job is what's to be done. The "job" doesn't necessarily mean work. It could be playing a game. It could be building a skyscraper. It could be getting across an idea.

A leader is needed to get the job done. If there were no job, there would be no need for a leader.

The group, such as a patrol, is the people who do the job. And in many cases, the group continues after the job is done. This is where leading gets tough, as you'll see later.

Think about this situation. Mark has a lot of firewood to split. There he is, all alone with his ax. He's got a job to do. Is he a leader?

We have to say in this situation that Mark won't be leading. Why? No group. There's nobody on the job but Mark.

Here's another example. Danny and three of his friends are on their bikes. They have no place to go. They're just riding slowly, seeing how close they can get to each other.

Is Danny -- or any one of the others -- a leader?

From what we know, we have to say no. Why? No job. There's a group of friends, but nothing special to be done. You don't need a leader for that. (You don't need a group, either.)

The Job of a Leader

A leader works with two things: a job and a group. You can always tell when a leader succeeds, because:

1. The job gets done.

2. The group holds together.

Let's see why it takes both.

Frank was elected patrol leader. That same week, the patrol had a job cleaning up an old cemetery.

It was Frank's first leadership position, and he wanted it to go right. In his daydream he could see the Scoutmaster praising him for the great cleanup job. So when Saturday morning came, Frank and the patrol went over to the cemetery, and Frank started to get the job done.

He hollered. He yelled. He threatened. He called them names. He worked like a tiger himself. It was a rough day, but the cemetery got cleaned up.

Frank went home sort of proud, sort of mad, and very tired.

"How'd things go, Frank?" the Scoutmaster asked a few days later.

"Good."

"No problems?"

"No." Frank wondered what he meant by that.

"Oh! Well, a couple of the boys in your patrol asked me if they could change to another patrol. I thought maybe something had gone wrong...."

And that was how Frank learned that getting the job done isn't all there is to leadership. He had really given the group a hard time, and now they wanted to break up.

Almost anybody with a whip and a mean temper can get a job done. But in doing it, they usually destroy the group. And that's not leadership. The group must go on.

Another new patrol leader called a meeting at his house. Everybody seemed to be hungry when they came. So they got some snacks from the kitchen. Then they tossed a football around. It began to get dark, and one by one they went home. Everybody had fun. But the patrol meeting -- the job -- never started.

One of the following statements is the message of this section. Which one?

a. Nice guys finish last.

b. Mean guys finish last.

c. Leaders get the job done and keep the group going.

d. Leaders have a special title or badge that makes others like to follow.

We'll take the third one. Will you?

What Affects Leadership?

Leadership is not magic that comes out of a leader's head. It's skill. The leader learns how to get the job done and still keep the group together.

Does this mean that the leader does the same things in every situation? No. Here's why.

Leadership differs with the leader, the group, and the situation.

Leaders -- like other people are all different. No leader can take over another leader's job and do it the same way.

Groups are different, too. A great football coach might have difficulty leading an orchestra. A good sergeant might be a poor Scoutmaster. So when a leader changes groups, he changes the way he leads.

Situations differ, too. The same leader with the same group must change with conditions. A fellow leading a group discussion needs to change his style of leadership when a fire breaks out. As a Scout leader, you probably can't lead the group in the rain the same as you do in the sunshine.

An effective leader, then, must be alert at all times to the reaction of the members of the group; the conditions in which he may find himself; and be aware of his own abilities and reactions.

Leadership Develops

Picture a long scale like a yardstick. On the low end, there are no leadership skills. On the other end, there is a complete set of leadership skills.

Everyone is somewhere between those ends!

Where do you find yourself at this time? Unknowingly, you may be further up the scale than you realize. As a staff member you'll now have the opportunity to find out.

How Will You Know You are Improving?

You learn leadership best by working with groups. That is something like learning swimming best by getting into the water.

Yet you can't keep track of your progress without a guide. You must know and understand what you are trying to learn. This means you have to know what the skills of leadership are.
Leadership, a critical management skill, is the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal. These items will help you develop your skills as a leader.