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Archives for September 2013

The Funniest Part in Isaacson’s Biography of Steve Jobs

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I’ve been meaning to blog this for two years now. From Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs:

Even when he was barely conscious, his strong personality came through. At one point the pulmonologist tried to put a mask over his face when he was deeply sedated. Jobs ripped it off and mumbled that he hated the design and refused to wear it. Though barely able to speak, he ordered them to bring five different options for the mask and he would pick a design he liked. The doctors looked at Powell, puzzled. She was finally able to distract him so they could put on the mask.

He also hated the oxygen monitor they put on his finger. He told them it was ugly and too complex. He suggested ways it could be designed more simply. “He was very attuned to every nuance of the environment and objects around him, and that drained him,” Powell recalled.

That is absolutely hilarious. Here is Steve Jobs, barely conscience and virtually fighting for his life, and he asks the doctors to bring in five different options for the oxygen mask because he doesn’t like it’s design. Hilarious!

And, awesome.

Corruption: The Opposite of Leadership

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It is worth subscribing to Poverty Cure’s Youtube channel, whose aim is to encourage solutions to poverty “that foster opportunity and unleash the entrepreneurial spirit that already fills the developing world.”

Their latest video describes what corruption does to a nation. Lydie Hakizimana of Rwanda, who is being interviewed in the video, points out that “When there is corruption in a country…there is no hope. People don’t see themselves successful in the long-term.” “With hope you can think of a better future,” but when the leaders are corrupt, the entrepreneurial environment is killed and replaced with an environment of fear.

This caught my interest because in describing the effects of corruption, she has just described the exact opposite of leadership. As I’ve blogged before, the essence of leadership is precisely to give hope and “rally people to a better future.” In contrast, as Lydie points out, extreme corruption in a nation takes away hope, and causes people to cease believing that they can have a better future.

That is the exact opposite of leadership. What a tragedy it is when those entrusted with the responsibility to lead — to give hope and rally people to a better future — turn that responsibility on its head by turning it into an opportunity to enrich and advance themselves at others’ expense. Whenever someone does that, no matter what their title is, they have ceased to be a leader.

Here’s the video. And for more on Poverty Cure, see their website.

The Gospel Transformation Study Bible

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The Gospel Transformation Study Bible releases today from Crossway. I have found it to be a fantastic resource so far. Here’s the gist:

The apostle Paul summed up his whole ministry as existing “to testify to the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24). That single-minded goal is the heartbeat of the ESV Gospel Transformation Bible. Produced out of the conviction that the Bible is a unified message of God’s grace culminating in Jesus, it is a significant new tool to help readers see Christ in all the Bible, and grace for all of life.

And here’s my blurb for it:

Filled with amazing insight and yet highly accessible, this is an outstanding resource for understanding what it really means for the gospel to be at the center of our entire lives—and why this matters.

Learn more at the Gospel Transformation Bible site.

 

Live Like a Narnian

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Joe Rigney, Assistant Professor of Theology and Worldview at Bethlehem College and Seminary, has just released a new book on what C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia have to teach us about Christian discipleship. It’s a very innovative and enlarging book, and Rigney is a great guide. It’s called Live Like A Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis’s Chronicles.

Brandon Smith has a good interview with Rigney over at Gospel-Centered Discipleship, as does Trevin Wax over at his blog. Rigney is also doing a message on Lewis this weekend at the Desiring God national conference which, of course, is on C. S. Lewis.

Needless to say, this sounds like a great weekend to dive back into the world of Narnia. So, here’s one more resource for you: a while back, Andy Naselli compiled a list of Ten Narnia resources he found most helpful when he took his daughter through the books.

 

 

 

An Interview with Malcolm Gladwell on His New Book, David and Goliath

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Catalyst interviews Malcolm Gladwell on David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants, his new book.

Gladwell’s answer to this question sums up his aim in the book:

What do you want people to take away from David and Goliath?
I want people to understand that much of what is beautiful and important in our world comes from adversity and struggle.

Read the whole thing.

An Interview on the Gospel-Productivitiy Relationship

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Last summer I had the privilege of discussing my upcoming book on the gospel and productivity with Loren Pinilis for his podcast on Christian Time Management.

