All Episodes
Previous Next
Aug. 19, 2022 - Doug Collins Podcast
37:29
Life Lessons from Colin Powell
| Copy link to current segment

Time Text
Hey everybody, I don't know about you, but as you've watched out over the world, the war in Russia and Ukraine is not just isolated to Eastern Europe, it's spread all over the world and you can see it in market instabilities, you can see it here.
People who do not think that that war is affecting you, all you gotta do is look at gas prices, you look at your food prices, you see the global change that has happened.
But you know something that's also affected investments as well, and I've said all along, Legacy Precious Metals is your navigator.
They're the ones that see you through to get to the next level.
The good news about this is, even with market volatility, market instability, you've got options.
And gold prices are rising as investors turn to gold, and gold presents a hedge against this inflation and that protects you against the weakening dollar, which we are seeing.
Legacy Precious Metals is the only company I trust to deal with gold and silver and the other precious metals.
You need this investment.
You need this as part of your portfolio to keep you buffered from what we're seeing in the world.
War and volatility in the market.
This is where you need to be.
Call Legacy Precious Metals today.
Be proactive about this.
Get on board with it.
Call them at 866-528-1903, 866-528-1903.
Or you can download their free investors guide at LegacyPMInvestments.com. LegacyPMInvestments.com, your navigator in a volatile world of investments.
You want to listen to a podcast?
By who?
Georgia GOP Congressman Doug Collins.
How is it?
The greatest thing I have ever heard in my whole life.
I could not believe my ears.
This house, wherever the rules are disregarded, chaos and mob rule.
It has been said today, where is bravery?
I'll tell you where bravery is found and courage is found.
It's found in this minority who has lived through the last year of nothing but rules being broken, people being put down, questions not being answered, and this majority say, be damned with anything else.
We're going to impeach and do whatever we want to do.
Why?
Because we won an election.
I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, it's Doug Collins.
Welcome back to the podcast.
I got another part in our series that I like to throw out every month or so.
We do a leadership lesson.
We work on things that you can work on that can help you get better, not only in your job, but in your family, your leadership, just the things that get by in life that we need to know.
Maybe sometimes you've heard some of this, but I don't know about you, but I've always been one that when I hear it, It takes several times to hear it and then putting it into practice before it becomes something that I can attach to, becomes a habit, you know, those kind of things that we look at.
And leadership lessons, I believe, are universal when they come to, you know, things that can help you be better at what you do.
And that doesn't matter, you know, what your job is.
These leadership lessons work on sharpening the saw, so to speak, of your own life.
Too many times we go out there every day, day in, day out, day in, day out.
And we just keep, you know, using the same acts or using the same tool.
And we never take time to do maintenance or sharpening.
And that tool for many of us is ourselves.
So one of the things that I do, I like to do, and we've had great response on the podcast on when we've done these sort of leadership lessons.
Is that it reminds us some same things maybe we can work on in our own life.
Maybe we can work on in our family.
And this is one of those that's going to be here today.
We're going to look at 13 leadership lessons that Colin Powell wrote about in 2012. And I think you're going to see a lot of these that really speak to the heart of who we are.
But before we get started, again, thanks for being a part of the podcast family.
Go to the DougCollinsPodcast.com.
There's a link button there where you can email me.
You have suggestions for the show.
You can have questions that you may have that we've had a guest on.
Maybe you've got a question we can follow up on.
Love to have you participate, be interactive with our podcast.
Go to thedougcollinspodcast.com and you can keep up with us through that app.
We'd love to have you being a part.
So before we get started, let's dig in.
First off is for some who may remember or not remember from my generation, Colin Powell was one that we remembered greatly as a general.
He was joint chiefs chairman.
He was also the national security advisor, but he was joint chiefs during the first Gulf War.
That was where he really rose to prominence, him and Schwarzkopf.
Schwarzkopf again being the general on the ground, and we may do something on him later on as well.
A lot of wisdom came from his time.
