A Vision for Your Future

I had a cup of Starbucks the other day with a young man who was eager to talk after we played racquetball.

He was working on his own leadership skills and felt a little inadequate. So he asked what I thought were the three main characteristics of a leader. I told the young man vision is the first characteristic of a leader.

We think of entrepreneurs or great men in history as having vision. But every leader must be able to "see" the future, or there is nothing for people to follow. We must also have a vision for our own lives or we'll drift along like a leaf on a slow moving river.

The Bible says "where there is no vision, the people perish" (Prov. 29:18, KJV). Another traanslation says, the "people cast off restraint" (NKJV).

One of my favorite verses is Habakkuk 2:2, which says to write the vision so they who read it may run with it.

The word "vision" means sight. You must see it first. Over my lifetime, I've gone places and met people. When I "saw" what they had done, then I could "see" myself" doing the same thing.

But vision is more than just seeing what others have done--as important as that is. Vision is a process whereby you create the future by seeing it first. I believe it's the first step in faith.

God showed Abraham that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars. Abraham believed and God counted it to him as righteousness (see Gal. 3:6).

Can you picture yourself having a better job, a happy family or enjoying good relationships? Can you "see" yourself prospering financially, accomplishing God's will in your life or moving in the things of the Spirit?

Each of us should have a vision for all of these things. Too often we can "picture" doom and gloom and the things we fear. Why not "see" in our mind's eye what are the good things that God has in store for us?

What are the other two qualifications for leadership? First, tenacity. Too many people quit before they can ever succeed. If a leader is a quitter he disqualifies himself as a leader because he's leading to nowhere since. He quit moving toward the destination.

Winston Churchill is famous for the speech at which he said, "Never quit! Never quit! Never quit!"
I see too many people have "wishful thinking" and mistake it for determination. Then they will get discouraged and give up when they either make mistakes or things don't go the right way. A leader will learn from his mistakes, make a course correction and move toward the desired goal.

The third qualification of a leader is integrity. This is especially true when a person is a Christian. It's remarkable how many Christians lack basic integrity on things like honesty, keeping their word, staying straight morally.

To me it even includes things like having right motives and attempting to follow Biblical principles. Jesus said "What does it benefit a man if he gains the whole world and looses his own soul?" To me a leader can have vision and tenacity, but if he cheats and steals, what kind of leader is he? No one should follow him. And if they do follow him, we don't really call him a leader, but we call him a mad man or a dictator.

I heard someone say one time that if a man cheats on his wife, he'll cheat you in business, and I believe that in a general sense that's very true.

I only want to follow leaders who have absolute integrity and if you are a leader others want to follow you only if you have integrity as well.

- Stephen Strang is owner of New Man magazine and an award-winning journalist and entrepreneur.