RIPPLE EFFECTS

I remember as a child skipping rocks across a lake and watching the flat stones skip much farther than I thought possible. Another phenomenon that I discovered as a young guy was the ripple effect. WHen you dropped  a rock or anything in the water it created a wider swatch of circles from the source. Similarly, the consequences of our actions hold a much wider effect than we can possibly imagine.

Case in Point:  9-11  When that event smashed into our life, it created ripple effects of staggering purportions! In  a smaller way our actions, and particularly the way we interract with others causes very profound ripple effects. These can be very good  or not so good at all.  Mahmhat Ghandi started a movement in India that has very constructive effects to this day, He  was the primary reason why India has evolved into a growing democracy.

Othe effects:   Large churches such as the ones here in town; I.E  Brookwood and Redemption  in Greenville with started with strong intention and healthy faith. A handful of people with a strong belief has affected not only this community but large numbers of people around the country, and around the world! The ripple effects are deep and pervasive. For example Brookwood send missiionaries around the globe but it all started with a small group that broke off from Mauldin First Baptist.. they saw a niche that could be filled with broken and hurting people in the community and it mushroomed into a megachurch of 6,000 people!

Redemption Outreach started witht the vision of Ron Carpenter  and a handful of folks that rented out a building off Woodruff Rd just a few years back, today it has created one of the largest church in the southeast, with effects on many thousands of lives.

Personally, I attend  the church I do because of the way I was treated. Several people from a Sunday School class took time with me and showed me the love of God. THey reached out and invested in me their time and energy and it impressed me profoundly. Ripple effects: they are small causes that explode into bigger ones if properly nourished.

Conpanies distinquish themselves, by applying the golden rule of customer service. Treat another like you would like to be treated and then go one better. Be better at it than anyone else.

This article really brings it out:http://www.fastcompany.com/1762975/world-class-companies-create-compelling-customer-experiences

Every company whether it was Amazon or Fed Ex went out of their way to overdeliver on their promise. They spent just as much energy retaining a customer as they did purseing them initially! That is how you make meaningful connections and corral lifelong customer service.

This is the fulcrum of dynamic sales professionals. They know that their future income and the life of their company is based on how well they treat their customers! The wrong ripple effect creats a wrong impression that can last for years. Weve all had it. Lets make positive ripple effects, knowing that Solomon said it best in Ecc. 11:1              "Cast thy bread upon they waters for thou shall find it after many days."

This young man caught my attention as a shining example of putting relationship before profit. He personifies the spirit of what capitalism and Christianity should be, Get to know somebody first and build on a relationship before you go on to what you can "do for them"  Linkhttp://www.ripplecentral.com/

Are you creating ripple effects? Good ones..are you looking at the long term or more concerned about your bottom line?

A friend once told me her story in rural central KS of a ministry that challenged her thinking and patience. Many were the obstacles to sustain it, but so were the blessings: the ripple effects that she was creating in her community for long term and eternal good. When she leaves that ministry she will have "paid it forward" she will have created relationships that will change lives.. that is the ripple effect we are talking about.

Steve Harper has an approach that works very well. When going to a network, how many times has a business card been thrust in your face, and an elevator pitch been rolled out before you actually got to know tha person? Its often, and the difference, is small but very crucial. Steve recommends building a relationship first before trying to tell them your story!!  Again youve heard it before. "People dont  care about you know until they know how much you care"  So true, and so rare to see.. building a relationship with somebody and caring about them as a person shows up in the small things. Steve can tell you firsthand!
'
Its the kind of thing that builds life long sales and loyal clients.  Want to build a huge referral base and have business coming to you?  Start building a connection first.

The McDonalds Miracle!

Business are a lot like scienitific experiments. A lot of them do not work, but a few prized ones do. The facts remains  that more than 50 % of  businesses fail in their first couple years of operation. But for those that do.. ie Apple, Netflix, Microsoft, Oracle, Sara's Kitchen. among many others  that do  sometimes work beyond the wildest expectations!  McDonalds    started  by Ray Kroc more than 50 years ago has grown to serving more than 64 million customers daily. That is more than the population of most countries! It has been a model business  that has been improved and refined over the years; securing its place in the top most successful businesses  of all time.

While some may debate the health, ethical, or career issues with MCD's there is no debating their success.

All  successful businesses have a certain enviroment and product that makes it unique. McDonalds product by and large are not unique.  You can get a latte or a burger in a dozen places, however  MCD's  manages to sell more burgers and happy meals that anybody else. Why? Why does Mcdonalds reign king for over a half a century in a very hotly contested fast food market. Simple and yet not so simple.

I was there  the other day.. and no I actually wasnt eating. I was using their wi fi, and just watching the people flow in and out.  Upon reflection I have noticed several things that distingquish MCD's from any other fast food joint and that word is CONVENIENCE!!  McDonalds masters the only thing that really matters timing and customer service. . Rarely have I been in any McDonalds that I had to wait more than a few minutes for my food. However I have been in a plenty of other FFJ that they got my order wrong, they made me wait 5 minutes or longer, or worse yet acted like I interrupted something when I came to order!

