"Wisdom for life and business."

Greetings, Summit Leaders.


Life and business require us to make difficult decisions every day.
Our ability to make wise choices has a dramatic victory effect in every area of life and business.

Great leaders instinctively understand that the best choices occur through wisely choosing their responses and actions.

I decided to study the lives of leaders I admired to perhaps glean from them a better way. To my surprise, I discovered a far better approach to life and business decisions. In a word - wisdom.

Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Harriet Tubman all manifested the attribute of wisdom.

What was their motivation for seeking wisdom? In times of uncertainty, crisis, change, daily living, and business, they discovered the value of understanding.

Wisdom understands what is true, right, and lasting. Its qualities are pure, peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy, and sincere. In ancient times wisdom is personified by the quote, "I love them that love me. Those who seek me early will find me."

The outcomes of wisdom in life and business include good counsel, sound judgment, insight, strength, and fulfillment.

With such great benefits, why didn't I seek wisdom earlier in my career?
I can not recall anyone pointing to wisdom being essential for success in life and business.

Nevertheless, throughout history, you see wisdom in the lives of great leaders.

"In these times, particularly, all businesses are looking for something that will aid them. You will have to explain more things to more people, but that is to your advantage because, in that way, you obtain more training. You are going to need something in addition to knowledge. You must have wisdom. Without wisdom, knowledge is useless. Wisdom is the power that enables us to make practical use of our knowledge." - Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

How do we acquire wisdom? Someone once said, "Ask, and it will be given, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you."

Here are some actions to consider.

1. Take time to ask, "What is the wise choice to make in this decision?"
2. Look for principles of wisdom in great leaders' lives and how they made decisions when under pressure.
3. Begin applying this thinking at every decision point.
4. Keep a journal of the process and outcomes.

Over time, we see that our lives and business outcomes can dramatically impact others for good if we apply wisdom principles.

Harriet Tubman was an escaped enslaved woman who became a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, leading many enslaved people to freedom before the Civil War.

"If I could have convinced more slaves that they were slaves, I could have freed thousands more."
― Harriet Tubman

"Twant me, 'twas the Lord. I always told him, 'I trust to you. I don't know where to go or what to do, but I expect you to lead me,' and He always did."
― Harriet Tubman

Be encouraged, my friends. Wisdom is our friend.

Victory!