An American traveling evangelist once shared with me a true Truth of Life and a Pearl of Wisdom that I have never forgotten. Permit me to pass it on to you. It may well be just as valuable to you as it has been to me for many years. He boldly asserted: “You will begin to act and begin to really build your own personal success as soon as your ‘desperation factor’ exceeds your ‘embarrassment factor.’ ”

In the early days of the settling of this great country called America, everyone was free and independent and struggling to find their own niche and way. There were few rules and regulations and no national government (or for that matter local government) regulation or controls over the people. All citizens were pretty much left alone to go their own ways and do their own things. Government regulatory intervention and restriction simply did not exist. Freedom and Free Enterprise were the manner and way that people lived their own lives. The results were unbelievable. Creative thought and action prevailed. Personal productivity skyrocketed. Huge profits were created and/or earned. The country we all call home began being formed and established. Happiness reigned supreme. Why?…Because the entrepreneurial spirit of America was given free rein to roam and produce.

The fact is that men and women will always be the most productive when they are the freest.

In America Freedom and Free Enterprise have always gone together hand in hand.

Free Enterprise is the basic building block of all personal freedom.

There are no exceptions to these rules of life no matter what you personally think or believe. God created and made man to govern himself and live unrestricted except for God’s Laws of Life.

Sadly, today, all too many people and businesses or organizations have conjured up their own rules and self imposed a myriad of fleshly (ungodly) regulations that are strangling the life right out of our society,…out of our own declining production.

Look, the truth is that God is greater than man. His ways and conduct are much greater and most usually opposite of man’s ways. That’s it period! Consequently anything created and established by man can and will always be trumped by The Creator of the Universe.

All that being said, please permit me to tell you that there is no fleshly man, woman, group, organization, business, or government entity that can or will ever be able to do a better job of helping, benefitting, and furthering mankind than will a godly man be able to best help himself. Of course, this Truth of Life by its virtue of operation naturally forces the lazy, ignorant, and nonperforming complainers to be eliminated from the productive process. They actually eliminate themselves, complaining every step of the way to their own destruction. Naturally they could always change and get back onto their own productive horse once again and become successful,… but only, if they choose to change and become a productive contributor to the creative phase of building an entrepreneurial business operation.

It was once said that: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” I personally believe that to be a true statement. As such, I also believe that “Desperation must therefore be the father of invention.”

Man, as a result of the spiritually fallen world in which he lives today, has this uncanny ability to always be at odds with God and His Laws. As a consequence, men and women today live and operate under a multitude of wrong and incorrect understandings and false impressions as to the right, proper, correct, and godly way to accomplish a planned mission. For instance, many people labor under the incorrect assumption that an individual’s creativity and innovation/inspiration only comes from having isolated time away from other people while in a “care-free” environment. It is wrongly believed that in such capacity these creative type people have the uninterrupted time to reflect on possibilities and think “outside-of-the-box.” Permit me to tell you the truth of the matter. A great majority of what we now call “new developments” or “innovations” came from a desperate need in someone’s life that was catapulted to the forefront because of a pressing problem or catastrophe that was about to happen.

A good example of my point can best be made through the true story as to how one of the great American favorite food items came into our lives. Please allow me to share it with you.

There was an ice cream vendor set up and operating at the World’s Fair over century ago who found himself in a most unenviable position of having virtually a limitless supply of customers while simultaneously running out of spoons and bowls for his ice cream. It just so happened that his ice cream stand was situated next to a waffle vendor who was unsympathetically criticizing the ice cream vendor for being so ill prepared for his business operation.

At a moment of frustration and desperation, the “flash of genius” came crashing onto the scene. The ice cream vendor went next door to the waffle stand, quickly and cleverly “cut a deal” with the waffle vendor and bought hundreds of waffles. He then formed the waffles into what we all would call today,…ice-cream cones.

This newly created ice-cream cone made the gentleman at the ice cream stand at the World’s Fair a multi-millionaire! But what really inspired his genius was not the level of necessity, but rather the interjection of a degree of desperation.

It is truly amazing what we can do,…when we HAVE to perform.

Now for a bit of personal counsel to you established business leaders in particular and other leaders of people in general. So many businesses today are run by educated men and women in a complete and all encompassing bureaucratic fashion. History proves that such bureaucratic operations have always failed in the long run of things. Admittedly a certain amount of this organizational style is critical, but what is lost by such operations is the entrepreneurial creativity of the involved personnel.

An entrepreneur stays alive by making something happen.

A bureaucrat stays alive by avoiding making an obvious mistake.

Therefore, the entrepreneur is propelled to do something, even if it may not instantly be the perfect course.

The bureaucrat, on the other hand, becomes stagnant and often chooses to surround himself with a defense made up of reports, studies, and assistants (employees or advisors) all showing that the best course of action is to do nothing.

As you live and run your own life and/or your own business, try to find the balance between the orderly control of the bureaucrat–which will allow you to keep the day-to-day system running–and the creativity of the entrepreneur.

Remember, never before in the recorded history of all mankind, has there ever been one single person (including Jesus Christ Himself) to ever be able to get everyone involved with their efforts to do everything required to be performed in precisely the self same manner and way. The best way to lead has always been and will always continue to be by example. Give out the work assignments to your own subordinates and then get out of their way and allow them to accomplish their tasks,…in their own way! Let their creative juices flow unimpeded and unrestricted.

Within the successful business operations of the great leaders of history,…there is no room for the micro-management of subordinate or assistant leaders.

The creative entrepreneurial unrestricted efforts of individual performers is what has always produced the best “mix” for great business growth.

All really good leaders let their actions do their talking instead of the words that flow out of their mouths.

Peace And Love to All of You………………..Poppa Bear