Being a Christian leader means lots of praying for wisdom and knowledge. Christian leader help! Sometimes I feel emotionally overwhelmed in a situation. When this happens, I find my best action is holding my peace and being humble. I often offer up my most frequent prayer… HELP!… and let God fight my battle. This short, intense, prayer gives me an ability to survive over and over. I simply empty myself and accept the source of strength that flows through me from God.
As an as yet unseasoned entrepreneur, I once led efforts to bootstrap three projects with a small team. One required negotiating in the international arena with one of the world’s best companies. I felt at times that while I knew my value proposition was strong, sound, and solid, there was no point in continuing.
Knowing that I lacked both wisdom and knowledge, I feared there was no chance. I found that resting in God, gently and humbly, made room for God to enter my work and for me to open myself more fully to listen to my team and their guidance. I was able to get the paperwork in place, and to go on to learn what I needed to learn. Using the wisdom and knowledge of others, as I allowed myself the time to do so, I continuously improved as a leader.
Looking back, being a Christian leader bootstrapping three projects at the same time was quite a task for an unseasoned entrepreneur! We got the first of our planned series of products into a four-color box. That project went down when my chief engineer died. A second went down with the death of one of my two key scientists. Painful leader help!
The second project failed just after getting in place the necessary things that were discussed over lunch with a venture capitalist. Specifically, the areas we were missing in order to get funded. One was a team committed and capable of marketing, creating, and supporting the effort. We got this by leveraging the paperwork in play for another project. I also had the leader’s word that if (and only if) we had dollars in the bank for funding the project with venture capital, his team could and would commit to making it happen under the same terms. This was a team with the breadth and depth of experience to turn our dreams into reality. Leader help!
The more critical piece was a letter, which we did obtain, on letterhead, stating the need, desire, and willingness to spend a lot of money to obtain, our dreamed up product from a universally respected US firm. We had gotten it! Addressed and handed over to our now-dead key scientist. We had no key person insurance and could not recover. Leader help lost.
Both product projects closed down. Our team disbanded. I stuck with the other project, as owner and signer of the agreement. Result: that firm stuck with me and they earned revenue of many millions of dollars. These experiences seasoned me and encouraged me to grow and learn. I found that holding my peace, being humble, and open to God enabled me to become a Christian leader. Servant leader giving leader help!