We're dealing with leadership with Powell, Schwarzkopf, and these others who came out These were folks who saw what happened in Vietnam and really sometimes the disaster that really happened with our troops and with our mission there.
They saw the problems that developed with the political aspect and political nature of what was going on in Vietnam.
And it really affected them all throughout their career.
I mean, these were 30-plus year careers that ended in the 90s For many of them, that coming off of that experience in Vietnam, it never left them.
This is important to understand.
When you take a leader like Colin Powell, you take a leader like Norman Schwarzkopf, you take some of these leaders who were influenced by on-the-ground combat in Vietnam, You see how later on the first Gulf War with Iraq was really influenced by that, by the whole build-up, the massive use of force, the idea that you don't go in unless you can achieve a victory with massive dominance.
This is a doctrine that sort of came out of that Vietnam era, and it was based on those who had to live through what happened in Vietnam.
They felt the politicization, the lack of Equipment and manpower and the lack of a defined mission was something that they carried with them.
And so I think when you get into...
The discussion of Colin Powell, not only was he a joint chief chairman, he later went on to be the 65th United States Secretary of State under George W. Bush.
And he stayed involved until his passing a year or so ago.
It's just some things that when you look at the life of someone who has lived that life, Uh, kind of life in the very public eye, very, uh, you know, highest rankings of the United States military, uh, is some interesting, uh, points that he put out in a book, uh, that called it worked for me.
And this is letter leadership lessons.
It was back in 2012. It's, it's this lessons in life and leadership, uh, That he wanted to express what, I like how he phrases, it worked for me.
So this is the way we're going to start it off today.
It worked for him.
Some of these have worked for a lot of other people.
Maybe they'll work for you.
But let's go through them and talk about them and have a good time just sharing this morning or whenever you're listening to this podcast.
These are life lessons that you can write down, apply, and put into your life.
First life lesson he wrote.
He said, it ain't as bad as you think.
It will always look better in the morning.
I don't know about you, but this one probably among all the ones that we're going to give is the one that I struggle with the most.
I don't know about you.
He goes on and he talks about leaving office.
When you leave the office at night, your attitude really will affect how you go through the night and really affect the next morning.
But I want to think about this from terms of perspective.
How many times have you woke up at night or couldn't go to sleep?
sleep, you were worried about something that was going to happen or possibly may not happen.
Again, worry is many times worrying about things that may or may not ever happen.
And what he's talking about is that it's never as bad as you think.
I have had in my own times where I've laid in bed at night or woke up really early.
And when it's dark and you're only hearing your own voice.
It is easy to see or think that the walls are closing in, that everything is bad, that the only outcome is going to be terrible, that everybody in the world knows your problems, everybody in the world sees your problem.
And the reality is that most of the time it's just you.
It's just you there contemplating these actions, contemplating these things in your own mind, making the assumptions that the fear that you've built up or the concern, the anxiety, however you want to put it, is actually developing.
One of the things that You need to remember, he says, it never is as bad as you think.
Now, for some, I'm not going to say every time, sometimes it's going to be as bad.
But the morning will come.
The sun will come up.
There's a new day.
There's a new opportunity to see things in the light.
I love it how comedian Kevin Hart laid this out one time.
He said, look, things are going to happen in life.
He said, but in the morning, the sun's going to come up, and in the evening, the sun's going to go down.
And he said that life progresses.
And he said, you've got to just take what life gets, and you move forward.
Because if you don't, he said, you'll just get stuck in his routine.
I think Colin Powell's discussion here It's really interesting in the sense that it focuses your mind on what you can control.
How many times as you get off work or you're at home at night or you're sitting there thinking about a relationship, a family member, a work-related problem or something in your life and you really roll it over in your head many, many times And at the end of the day, you're only speaking to yourself.
You're not taking into account other aspects, other things that could be there.
And this is the part that you can't stop.
And I think that's what Colin Powell is saying here.
