Spirit of Leadership

THE LEADERSHIP SPIRIT

• educational achievements • type of jobs or careers

Again, the desire for power, in itself, isn’t wrong. It’s our attitude toward and use of power that can be harmful. If we don’t desire power of some sort, our natural inclination has been altered by oppression, apathy, fear, or other things. I think that we need to admit to our desire for power before we can become friendly with it. If we deny our penchant for it, we deceive ourselves as well as others. Many people desire to be successful in their work so that they can get the revenue that their companies have promised them, so that they can generate more business, so that they can gain more money, so that they can buy more things, so that they can achieve a better standard of living, so that they can feel important and influential, so that they can do or buy whatever they want. The principal objective is power—power to control their standard of life and circum stances. Gaining wealth, in itself, is not a bad thing, even though many people have been taught to think that it is. The prob lem is how some people go about gaining it and the attitude that they have toward it. According to the first book writ ten by Moses, God told Abraham, the Father of the Jewish people, in effect, “I’m going to bless you and make you a blessing.” Abraham became the richest man in his region. Why would God want to make him rich? In order to give him influence. Abraham was very comfortable with the power that he had. He was not proud but was grateful for it and responsible with it. He had influence with others, and he credited that influence to God.

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