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Significance Begins Here

As the challenge escalates the need for teamwork elevates!

What is your Everest?

You may not be Edmund Hillary or Tenzing Norgay who climb Mt Everest – But I would dare to conclude that you have a BIG DREAM! That said, how will you put together a team to accomplish your big dream? Consider these three questions:

What Is My Dream? This question will reveal what can be. Unless there is a dream there is not much that is going to happen. If you are going to do something great you must have a dream. Great dreams however, require a team.

Who Is On my Team? This question reveals what is – it is a measurement of the current situation. Your potential is only as good as your team. A great dream with a bad team is what is called a nightmare!

What Should My Dream Team Look Like? Your team must be the size of your dream. If your dream is great and your team is pitiful, your dream goes no where.

It would appear that the Team is should be equal to the dream if not beyond. In other words we focus too much on the dream and not the team. Consider these examples:

New Challenge                                        Creative Team

Controversial Challenge                       United Team

Changing Challenge                              Fast & Flexible Team

Unpleasant Challenge                          Motivated Team

Diversified Challenge                          Complementary Team

Long-Term Challenge                        Determined Team

Everest-Sized Challenge                   Experienced Team

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All players have a place where they add the most value

We have all experienced being on teams in where people had taken on roles that did not suit their skill set. What happens to the team in which one or more players are out of position. I believer there are several things that are obvious:

• Morale erodes
• Resentfulness because of poor performance
• Being overlooked when you know you have the talent
• Unwillingness to work as a team
• Confidence erodes
• Competitors take advantage of the obvious weaknesses

This is the Law of the Niche – everyone should be in their proper place in order to function as a high capacity team.

Having the right people in the right places is essential to team building. High capacity teams will change according to the placement of people. Notice:

• The wrong person in the wrong place = Regression
• The wrong person in the right place = Frustration
• The right person in the wrong place = Confusion
• The right person in the right place = Progression
• The right people in the right places = Multiplication

To be able to place each person on the team correctly there are a few obvious points that leaders should not overlook.

You Must Know The Team – You cannot build high capacity teams without knowing the vision, purpose, or culture. If you are unsure as a leader where you are going then any road will take you somewhere. One thing is for sure, you cannot lead a team to its fullest potential until you are clear on vision, purpose, and culture.

You Must Know The Situation – you might clear on the vision, purpose, and culture but understand that situations constantly change. Discerning the situation requires a keen awareness of your surroundings. As teams mature and become mature and adept a leader can then begin to focus on fine-tuning the talent pool and placement into specializations.

You Must Know The Players – It almost seems overly simplistic, but yet it is important – Know the people on your team! Leadership is about assisting people to find their place not getting them to conform to you image! Team members should show respect t leaders, but leaders should not expect team members to be carbon copies of their actions and thought process. Every person has a unique skill set and nuance to bring to the table of discussion.

With these three key things stated regarding leaders, what about your role as a team member? Here are five suggestions.

Be Secure – No amount of personal competency compensates for personal insecurity (Wayne Schmidt). If you allow your insecurities to get the better part of you, you will become inflexible and reluctant to change. In order to grow, you must be willing to change!

Get To Know Yourself – You most likely never discovery your niche without taking time to learn about your strengths and weaknesses. There are various assessment tools to help you. Do a 360 report on yourself that allows others to speak freely and openly into your life.

Trust Your Leader – A good leader will help you start moving in the right direction. If you do not trust your leader, seek the counsel of another mentor or get on another team.

See The Big Picture – Your position on the team only makes sense within the context of the Big Picture. If you discover your personal niche for personal gain only – you are preventing your own progress and you have poor motivation.

Rely on Your Experience – When it comes down to it, the only way to know that you have discovered your niche is to try what seems right and learn from our failures and successes. When you find your place you will say, “there is no place like this place anywhere near this place, so this must be the place!”

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If you think that you are the entire picture, you will never see the big picture!

The goal is more important than the role

In a culture that sings the praises of individual gold medal winners and where people fight for their rights instead of focusing on taking responsibility, people tend to lose sight of the big picture. Everything seems to rotate around their needs, their goals, and their desires.