That's what Kevin Hart, the quote that I just gave you from Kevin Hart, really just focused on, that give it some time.
Time does help you think and also bring in new perspectives as you go forward.
But this attitude that you can overcome, this attitude that you can make a difference, It is one that you can't lose.
And many times, if we get lost in our own thoughts, we get lost in those trains at night, before the dawn breaks the next day, it can really drive us down.
As Scripture says, joy cometh in the morning.
And I think there's a purpose that Scripture is talking about, that daybreak, that new morning, that new day, that new challenge, that new...
The Scripture also says He renews us every day.
That is what we need to focus on.
It's easy to get logged down at night.
But always focus on getting better in the morning and focusing on how it looks in the daylight.
The second thing is, this one is, who's controlling you?
Pastor Andy Stanley has worked on a recent series in which he said, who's the boss of you?
And one of the things that he talks about is this next point.
Colin Powell said, get mad, then get over it.
And if we are over...
Anything.
It's getting mad.
Anger will destroy you.
Anger is, if you let it go in the wrong way, will preoccupy you.
It will control you.
It will become the thing that people know about.
If you have a quick trigger, if you have one of those quick fuses that everything makes you angry, people are going to not want to be around you.
And when they're not going to be around you, then they're going to pull away from you and you're going to be more isolated, which in turn, for many of you, makes you more angry.
But acknowledge the fact that, and from my own perspective, life is not fair.
Whoever told you it was going to be fair lied to you.
Nowhere in the world do you find that life is supposed to be fair.
You don't find it in Scripture.
You don't find it in life.
In fact, life is not fair.
And preparing yourself for the reality is that sometimes life is not going to be fair.
Things are not always going to go your way.
It is one way that you can begin to control this anger.
Now, there's two parts to anger.
There's two parts of frustration.
Many of you don't want to call it, as Andy Stanley talked about in his sermons here, you don't want to call it anger or rage or anything else.
You call it frustration.
Well, there's really two parts to this frustration.
Now, you can use it To just dig your own self a hole.
You can get mad at everything.
You can believe the world's not for you.
Everybody's against you.
And when you understand that, then what happens is you're just consistently in a sour mood, a sour mad place that you're just mad at everybody.
And that anger will begin to eat at you.
And then we go back to the first one, you know, when I thought about everything seemed, the lesson that Fowl says, it's not as bad as you think.
Well, if you're mad and you're angry at everything, then it does seem as bad.
You're not seeing a different perspective.
This is the destructive anger.
Now, there's another part to a righteous anger or righteous frustration, if you would, in which it drives you to make change.
It drives you to make some constructive change in your life.
Now, you may get mad that something didn't go your way or something didn't work out as you planned or that you're mad at a situation.
Well, use that anger, if you would, To make constructive change, to make something different in your life, to use it to fuel your desire to make the change or get better yourself.
Many times, criticism is the thing that causes this anger.
None of us, none of us like to be criticized.
I don't care who you are.
I mean, if you're out there and you just enjoy being criticized, then maybe there's a different problem for you.
Maybe there's something else out there you need to go get checked out.
But for most of us, we don't like to be criticized because it causes us to examine things about our life that we may not want to examine.
But when somebody else says it from the outside, it makes a bigger difference and you begin to take it in and you begin to make those changes.
You can get mad at criticism, or you can use that criticism to make yourself better.
It gives you more purpose, it gives you more drive, it gives you more determination, however that works.
But you can either choose anger, and you heard me say that, you choose how you use anger.
You can either let it eat you up internally, or you can use it to dig a hole that you're not going to get out of, or you can use it to fuel the fire.
Use those critical moments.
Use those haters in your life, so to speak, and use those to be the thing that builds you up and moves you forward.
That's what you need to use that frustration and anger for.
The third point that Colin Powell brought out, he said, avoid having your ego so close to your position that when your position falls, your ego goes with it.
In other words, keep your ego in check.
Not everything is about you.