McDonalds also has another a great System in place that can be duplicated in the world with the same predictable results. It has perfected a business plan over the decades of trial and error. There is no guess work when it comes training, design, and system implementation. Obviously they have the winning combination. In business, usually the best system is what is already in place by the top distributor or business owner. Incredibly, many smart people still want to tinker and reinvent the wheel!

McDonalds still has its finger on the pulse of American society, and adjusts to trends as needed, For instance when the coffee craze with Starbucks, and other franchises; it adjusted to and rolled its own decent brands. It didnt have to be the best brand only somewhat competitive. When the wifi craze has swept across the country, and many cafes with wi fi hotspots sprang up, McDonalds adjusted and remodeled its bldgs to accomdodate the student and  younger generation.

For all its faults, and high calorie meals, McDonalds stands alone in its apparent domination of the market for decades to come. The Mcdonalds brand  is one of the chief ways Americanism and its products are introduced to other countries.

Chief lesson here, sometimes success doesnt have to be invented it has to be only effectively copied. I doubt Ray Kroc with the Speedee logo back in 1940 would have imagined the juggernaut they had started, but I do know that McDonalds can serve as an inspiration to all of us. 

No one else does what they do as well consistently over the vast platform that they preform as Mcdonalds!  THat is the not so easy key to their success!

Some fun and not so fun facts about McDonalds:


Fun Facts about them

Handling Fear

I had the occassion to spend time with my little brother, Malaki. Malaki is my adopted brother who is taking part in the Big Brother program. I have had the unique privilege and joy of talking and sharing moments of joy with this precocious youngster. He is all of seven and bound and determined to explore all that life has to offer him. Once I took him out to the pool and he was like a young man possessed, He couldnt't get enough of it, I had to practically drag him out of the pool.

Hes not afraid to take a hit. Malaki plays football and is just learning what his body and mind can do. Sometimes though his body and mind get confused and fear rules. We've all had fears: I had fear of heights when I was young.. fear of public speaking (most of us do)... Malaki as it turns out had a morbid fear of dogs! I didnt know that until he practically did a 180 turned  and jumped  into my arms as we went into Petsmart!. For a second, I didnt know  what he was doing, until a little furry creature (dog) showed up just wanted to sniff him, youd think it was a crocodile lunging out of the lagoon, He was terrified.

All of a sudden he wanted to hold my hand tightly, so  we walked around the store and I calmed him down. Evidently Malaki has had a very bad experience with dogs. Funny, what other consider threatening others consider nonthreatening... The same boy that loved the water, and meeting new friends, felt threatened by a little dog.?

Fears are illogical, sometimes it doesnt make sense. When we assess our fears it stimulates the fight or flight response. Other times it is just new experiences that we resist. We get so comfortable with the routine. However this limits our future prospects. We cannot live solely  by our emotions, we have  to use our minds when confronting fear.

Fear is paralyzing. Just as Malaki had a mortal fear of dogs, we all have paralyzing fears. If we allow them to paralyze us, it is our trap built with our own hands. Instead of being the free and open youngster he was cowering behind my back in the store.  Fear will do that to any body.

Shakespeare once said, " Fear makes us cowards of us all."

Lastly, fear distorts reality. Malaki  had seen dogs before, but his sense of reality was distorted because he felt that a harmless old Muffi was going to get him. Only by desensitizing him, do we have a chance to cure him of this. Eventually hes going to have a couple of good experiences with dogs, and he will be fine.

In much the same way.. in life we all need good experiences to replace a fear of phobia. In many cases the fear of public speaking and a new job, is unfounded. With confidence  and conditioning, we can overcome many obstacles that thwarted us many times before. I once read a book by Susan Jeffers entitled, Feel the Fear and Do it anyway"     So true, many times the fear is what Zig Ziglar calls   False   Evidence Appearing Real.

And so it is, the same primal fear that stymied normally a happy go lucky kid stops many adults.  Face your fears head on and take action.

The Eyes of Faith

The hands that built this country were also accompanied by eyes of faith. How can you ascribe personal qualities to faith?..The Bible tells us that "faith is the substance of thing hoped for the evidence not seen."  Hebrews 11:1 This week I read through Greg Braddens book, the  Divine Matrix.  In it he talked about the "other reality" Everything we see was once in someone's mind. The invisible reality made the present reality.

This reality is not yet realized, it a thing of the future. In one of the chapters..he talked about acting in the present about the future.. In other words,  feeling as if you were already there. 'Acting as if you were already there"  is the key to  making it all come together!  We all have amazing imaginations that work wonders or wreck our dreams before we start!

All of us have dreams and  aspirations. Some of  them are unrealistic, some are real to us..  I read  about  a John Paul DeJona who came from being homeles twice to becoming a billionaire. The man who sold the dream of the famous line of hairstyling products whos known the  world over.. An unbelievable story but the same truth prevails: Each person had a dream but they saw through 'the eyes of faith' what could be.  AND THEY ACTED IN THE PRESENT.

You need not have a huge dream to lead nations, or a Fortune 500 corp, but you need to revive your own personal dreams. You need to nourish that dreams, picture  it, and associate  with people that are dream makers, not dream stealers.