If a team is to reach its potential, each player must be willing to subordinate his personal goals to the good of the team – Bud Wilkinson.

Leaders at the highest level understand the Law of The Big Picture. They continually keep the vision of the big picture before themselves and their people.

“Everyone on a championship team doesn’t get publicity, but everyone can say he’s a champion” – Magic Johnson

What’s up with Big Picture Team?

So how do people start to become a more unified team? How do individuals make a shift from independent people to team player who exemplify the Law of the Big Picture? It does not happen over night. It takes time. Here are six ways to get started.

Look Up At The Big Picture – Everything starts with vision. You need to have a goal. Without one you cannot have a team. The great Hall of Fame catcher, Yogi Berra once stated, “If you do not know where you are going, you will end up somewhere else.” If you are a leader, then your role is to do what only you can do. Paint the big picture for your followers. Without the vision they will not find the desire to achieve the goal.

Size Up the Situation – One value of seeing the big picture is that it helps you recognize how far you really are from achieving it. Sometimes seeing the gulf between what is and where we need to go can be intimidating. But people who are determined to build strong teams, seeing the size of the task doesn’t worry them. These leaders do not shrink from the task, but embrace the challenge.

Line Up Needed Resources – It has been said that it is alright to aim high if you have plenty of ammunition. That is what resources are – ammunition to reach big goals. If you do not have the appropriate equipment, it does not matter what kind of team you are on. The better resourced a team is the fewer the distractions the team will encounter.

Call Up The Right Players – You can have the a distinct vision, a precise plan, plenty of resources, and incredible leadership. If you do not have the right players on your team, you are not going anywhere. You can lose good players, but you cannot win with bad players!

Give Up Personal Agendas – Winning teams have players that asked, What is the best for the rest? Ray Kroc, founder of McDonalds stated, No one of us is more important than the rest of us.”

Step Up To A Higher Level – Only players come together and give up their own agendas can a team move up to a higher level. That is the sacrifice required for teamwork. Nietzsche once stated, “Many are stubborn in pursuit of the path they have chosen, few in pursuit of the goal.”

When you see the big picture correctly, you serve the team more quickly.

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As much as we enjoy solo achievement, the truth is that no lone individual has done anything of value. The belief that one person can do something great is a myth.

Albert Einstein – “Many times a day I realize how much my outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.”

Economist Lester Thurow – “…In America, halls, of fame exist for almost every conceivable activity, but nowhere do we raise monuments in praise of teamwork.”

President Lyndon Johnson – “There are no problems that we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.”

Gene Wilkes in his book Jesus on Leadership observed the power of teams has deep history within biblical times. He notes that ….

• Teams involve more people, thus affording more resources, ideas, and energy than an individual.
• Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize their weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.
• Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet needs and accomplish goals.
• Teams share the victories and the blame for losses.
• Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal.
• Teams simply can out perform any individual.

So here is the million dollar question for you – Why do we stand alone? Knowing as much as we do about teams people still choose to do things by themselves. Let us consider some reasons why.

EGO – Few people are fond of admitting that they can do everything, yet that is the reality. Perhaps the question according to INJOY Team member Kerry Walls is not whether you can do everything, but how quickly you will realize that you are going to realize that can’t. Andrew Carnegie stated once that it marks a big step in your development when you realize that other people can help you do a better job than you can do alone.

INSECURITY – People who are insecure tend to surround themselves with other people who are weak decision makers. Niccolo Machiavelli stated that to test the strength of a leader is to take inventory of the strength of the individuals that surrounds the leader.

NAIVETE’ – Consultant John Ghegan says, “If I had to do it all over again, I would ask for help.” When you refuse to become a team member you tend to bite off more than you chew. They naively under estimate the difficulty of achieving big things. The end result is that your goals are never achieved. That is sad!

TEMPERAMENT – Some people are not just outgoing and it never occurs to them to think in terms of a team. They just do not think to ask for help from others. Why take a journey alone when you could ask others to join? Dr. Fromme quipped that people have been know to accomplish more working with others than against them. Charles Swindoll wrote since none of us is a whole independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful hot shot, lets quit acting like we are. Life is lonely enough without playing that silly role.