And when you have decisions that, you know, there's some things in life that, and I've talked about it before on the podcast, they're the mountains that you die on.
Those are the hills that you die on.
And there are not every decision in your life, just to be fair with you.
There are going to be some of your decisions in your life, but not every decision.
And this is where I think we get mixed up, is we believe our decision is right, or we believe our way is the best way, and we let our egos about something get in the way of maybe hearing or putting into practice something that would work better.
Powell is simply saying, keep your ego in check.
He said, you're not always right.
There's always going to be somebody else that may have a better idea.
Are you listening to those things?
Are you tying yourself to everything that you do?
Ego can get us in trouble.
And he has good advice here.
He said, decisions that you make, let them stand on their own.
This goes back to something that, as we look at from a prospect of failing, Fail forward.
Failure is going to happen.
In fact, if you're not failing out there, you're listening to this podcast today, and you're not failing on a regular basis, then I'm going to ask, what are you actually doing?
Because if you're not failing, nobody gets it right every time.
And if your ego will not let you do something in which you're going to fail at, you're never going to grow and you're never going to learn.
So in looking at this part about ego, Remember that they should not be attached to most of the decisions you make.
Make your decisions, validate your decisions, and then if they change or they get questioned, then you can work with it if they fall or they fail.
Failure, though, is also another area that I'm going to jump off that he didn't really mention in his leadership notes, but I'll take a quick moment here.
Failure is not final, number one, and failure also is not about you.
And I think this is where we have to separate the actions and we separate what we're trying to do.
Sometimes we're going to fail.
But you need to get back up and do it again.
It's not about you're the failure.
It's about your idea.
It's about your performance.
Something didn't go right, but you need to separate the two out.
Otherwise, you'll drag yourself back into the things we've already talked about, those holes of being mad and frustrated and thinking everything is bad against us.
So the third thing is separate your ego from the decisions that you have.
Number four is pretty simple.
He said it can be done.
Leaders make things happen.
If one approach doesn't work, find another.
It amazes me how many times I see politicians, I see members of Congress that I used to serve with, members of the media, members in sports teams, coaches, that think that there's only one way to do something.
And if it fails, instead of trying to say, hey, maybe there's another way to do this, or either stopping because you feel like it can't be done, is leaders find ways to get it done.
And this is, you know, out there, if you're listening on this podcast, maybe you're exercising, maybe you're driving, think about things in your life that a leader, your leadership ability is to get things done.
It's not simply to accept things, and especially if it's something that needs to be changed in your life, then take that advice, take that encouragement, and say, look, a leader's going to find a way.
A leader's going to look at the closed room and say, there's a door here somewhere.
And if there's not a door, I'll find a window.
And if there's not a window, I'll make one.
This is what leadership does.
It can be done.
It's an attitude.
And I hear so many times people, they go back to this idea we spoke of already.
You know, the world's against me and life's not fair.
I can't do that.
Well, get over it and get out there and find a way to make it done.
That's what leaders do.
Leaders find a way to get it done.
And they don't accept excuses.
They don't accept failures in the sense that it stops them.
It says, what can I do next to make sure that the project, my family, the relationships that I have, that we get it done?
This next one is one that really struck me when I read these.
And it says, you know, Powell's fifth leadership lesson was, be careful what you choose, you may get it.
Be careful what you choose.
You may get it.
How many of you out there, you know, you make decisions and you don't think you're going to get it or something doesn't happen, but you're making choices that you may end up having to own?
And your team will have to live with your choices, so don't rush your choices.
Make sure that you make good choices.
Also in this is be careful what you choose.
Now this doesn't mean that you sit idly by waiting for something to happen to you.
This means that you actually get in there, make decisions, but what you choose you may get.
So make sure it's something you want.
Sometimes we go through life and we don't put enough thought into the choices that we make.
And then they actually come around.
We get offered that job or we get offered that promotion.
We get offered that decision to go out on a date or to go out and have a relationship.
Be careful what you choose because you may get it.
