Start the new year with a new outlook and attitude! The CMN book, Power of Potential, is one that many leaders consider a favorite because of its string of gems for career guidance and business ownership. In fact, men around the world have built huge business enterprises based on these principles, and many others have had outstanding success.
CMN ministry friend and statesman Stan Toler left us a year ago with a legacy of more than 100 authored books, leadership in the Church of the Nazarene, helping to launch John Maxwell's Injoy Club, and also with this brilliant Foreword for this powerful little book.
Be sure to take advantage of savings for you and your men's group this month with the book, Power of Potential.
FOREWORD FOR POWER OF POTENTIAL
BY STAN TOLER
One of my greatest joys in life comes from watching people unwrap their spiritual gifts and grow and develop as leaders. This is why I’m happy to write this foreword for Power of Potential, a book that helps leaders make choices based on principle, and build a character on the bedrock of integrity.
Methods change from one generation to the next, but principles remain the same. We have to dig in, apply ourselves, and invest the time to learn principles and apply them to our lives.
In this fast-moving age, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with information or, worse, get left behind. We have to run to keep up. It’s like the farmer who posted this sign on the pasture fence: Trespassers welcome. Just be sure to cross the field in 9.9 seconds. The bull can make it in ten!
People who want to be leaders have to stay ahead of those charging bulls by staying alert and keeping themselves informed. Real leaders are not bashful about asking for advice, and not skittish about taking it. Real leaders are readers. They learn how to pick the meat off an article or news item and leave the bones. There is always a book on their nightstand. Education is an investment, and real leaders put money in the bank of learning. They make the time to read what is important.
Every day you have a cash reserve of 1,440 minutes. You cannot afford to waste them on any activity that doesn’t add value to your life and advance the goals of your organization. Because you can do something is no reason that you should. You have to decide what to invest time in. Studying and learning the principles of this book is a wise investment of your time.
Besides learning the principles, you will never regret this opportunity to increase the excellence of your life. Excellence is often misunderstood. It is not perfection. Perfection is never satisfied and usually looks at what is inadequate. The perfectionist tends to be difficult to please and negative in attitude. Moreover, perfectionism, in its darkest form, results in intolerance. Excellence, on the other hand, tends to be process-oriented, striving to create a system that perpetually rewards improvement. Excellence is not expensive; mediocrity is.
To achieve excellence in life starts with an intentional quest to learn what real integrity is. Few role models teach integrity today. The main character of one television sitcom said: “I learned about integrity from my father. He had five wives but never missed an alimony payment.”
Integrity comes from within. It’s the result of a focused faith, godly choices, right associations, and a tenacious commitment to truth. Integrity in the life of a leader is a beautiful thing. In the absence of integrity, life is a mess. Integrity may be one of the least-recognized qualities for new-millennium leadership, yet it will leave the greatest legacy. What history will always remember is how leaders conducted themselves, by their level of integrity.
Integrity cannot be faked; the future will bring it to light. The most urgent question for any leader is not “What is my vision?” or “What are my skills?” The most vital issue for any leader to settle is this one: “What is my level of integrity?” The answer to that single question will shape a leader’s legacy for generations to come.
Methods change from one generation to the next, but principles are forever. Learning the principles, increasing your integrity, building your character, these are the investments of your time that are worthy to make.
The author of Power of Potential, Ed Cole, was a positive, motivational and godly leader whose writings still light a fire in the heart of his readers. Ed Cole committed himself to share the wealth of his wisdom with people the world over. He left us a collection of books filled with wisdom in the same spirit that Paul did for his protégé, Timothy. “Timothy, my son. I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight” (I Timothy 1:18).
Invest the time to read and learn, then be sure to apply what you learn so you can fight that good fight.
Stan Toler
(The Late) General Superintendent Emeritus, Church of the Nazarene