Take a sheet of paper and write down three major goals that you are working toward achieving right now? After you have done this take a few moments and reflect on these goals –

• What approach have you been taking to achieve them?
• Are you going alone?
• Are you building a team to accomplish these goals?
• If you are not part of team, take some time to figure out WHY?

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Every generation gets an opportunity to make a difference, but the people of that generation have to seize that opportunity. John F. Kennedy often was quoted as saying “There are those who look at things as they are and ask Why? I dream of things that never were and ask, WHY NOT!”

Opportunities do not multiply because they are seen. Opportunities in life multiply because they are seized. This is why living with a sense of urgency is crucial. The saying “you can make a difference at any time, but the best time is now” is what drives people who possess anticipation and live with intentionality. There is no time like the present. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. Yesterday is too late. Intentional living is a lifestyle, a way of thinking, there is something more that I can do.

Ralph Waldo Emerson stated “you cannot do a calling too soon for you never know how soon it will be too late.” I want to give you five ways to seize opportunities.

Be the first to help someone – Ask yourself this question; who were the first three people to step into your life during a crisis or special need in your life? If I am right, you probably cannot remember the name of the second or third person. WHY? The only people that really make a difference are the first people to step into our life.

The people who most often make the biggest difference are the people who are first to step up and help at a time when if makes a difference.

Take a risk when the potential for significance is high – This is an area in which people most often regret the chances they failed to take, not the chances they took that failed. Do not allow fear of risk to cripple you into immobility. Nothing ever is accomplished without a certain amount of risk!

Do what you know is right even with no promise of return – We tend to judge opportunities by the potential return. That for the most part is sound business practice. However there are things in life that present themselves and we know they are right. What we do not know is the outcome and where this will lead. Remember the return on giving is always higher than what we give.

If you maintain a sense of urgency and obey your instinct to do the right thing, especially when it plays to your strengths, it may very well have a higher return than you could have imagined.

Give to your peers at a time when it makes a difference – Condoleezza Rice after her career in the highest places of government when back to the classroom to teach college freshmen. She qualified her decision by stating; “The classroom is the molder of the opinions of lives of people. I came back because if I can change a nineteen year old’s life, that is much more significant than what I was doing because I get them on the front end.”

Plant seeds of intentionality in children – One of the most important things that we can do is pass along to the next generation what we have learned. Think about the impact of Dr. Seuss and all of the wonderful statements in those children’s books. Think about the impact of these children’s messages if imparted upon the whole world. Statements like:

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”

“You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose.”

“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting! So get on your way!”

Jim Collins once stated that you can only have transformation if you have transformational leaders!

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People generally want to make a difference when confronted with a crisis or tragedy. Devastating storms, earthquakes, and floods are all great causes in which to donate time and money. These opportunities are reactive in nature because they respond after the fact.

Today’s podcast will focus upon being proactive before any devastating storm arises. This reaction that I want to focus upon is based upon anticipation. Anticipation and intentionality are words for seeking significance. People with anticipation plan to be significant. They expect to live a life everyday that matters. They prepare for significant acts. They position themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally and financially to make a difference in the lives of other people. Their sense of anticipation draws them forward.

What does this sense of anticipation do for us. Let’s examine five things

Anticipation Causes Us to Value Today – Wen you live with a sense of intentionality, you know and understand that every day is your time to make a difference. It is not someday, one day, maybe tomorrow. It is TODAY! There is a big difference between numbering your days versus assuming your days. People who have experienced near death trauma understand the importance of living fully in the moment and taking nothing for granted. A fresh sense of urgency begins to drive these people. What about you? What has awakened you to a second chance on life?

Anticipation Prompts Us To Prepare – When you have a strong sense of anticipation you view everything differently and you prepare differently. Your daily habit changes, your short-term goals are precise, your family plans are laser focused, and your yearly goals are power packed. Think about it this way; what is the one word that describes your anticipation for this year? Focus on that word fully and completely. Exhaust the questions about this word as it applies to your life and the world around. I.e.. Transformation, Miracles, Hope.