And once you've got it, Then you can't say, hey, I didn't want this or this wasn't what I thought it was going to be.
You got to remember that you chose this.
And when you're leading a team or you're leading others, you're leading your family, then your choices actually affect them as well.
And this is the hard part for most of us when we end up discussing our choices.
And what we actually get is that they really affect the team around us.
So if you're leading, you're managing, or you're at a company and you're leading a team, Think about the choices that you're making for the next week, the next month, the next year, because not only do they affect you, they affect those who answer to you and those that you lead.
Don't ever fail to realize that choices that you make in life are the consequences that come with them are yours to own.
And that's something that a lot of people don't want to own.
They may choose something and say, well, I didn't want this.
They throw it away and they move on.
See this in families.
We see this in relationships and marriages and others.
Be careful what you choose.
Make sure that you're doing what you have planned, you thought, and what your heart is telling you.
Because once you choose it, there are consequences if you actually get it.
Number six, don't let adverse effects, don't let adverse facts stand in the way of a good decision.
Superb leadership is often a matter of superb instincts.
When faced with a tough decision, Powell says, use the time of able to gather information and trust your instinct and inform your instinct.
Too many people, you know, there's a difference in using your instinct in your gut and not being informed.
And what he's, I think what the answer here is, is sometimes you're going to look at ideas and they're not going to be, you know, they're going to have, you know, things standing in the way that are going to have to be overcome.
They're not going to be an easy path to get what you want.
But don't let those facts stand in the way.
Find out the whole situation, look at the facts, look at the adverse facts, and then make a plan around them.
If you're able to make a plan around them, you're able to actually look at those adverse effects and say, hey, these may not be as bad as I think they are.
And even if they are, we can move this and we can shape this and I can get this team together so that we can achieve the results that I think we all want.
Too many times people hear no and they quit.
No is simply just saying, not this way, not this moment.
No is simply many times, especially in business and your political decisions and business decisions and life decisions, no says, hey, you need to evaluate this further.
You need to evaluate how you're going to get there.
You need to maybe take another direction, take another step, figure out what works best for you.
And when you do that, Then you're able to overcome it.
But if you just simply stop at the first minute you get some pushback, you will never accomplish what you want in life.
And I'm beginning to see more and more the younger generation that have been told all their life that everything's fair, that you should get what you want, that everybody should treat you well, and they start receiving pushback when they get, quote, to a job or they get in a family relationship or they get into life and it gets a little bit hard, they stop.
You can't do that.
Adverse facts doesn't always mean that it's wrong, but it's something to inform you to decide how to move better ahead.
Number seven, you can't make someone else's choices and you shouldn't let anyone else make yours.
I can't emphasize this one enough.
When I was pastoring, I would do marriage counseling before the weddings, especially with younger couples.
You know, older teenagers, you know, younger 20s, most of the time at that point, you know, they're in love, and love is great, but love is, they treat it as fact, and the emotion of love will cause you to make some decisions or make some discussions that you might not have apart from, quote, love.
Now, love is good and love is great, but at a certain point in time, you also have to look at, you know, the decisions you're making.
And One of the questions that I would always ask when I was doing marriage counseling was this one.
And it would be this.
And I would have the couple answer these questions separately.
So I would ask them the question for the bride and the groom.
I'd say, okay, answer.
You know, there's a lot of questions, but one of the questions always said this.
It said, if you could change one thing about your future spouse, what would it be?
What was really interesting was, sometimes they would come back, and I noticed if it was younger couples, they had really struggled with this question.
They struggled with this question of, if I could change one thing about the other person, what would it be?
Because they were still in their relationship.
If they'd only been together a year or two, they were still tentative about saying, I don't like this about you, or I'd like to change this about you.
Sometimes they were brutal.
I mean, I can remember one time they came back and the discussion really developed and they had to deal with some real frank issues about family and family members and family structures.
And one wanted to change the other and the other one changed the other.