Personally I see the future and where I want to be, i step into the picture and try in envision it intensely with as much detail as I can. The mind can only act on the images the subconscious gives it. The stronger images you give your mind to work from, the more "personal experience"

Imagine the life you want, through the "eyes of faith."

The Jagged Edge of Technology

We live in a rapidly expanding world of technology, in fact according to IDC the amount of digital information doubles every 18 months. A staggering amount of info is available to us, no wonder we operate on overload a good deal of the time. Every since the advent of the internet in the 60s with DARPA, and its recent meteoric rise since the early 90s, technology has us on its jagged edge.  Moore's Law states that integration of technology and its power to speed up transfer has doubled every two years. THis law goes back about 40 years

Jagged edge because with one benefit comes a host of problems along with it. What was heralded as a wonderful invention and convenience has now become a tool for changing how people interract and amuse themselves, and not always in a healthy balanced way.
Take your kids, most kids if theyre like the ones I know spend most of their free time on the internet or video games. When I was growing up, of course it was a different story! Kids today desperately need balance in their lives but often live in the cyber world and as such  have a distorted idea of the world.

Socially, the technology has ezpanded the amount of people we can interface with, People used to meet around a bar or club, or social event such as a dance. Now the majority of them meet initially on the internet. Some have met their lives, many more still wait for the magical one to appear. The promise of the internet and its vast reach hasnt translated into love yet. Others have been the victims of fraud or even violent crime, because it is hard to ascertain a person's character through the keyboard. Technology has left us fewer ways to autentically interract, and when we do, our minds refuse to let us relax and be in the moment!

Divorce has become much more prominent with the advent of social media. Many more options have not made it any easier for us to stick to mongamous relationships. The wondering eye has never been filled with so many tempting ways to go astray. In our next segment we will explore how technology has changed our health.

The following segments will  cover how technology has made it easier to  make money but also delivered tons of scammers to our doorstep. Problem: how to determine a winner from a loser.

Technology has robbed us of quiet meditative time alone. Instead we feel compelled to do what everybody else is doing, go online. We gain a companion but its no subsitute for  meaningful personal interraction.

A Grand Reunion

Recently I was fortunate to go back to my fathers old home place and area where he grew up. I had the occassion to atend a reunion of my Dad's extended family.. It is in a very rural area of Virginia called the Northern Neck.  Y ou have to appreciate this rather  isolated area of  Virginia because I soon found out how isolatd it was. In trying to reach my parents. I was unable to reach my parents on the cell, so I had to drive around to a  live zone to reach them. I have been here off and on for over 30 years and very little has changed about this community.

Maybe thats the charm of it, unchanged and slow paced as it was, stark contrast to the helter skelter pace of Richmond or DC.  Although I was late, i was welcomed like i had never left. I hadnt seem some of my Aunts and Uncles for many years I had wonderful conversation with my Aunt Dorothy and Lucille. ,,was able to talk with Aunt Thelma, and see Uncle Emory.  The years have told on many of them but they still have that sweet friendly down home spirit that I remember.  Cant forget Uncle Johhny nearing 80 but still spry as ever.

All to quickly they started to leave before I really got into the conversation,,I know I wanted to videotape the event and perhaps inject some games nexy year. Im glad that I went, because it reminded of heaven. It will be a wondrous time of reunion where we will be able to converse and understand each other on a level that we couldnt before. The best thing is that they wont be going anywhere, as we will spend all eternity servnig and praising God.  Some of my relatives had aches and pains, and were stooped with age, in heaven all sickness and death will pass away. My grandmother who just passed away recently at nearly 103 will be there unfazed with age.

Tears come to my eyes, as I read this precious verse:  Rev 21:4    And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, for there shall be more death, no sorrow or crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away!

We as Christians are going to the best REUNION of all!!

Perilous times... Our Redemption draws closer

While I am not one to set dates I do know that God is coming back to rescue his own. The unrest and turmoil of the masses and the wars and rumours of wars all point to a central event. The coming of Jesus Christ to rapture his own.  We are comforted by this in Matthew 24, He tells us, "When you see these things come to pass look up for your redemption draws night!"  Wow what a  promise!  Never in the history of man has the convergence of things (events technology, and natural events). have led us to today.
,
The Bible tells us that famine, pestilence, natural disasters, would accelerate toward the end. People tell me that they are worried about the world, and our country. The media assaults us every day with bad news, cataclysms, disasters  so it is imperative that we do a mental cleanse. We cant insulate ourselves from  events, but we can exude an outward calm that teaches the world that we have  a hope. A hope that  is every bit as sure as the  sun rising tomorrow morning. Many people express fear and anxiety about the future and who can blame them.  The good thing is that we can have the bedrock certainty of a bright and glorious future. A future that not only is peaceful in heaven, but a Comforter that is with us during the interim.

Matt 24 is an expose of the modern times,  I Peter 1:4. We have a inheritance that fadeth not away. we also have reason to be glad today. Times like these drive people to know and hunger for the truth, a truth that we can use to inform them about the truth.