Anticipation Helps Us Generate Good Ideas – When you possess an attitude of anticipation you expect tom come up with good ideas. This is not about hoarding good ideas for yourself. It is about a mind set that believes good ideas are to be shared and accessible. This challenges our attitude of sharing. Are you willing to share your ideas that will benefit others?

Anticipation Prompts Us To Look for Ways to Help Others – The question in this point is who do you want to help? Surely we are impressed to make a difference on a select group or class of people? Is children, special needs, elderly, married couples, single parents, and on the list could go. Who or whom motivates you to make a difference?

Anticipation Helps Us Possess an Abundance Mindset – The previous point leads to this point – abundance mindset! People live in one of two worlds. One world is about scarcity. You cannot give what you do not have. Scarcity thinking has nothing to give – it is preoccupied with receiving. Scarcity thinking focuses upon ME! It says there is not enough to go around so I need to get mine now before it is gone.

Abundance mindset has nothing to do with how much you have. These people may not be wealthy and live in the best of environments, but they are always willing to give and share what they have. They live with a belief tat more will be provided at the right time. Anticipation is the key that unlocks the door of abundance thinking.

Understand there is not one door of opportunity. There is not one door of significance. There are multiple doors. Finding and going through one door is an event. Going through many doors is a lifestyle. That requires an abundance mindset. With repeated success over time you develop a sense of significance in your DNA!

When you woke up this morning, what was your mindset related to making a difference? Did you believe that you could make a difference. Did you expect to make a difference? Or did you even think about it at all?

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Life isn’t made by what you can accomplish. It’s made by what you can accomplish with others.

Partnerships with like valued people is powerful. This is the key to succeeding in partnerships. If you are not connecting with people who share your dreams and values, you have no shot at making these partnerships work. Connecting with the right people will help you gain momentum and build your team into something bigger.

Partnerships allow you to tap into something that you do not currently have – their knowledge and skill. Other people can make you better than you really are. When this happens, is their really a limit to how good you can become?

If you are serious about partnerships that will compound your ability to make a difference then I want to offer 12 qualities of like-valued people that are seeking significance as well. This is not a magic list that will fix all issues, But it is a list that will paint the canvas for you so that you know what to look.

1.Like-Valued people think of others before themselves – A favorite description of humility is that humble do not think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less! When you find a person of maturity combined with humility – that is a person you want to partner with.

2.Like-Valued People Think Bigger than themselves – This involves expanding your world “me” to “we.” At this point you have broke out of the “what is in it for me” mentality. They desire to reach the finish line as a relay team and not sprinters.

3.Like-Valued People have a passion that is contagious – Their zeal changes the atmosphere in the room. It is noticeable and it is felt.

4.Like-Valued People have complementary gifts – Mother Teresa stated once “I can do what you do and you cannot do what I do. Together we can do great things.” Nothing is more rewarding than shared values and mission to achieve significance. Each gifted person brings their uniqueness to the table and willingly shares their insights for the greater good. If you want to go fast go alone. If you want to go far go together!

5.Like-Valued People connect and provide great support – Isolation and independence does not work. Partners need to connect and they need to support each other. Your closest friends will be some of your partners.

6.Like-Valued People show a can-do creative spirit about challenges – I can’t people people are convinced they can’t and won’t. I don’t think I can people might be able to but talk themselves out of it. Can I people allow their doubts to control their actions. How can I people have already made a decision to tackle tough assignment.

7.Like-Valued People Expand our influence – Successful people understand that working hard at networking with other people is time well spent. It is the quickest way to find partners and opportunities to expand our influence.

8.Like-Valued People are activists – People who have a willingness to take a stand have an inherent bias toward action. These people do not live their lives they lead their lives.

9.Like-Valued People are ladder builders, not ladder climbers – This is self explanatory. Help other people!

10.Like-Valued People are head and shoulders above the crowd – These people take action when other people stand still and do nothing. They are record setters who want to help others break their records.