And after they got married, but after they had to work through these issues, which I was glad they worked through them before they got married, then rather it being something festered after the marriage.
No matter what they told me, no matter what the discussion was, I always ended it this way.
I said, that's great.
If you want to, you know, he snores or, you know, his parents are overbearing or you spend too much money.
I said, that's great.
I said, because here's the thing in a marriage.
I said, you are not going to change them.
They are who they are.
You know, over time, they may get better in what you like.
But the question was pending on if you could change, and that's why I always worded the question, said if you could, and the reality is you can't and you shouldn't.
This is something that has to be worked out.
And I think Powell makes this point very clearly here, is you don't need to make choices for others, and you definitely don't need to let others make choices for you.
Accept good decisions, find out what you need to do, make those choices on your own.
Number eight, check the small things.
How many times?
Do we not do this?
I hear so many people, I'm not a detail person.
Well, you better be.
Details matter.
And they matter in relationships.
They matter in jobs.
They matter in life and politics and everywhere else.
Details matter.
And if you're not, for whatever reason, a good detail person, then you need to find somebody in your life that is a good detail person.
You need to find somebody in your life that can help you.
If you're leading a company right now and details are not your strong suit, then find somebody, maybe your accountant, it may be your second in command, it may be whoever, that is good with the details because somebody's got to keep up with the small things.
And it's not just, you know, one of the things of winning in life and relationships is remembering the small things, you know, remembering birthdays, remembering issues that people are going through, remembering those kind of times in their life.
It's the small things about a job, you know, making sure it's shipped on time, making sure it's delivered on time, making sure the quotes go out on time.
It's the small details that it's amazing.
I can almost dissect in counseling as I've done over the years or even in my own life.
The issues that have developed into big problems for me, I typically go back into where I've missed a detail.
I didn't go back and follow up on this.
I didn't ask all the questions that I should have.
That's the details that we're talking about here.
Number nine is share credit.
I thought this was interesting from Colin Powell.
Here's a four-star general who became Secretary of State.
It is share credit.
You can't get by in life if it's all about you.
You didn't get to where you are Simply because you're this great and wonderful person.
There's other people in your life that has always been there to help you.
When it was the start of your family, and you may have had a terrible family life.
Maybe it was an uncle.
Maybe it was an aunt.
Maybe it was a friend down the road.
Maybe it was somebody at school.
But we've always had people there that have helped us get where we are going.
And no matter what we've done, you can always share credit.
Bringing people along does not diminish who you are.
And bringing people in and crediting them and actually praising them Doesn't diminish the accomplishment that you feel like you made, but it actually brings others in it that it makes it sweeter.
It makes it understand that, hey, we're a part of this so that next time you can accomplish even more.
Why?
Because people will understand.
If you're leading, people understand that, hey, this person values my time, this person values my input, this person values who I am, and they're going to not just take all the credit for the hard work that others did.
Powell understood this in climbing to the highest ranks of whether it be the military or the government, or if you're running a mom and pop stop, or maybe you're just, you know, in your own family.
When's the last time you praised somebody?
When's the last time you just sent a thank you note just saying, hey, I was thinking about all the things that you've done.
I just wanted to say thanks.
Thanks for being a part of the team.
These are small things that matter.
Sharing credit matters.
They fall well into the 10th discussion that Powell had, and that was remain calm and be kind.
We don't make good decisions when chaos is going on.
Chaos, although you maybe have the chaos theory that out of mass chaos patterns develop, and they do, but the question is, does everybody want to be running on the ragged edge every day?
Do you always want to be running from one problem to the next?
Look, too many managers manage with a hair on fire.
Too many leaders lead as if every moment is just a problem.
Everything is going wrong or you put it into a crisis situation in which everybody feels like nothing is calm.
You've got to have some calmness in your life.
You cannot continually run on the ragged edge all the time and make good decisions.
And Powell brings us out, just remain calm and be kind.
I love the second part, be kind.
Is that not a missing trait these days?
Be kind.