Part two is now posted, where we talk about:

  • How to balance our competing roles in the modern age of knowledge work
  • The importance of aligning lists with roles
  • A process for reducing workload
  • Spatial thinking as it relates to time estimates and priorities
  • A realistic model of using plans
  • The common but wrong disdain many Christians have towards hard work
  • How we should and should not respond to someone who is having problems managing their time
  • How workaholism and laziness both reflect idolatry
  • The importance of rest in a biblical framework and how to practically incorporate rest into our lives
  • A biblical call to mission statements and understanding our mission
  • A fascinating, biblical approach to delegating out of love
  • Some tips for delegating in the home and family

(You can also find part one here.)

Crazy Busy, and a Hilarious Interview

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I cracked up watching this interview between Justin Taylor and Kevin DeYoung regarding Kevin’s new book, Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem. It is truly hilarious!

I’ve been reading Crazy Busy off and on over the last month or so, and I’ve been really enjoying it. It’s very well done and fun to read. As always, Kevin does a great job combining biblical truth with a very accessible and engaging presentation. I commend the book to anyone who is dealing with being crazy busy (which is all of us!).

HT: Between Two Worlds

Global Leadership Summit Highlight Video

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Here’s the highlight video from the 2013 Global Leadership Summit.

Note also that, though the live event is over, the Summit is actually just getting started! This is because “in the months ahead 350+ cities in 100 countries will host the Summit—which is translated into 45 different languages.” This would be a great item for prayer. “Please pray with us as we watch what God does this year around the world.”

An Interview with Brad Lomenick on His Book The Catalyst Leader

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A few weeks ago I had the privilege of interviewing Brad Lomenick, president of Catalyst, on his book The Catalyst Leader: 8 Essentials for Becoming a Change Maker.

Brad is a model of the leadership qualities he talks about and it was a lot of fun to talk to him.

And here is also an edited transcript of the interview, in order to provide a shorter summary for people who prefer to read. (Note that the transcript is really a paraphrase of both him and me, because that’s the easiest way for me to summarize things. For any who compare the two, you might have an enjoyable time of comparing what goes in to my head with how I actually understand it and restate it!)

Here’s the transcript:

Brad, tell us first of all what Catalyst is and what you do for Catalyst?

I’m the president of Catalyst. Sort of the key strategist and key visionary. We’re a really small team so I’m really involved in the program of the events we put on as well.

We do leadership conferences. If anyone is familiar with John Maxwell, John is the one who started Catalyst along with a number of other leaders. We really have a heartbeat for younger leaders — for those in the first half of their career life. We are a Christian leadership movement and conference. We have a heart for Christians who are in the marketplace as well as who are working in roles connected to the church.

We see our role as creating an opportunity to connect, inspire, equip, and then release the next generation of leaders who are in the first stage of their career. They are out of college, but still in the first half of their professional life. That’s our heartbeat, and we’ve been doing this now for almost 14 years.

Atlanta is our flagship gathering every October, where we will have 13,000 leaders gathered this year [note: next week!]. But we do many other conferences throughout the year as well, including Catalyst West, a Dallas event, and Catalyst One Day.

Why did you write this book?

That’s a great place to start. I just turned 40, so I felt like part of the stewardship of the role I’ve had for the past several years meant that it was time for me to pass on a lot of what I’ve learned. I wasn’t planning on doing this; at least for me, my perspective had been “I’m just the guy behind the scenes; I’m a practitioner, not a thought leader, not a voice.”

But I had some friends who really challenged me on that. They said “you do know some things and you do have some things to pass on to the next generation. You aren’t just the guy behind the scenes. You need to be a wise steward of the way God has given you the opportunity to be around so many great leaders and you need to pass on what you have learned.”

The ultimate reason for me, though, is that I’m looking around at a lot of my peers who are starting on the rocket ride and having influence very early in life, and are coming up against roadblocks in their leadership because they haven’t been fully equipped. With our generation, so many of us are stepping into leadership roles earlier than in prior generations, sometimes before we are ready. We are leading now, but we also need to lead well. And the way we finish well in life and in our leadership is to lead well now.

That’s the essence of this book. I want my generation to lead well now, and to be able to look back on things 40 years from now and say “we took the baton that was given to us, and we ran the race well.”

[Read more…]

It is Not the Critic Who Counts

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This is one of the best quotes ever. It’s by Theodore Roosevelt and has been put back in the spotlight again by Brene Brown’s excellent book Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. Here it is:

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.

It seems like the world is full of critics who are not actually skilled at doing anything — other than covering up for their lack of ability by hurling criticism at others. Don’t fall into that trap. Don’t be one of those small people “sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice.” Dare to show up and take action.

Even at the risk of being criticized.