11.Like-Valued People provide synergy that gives a high return – Four strong horses have the capacity to pull over 30,000 pounds. Amazing!

12.Like-Valued People make a difference in us – a strong partnership divides the effort and multiplies the effect.

Remember that everyone starts small. Author Brian Tracy wrote “You are a living magnet. You are attracting people and situations that are in harmony with your dominant thoughts.” Said another way “birds of a feather flock together.”

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It is a fact of life that no person can achieve significance alone. Some people attempt to achieve great things by themselves mainly because of the size of their ego, their level of insecurity, their temperament, or simple naïveté. You might be able to achieve some measure of success alone. It is impossible to live a life that matters and find significance with other people.

If you have a heart to make a difference, there is always an answer, but if you have a heart of indifference there is never an answer. At the center of this statement is the size of your dream and how many people you are willing to include. People are drawn to passionate leaders. Just look at history, people are willing to follow passionate leadership right or wrong –even to death when the cause is wrong.

John Maxwell has articulated in an article “I Have A Dream” – History tells us that in every age there comes a time when leaders must come forth to meet the needs of the hour. Therefore, there is no potential leader who does not have an opportunity to better mankind…I believe that God has surrounded me with those who will accept the challenge of this hour. My dream allows me to…

• Give up at any moment all that I am in order to receive all that I can become
• Sense the invisible so that I can do the impossible
• Trust God’s resources since the dream is bigger that all my abilities and acquaintances
• Continue when discouraged for when there is not faith there is no future, there is no power in the present
• Attract winners because big dreams draw big people
• See myself and my people in the future. Our dream is the promise of what we will shall be one day

Consider these factors that draw people of significance

The Opportunity Factor – Significant acts almost always occur in response to opportunities. Sometimes the smallest step in the right direction ends up being the biggest step of your life. Question: What opportunity do you see right now to make a difference?

The Belief Factor – I believe that God brings people into our life when you have it in your heart to do something of significance. Do you believe that people want to connect with you to make a difference. When someone enters your life do you recognize they can assist you.

The Possibility Factor – If you pursue a life of significance you will give up some things. The pathway of possibility is filled with trade-offs. WHY? Because a life of significance requires sacrifice. Consider some of these suggested trade-offs….

• Trade affirmation for accomplishment
• Trade security for significance
• Trade immediate pleasure for personal growth
• Trade acceptable for excellence
• Trade addition for multiplication
• Trade the first half for the second half

The Faith Factor – Fear is the most prevalent reason why people stop. Faith is what makes people start. The faith factor will cause me to start walking and to believe the resources will come to me as I walk. Faith does not make things easy, but makes things possible because it puts everything into the right perspective. Question: Is my faith greater than my fear?

The Attitude Factor – It is easy to start out with al of the right motives and attitudes. You begin to attract people and these people are blessed and grow. But sometimes we get caught up in the idea that instead of helping people, I want people to help me. When you are motivated by personal advantage, you have lost your way. When you stop loving people, you stop serving them effectively. Question: Is your attitude an asset or liability?

The Winning Factor – Dreams often come in one size too big so that we can grow into them. Are you sharing your dreams of significance with others? Are you connecting with winners to achieve significance?

The Promise Factor – Dreams are FREE. The journey to fulfill them isn’t. You have to work with and for the dream. The dream is the promise of what you can be, but commitment is the reality of what you will become. What starts as a promise ends in commitment.

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Adding value to others begins with what may appear to be nothing more than a subtle shift in behavior. As we will see, it is a radical shift in behavior and thinking. The shift is this “moving from making a difference for people to making a difference with people. This will save your leadership from thinking that you are the entire picture to the exclusion of the BIGGER picture.

John Holmes says it best; “It is well to remember that the entire universe, with one trifling exception, is composed of others.” WELL SAID!

If you desire to live a life of significance then you must add value to others. Is it necessary for me to say it this way – significance and selfishness do not go together. There is no way to live a self-centered, selfish life in which you focus upon yourself and ever think that your life is going to matter to others around you.

There are five essential values of adding value to other people.