You may not agree with somebody, but you can be kind to somebody.
You can say thank you.
You can say please.
I mean, did we quit teaching that in kindergarten these days?
I mean, or quit teaching it to our kids as they were growing up?
You know, say please, say ma'am, say sir.
You know, do those kind of things that are just genuine respect.
So, if your business or your team that you're leading or your family is always seem to be stressed out, always seem to be having one problem after another, look to yourself and say, what can I do to provide calm in this chaos?
If I continue to leave from chaos, worse is going to be coming because at a certain point, not only is it burnout, not only leads to bad decisions, but in the end, you're going to make mistakes that you possibly wouldn't have made if you took a step back, took a deep breath, and been calm.
Number 11, have a vision and be demanding.
Followers need to know where their leaders are taking them and for what purpose.
And to achieve those standards, you've got to make sure that they understand that the goals are out there and here's what you've got to do.
And it needs to be rigorous.
It needs to be something worth fighting for.
I can't tell you how many times leaders...
Whether they be political leaders, whether they be business leaders, family leaders, church leaders, volunteers, where it is, they have no vision.
One of the things right now that I believe, if you're looking at the Biden administration right now, and I've heard this from Democrats, I've heard it from reporters, I've heard it from Republicans, of course, who disagree with this administration, but one thing that is said more and more about this administration is they don't see what the vision is.
They don't understand what the administration wants to do, what it's willing to fight for, what it's not willing to fight for.
And you see it in the poll numbers.
People will not follow leaders that they don't think they know where they're going.
If you lose the confidence of your team, if you lose the confidence of those in your company, if you lose the confidence of customers, they will not follow you.
And a leader who has no followers, as the old saying goes, is simply someone taking a walk.
If you don't have followers, you're not a leader.
You've got to understand that there has to be a vision out there.
You've got to project vision.
In fact, people will buy in to the leader in a vision, no matter where that vision may go, if they're buying into you and they believe that you have an idea of where you're going.
And be demanding.
People today are used to being told, don't expect much.
Well, expect more.
And Colin Powell here, I think, is just a great advice.
How many times do we not expect...
Great things from people.
We don't expect great things from our kids.
We don't expect great things from our co-workers.
Folks, you've got to expect great things.
If you actually want something done, you've got to expect great things.
Number 12, do not take counsel of your fears or naysayers.
We've talked about this already.
Don't let the doubters and the haters and the naysayers out there determine what your business or what your life or what your family is going to be like.
You're not going to build anything great on the backs of cowards and cynics.
You're just not going to do it.
You know, there's some people out there that believe they have the spiritual gift of criticism.
I will tell you right now, there is no such thing as a spiritual gift of criticism.
Okay?
And too many times we stop.
Remember earlier we said about choices and standing in the way and adverse effects.
Also, you can have those folks that you may just need to get rid of.
If you always have somebody in your life that always is fearful, that's always risk-averse, that always wants to be careful and cautious and never take a chance and never do anything, you cannot let the cowards and the naysayers run your life, your business, your family.
If you do it, You will be dragged to their level.
Do you want to be on their level or do you want to be on a level in which positive, forward-looking vision actually saves the day?
I believe that each and every one of you, if you really want to make a difference in your life, you're going to have to get rid of some people in your life.
That's a tough statement to say.
But you need to be with people who are positive.
You need to be with people who encourage you.
You know, they don't have to agree with everything you say, but they're encouraging you.
If you can't find people in your life like that, read some biographies, go to some podcasts, come here to this podcast.
I want to encourage you because I believe that you can actually do it.
I believe that you have the ability to overcome great things.
Why?
Because I just know that's what I believe God intended for you to do, is to overcome and to be that person that you were meant to be.
And for some of you, maybe if you wanted to contact me, I told you earlier in the podcast, go to the.podcast.com, use that email button, contact me.
I'd love to be an encourager in your life.
I'd love to be a part of your life more than, you know, this podcast if you had a question.
Maybe you just need somebody to say, hey, I believe in you.
And that's what you need to have.
Don't take counsel of the fears and especially of naysayers.
Don't let your fears dominate you.
One last statement on this.
My biggest, if I had, you know, things I'd like to do over again, if there is a regret, if you would, is that I have, at times in my life, I have either not done something or I've stopped doing something because of my fear.
Fear of being embarrassed, fear of not being able to accomplish it, fear of failure, all of these things that have stopped me from doing things in my life.
And it's easy to say.
It's easy to say, I'm not going to let my fears dominate me.
But we did.
We get concerned about the affairs of others.
We get concerned about what others are going to say about us.
And the reality is there's only, you know, there's only that inner voice that I believe God instilled inside of you.
If you're doing what is right and moral and you're doing the things that you're supposed to do and you're working hard at it every day, listen to those voices.
Don't let the fear stand in the way.
Fear will stop you if you overcome that fear.
Bravery, courage is simply overcoming fear.
It's simply overcoming the fear that you have.
Everybody has fear.
The question is, will you give into it or will you overcome it?
And being optimistic.
This is his last one, number 13. Optimism is something that can lift everybody.
And I believe that's so true.
Just being optimistic.
Nobody wants you to come in and be the person with the cloud over their head.
Nobody wants you to come in and say, like you're dragging a piano on your back all the time.
Wow, it's really great to be here.
Glad I'm here.
Wow, what a week.
You know, don't be that person.
Be optimistic.
And you say, well, Doug, you don't know my life.
Well, I bet there's some things in your life you can pick on that you can say, this is actually a pretty good part of my life.
Use the things in life to motivate you.
Use the things that can be better.
We've talked about several that he used here today.
Why don't you take and be a part of those kind of things that feed your optimism instead of feed your fears?
If you feed your fears, you will fail.
If you feed your optimism, if you feed your thoughts, you feed your overcoming, if you use your frustration, your anger in a positive way to make positive change, you're going to be able to overcome things in your life.
Your family is going to get better.
Your business is going to get better.
If you're in politics, your political life will be better because you're not going to be worrying about who's going to tweet what at you or what's going to be said about you.
You're going to just worry about, can I get things accomplished for the people that I'm supposed to accomplish it for?
Thirteen little life lessons.
Thirteen leadership lessons.
That if you apply these leadership lessons in your life, I guarantee you, things in your life will improve.
They may not get better overnight.
As I said before, life ain't fair.
Some of this will work.
Some of it you're going to have to work at.
But the question is, will you begin to do something to make a positive difference?
Not only in your life, but in the folks that you lead, the folks that you love, the folks that you care about.
This is Doug Collins on the Doug Collins Podcast.
Thanks for being a part of us today.
We'll see you again.
Hey everybody, MyPillow, I just wanted to let you know MyPillow is having the biggest sheet sale of the year.
You all have helped build MyPillow into an amazing company that it is today.
And now Mike Lindell, the inventor and CEO, wants to give back exclusively to his listeners.
The Perkow bed sheet set is available in a variety of colors and sizes, and they're all on sale.
For example, the queen size is regularly priced at $89.98, but it is now only $39.98 with our listener promo code.
Order now because when they're gone, they're gone.
You're not going to be able to get it.
These FurCal sheets are breathable.
They have cool, crisp feel.
They come with a 10-year warranty, 60-day money-back guarantee.
Don't miss out on this incredible offer.
There's a limited supply, so be sure to order now.
Call 1-800- 986-3994.
Use the promo code Collins.
C-O-L-L-I-N-S. Or you can go to MyPillow.com.
Click on the radio listener square and use the promo code Collins.
C-O-L-L-I-N-S. Lisa and I sleep on these sheets every night.
You will want to have them as well.
They're a wonderful product.
Go right now.
Either 800-986-3994.
Code word Collins.
Or go to MyPillow.com.
Also use the code word Collins to get this discount.
▲
Export Selection