To add value to others I must first value myself. John Maxwell states that who we are determines how we see others. Said another way we do not see people as they are, we them as we are. Author Brian Tracy states that there is a relationship between our self esteem and the health of our personality. The more you respect yourself the more you will respect others.

The most effective way to turn positive thinking into positive actions is to perform positive actions consistently.

To add value to others I must value others. Mother Teresa stated once that the greatest disease is to be a nobody to anybody! Question: How often do we look past others without really seeing who they are? Every person has value and to live lives that matter, we need to intentionally value others and express that value to them.

To add value to others I must value what others have done for me. Gratitude is not supposed to be exhausting – it is to be invigorating. When we put gratitude ahead of attitude, it is exhausting. Have you heard the phrase, Count your blessings! When you take the time to that very thing you become stimulated to do for others. You have to count your blessings before you can be a blessing

To add value to others I must know and relate to what others value. Here are seven qualities that John Maxwell suggests to get at the heart of this point:

• Availability – I choose to spend time with others
• Listening – I will listen my way to common ground
• Questions – I will be interested enough to ask questions
• Thoughtfulness – I will think of others ad how to connect with them
• Openness – I will let people into my life
• Likability – I will care about other people
• Humility – I will think of myself less so that I can think of others more

To add value to others I must make myself more valuable. The idea of adding value to others is dependent upon the fact that you have something of value to give them. It is easy to add value once. If you desire to make this whole-life effort you must grow and become more valuable.

If you believe that adding value to others is worth it over the course of your life, then answer these three questions:

1.What have I been given? This is a look backward

2.What do I have to give? This is a look inward

3.What can I do? This is a look outward

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Shifting from Success to Significance

How many times can you look back over your life and see the pathway to success instead of significance? Where do I rank? Who is number 1 and how close am I to over-taking that person?

Self-centeredness is the root of virtually every problem – both personally and globally. Whether we want to own up to it or not we all have a problem with self-centeredness. Malcolm Forbes once stated that people who matter most are aware that everyone else does too.

Self-centeredness and fulfillment cannot peacefully coexist. They are incompatible.

When you can change your thinking from “What am I going to receive?” to “What am I going to give?” your entire life begins to turn around.

How do we begin to think of others first? Putting other people first is the heart of Christianity. The Lord’s prayer is the central attitude for helping others. This prayer is inclusive. This prayer begins with “Our Father” and it says “give us” and not give me! There is no place in the Lord’s prayer where you can use the word “I” – this prayer is a community inclusive prayer. Regardless of your faith position, I am sure that you belief that in putting others first is the right thing to do. Here are some insights that will assist you in developing an other’s first mindset and heart practice.

• Develop A Greater Appreciation for Other People – TO begin thinking properly about this first point take a sheet of paper and begin create a GRATITUDE list by writing down the names of the people who bring the best out in you. This exercise will help you to realize that you are not a self-made person after all.
• Ask To Hear Other People’s Story – Fred Rogers of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood kept this quote on his wall; “There isn’t anyone you couldn’t learn to love once you’ve heard their story.” Don’t you believe this is true? It is hard to remain self-centered when you begin to focus on others. Hearing other people’s stories inspire you and helps you to get outside of yourself.
• Put Yourself in Other People’s Shoes – When is the last time that you put yourself in another person’s shoes. Perhaps you have experienced poor service. Can you relate or connect with someone’s bad day? In a bad situation have you ever paid it forward to someone who was serving you?
• Place Other People’s Interests at The Top of Your List of Priorities – Here is a question that probes this thought; As you being your day are more curious about what you will reap or the seeds that you will sow? Here is the truth of the matter, people who are looking for ways to make a difference in other people get outside of themselves and search for ways to intentionally make a difference
• Make Winning A Group Activity – John Wooden of UCLA fame stated that the greatest challenge to any coach is selfishness. The challenge is make the team better not just yourself. Are you willing to loose yourself for the sake of the team. That is a person that will make a difference.

LINKS

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Music: “Gratitude Mood” by David Arivett. You can learn more about his music by clicking on his name. THANKS DAVID!