I love History and I love reading about Leadership. Why? I believe it the one of two most understudied and misunderstood things in our culture today--and both are major subjects lacking in our schools today. This book is an incredible example of teamwork and how people need to work together in order for their businesses, teams, organizations, or families to work together. 
I love reading about our founding fathers and Phillips goes into so many details about the coming together of our nation. If you are lacking on your history knowledge a little bit, read this, it's also an amazing "refresher" for the learned historians as well. The book most specifically focuses on George Washington (he's so cool, really....I mean the guy is incredible!), Thomas Paine, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, of course Benjamin Franklin, and many more. It focus' on how each individual leveraged different skills in leadership to help the country go from being a a big nobody (in Great Britain's eyes) to the United States of America. Imagine trying to convince a group of "people" they should declare independence from one of the greatest super powers in the world at that time, with one of the largest armies, and with one of the most advanced navies...just to name a few things, but that is what these men and many others did. America did not start out easy, nothing great ever does. The Revolutionary War was not easy, in fact we were losing most of the time, but because men like Washington led his troops valiantly and people like Thomas Paine renewed the moral of the culture and the troops, America pulled through.Then--just when you think we're all set and on the right track-- after winning the war, they had to deal with bankruptcy, the different states each wanting to be individual and not united, a failing Articles of Confederation, a bunch of angry regiments who weren't getting paid, and many many MANY more problems. America could have easily fallen apart after the revolution if not for the courage, determination, and leadership of our founding fathers. Think we could learn a bit from these guys?? I think so. 

I know I did a horrible job of trying to explain my love of this book and the stories that are in it, but I would almost classify this as a must read for anyone seeking a position of leadership, whether that be in your family, in schools, at work, in church or through other organizations. We can't rise to a position of leadership and expect to know everything...people are well, they are people, and it takes a Leader to unite them and move them together in a common direction. This book is a great place to start! Enjoy! -Britt

Have you ever come across the story in the Bible about Benaiah? I had never recalled hearing the name before and I didn't realize that what this guy did was probably one of the most courageous acts recorded in the Old Testament. Here's the passage: "Benaiah son of Jehoiada, a valiant fighter from Kabzeel, performed great exploits. He struck down Moab’s two mightiest warriors. He also went down into a pit on a snowy day and killed a lion. And he struck down a huge Egyptian. Although the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah went against him with a club. He snatched the spear from the Egyptian’s hand and killed him with his own spear." 2 Samuel 23:20-21. So thats it. No big deal right? It's just one of those passages you read and forget about not putting much emphasis on any part.  Well, Mark Batterson took hold of this small passage from scripture and created a book about overcoming risks, setting big goals, and chasing big dreams, not small ones, but "lion size" dreams. I tend to place God in a box thinking that there are some things he can do and some things he can't with my life but what this book showed me was that with God all things are possible and he WANTS them for us, more than we want them for ourselves. 

Not everyone goes looking for lions to  slay or scrounges around trying to grasp opportunities, but Benaiah did, and he was well rewarded for it (He became King David's personal Body Guard! How cool is that?!). He was a lion-chaser. Mark Batterson quickly became one of my favorite authors after reading this book, I think his style of writing is really easy for me to read, and humorous as well. It's full of biblical knowledge and shows how to apply principles from the bible to our lives. I could go on and on, but I'll just leave you with SOME of my favorite quotes from the book. (This is hard because there are soo many!) So if you end reading here, and you have a big dream, or a something thats been on the back burner for too long, read this book, and read the BIBLE, it will help you realize that there isn't time to waste putting great dreams on hold, your time is now! God Bless! -Britt

"How you think about God will determine who you become. You aren't just the byproduct of "nature" and "nurture." You are a byproduct of your God-picture. And that internal picture of God determines how you see everything else. Most of our problems are not circumstantial. Most of our problems are perceptual. Our biggest problems can be traced back to an inadequate understanding of who God is. Our problems seem really big because our God seems really small. In fact, we reduce God to the size of our biggest problem."

"Why is it that the church is known for what we're against that what we're for? Why does it seem like the church is always in a defensive posture? Maybe it's time for Christ followers to put on crash helmets and play offense." 

"Lion chasers don't retreat. They attack. Lion chasers aren't reactors, they are creators. Lion chasers refuse to live their lives in a defensive posture. They are actively looking for ways to make a difference."

"We need to stop criticizing culture and start creating it."

"Part of spiritual maturity is caring less and less about what people think about you and more and more about what God thinks about you"

"We should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances."

"Worship is forgetting about what's wrong with you and remembering what's right with God."

"Faith is risky business...Maybe risk taking is at the heart of righteousness. Maybe righteousness has less to do with not doing anything wrong and more to do with doing things right. Righteousness is using our God-given gifts to their God-given potential. and that requires risk. Maybe our view of sanctification is too sanitized. Maybe our view of Christianity is too civilized. Maybe we need to reconsider what made our spiritual ancestors heroic."

I'll end with a quote that he quotes by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, " Hell begins the day God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do."

This book was recommended to me by a group of highly successful entrepreneurs from the Team. All the books they have recommended have helped me, I hope they can help you out as well. What is the Entrepreneurial Myth? 
It is the assumption that an individual who understands the technical work of industry can successfully run a business that does that technical work. This is the reason Michael Gerber gives for the high failure rate of small businesses. 
The beginning of the book talks about the reality in business; that most small businesses are not started by entrepreneurs, but rather by people that just want to do their profession without having a boss. These people lack, as Gerber puts it, the "Entrepreneurial Perspective." That is, it's not the commodity or work itself that is important. What's important is the business; how it looks, acts, and does what it is intended to do. 
The book goes on to describe the Turn-Key Revolution. This is based on franchising models of having a systematic way of running the business. Gerber encourages people to work on their business, not just in their business. This section of the book is really helpful for anyone with a small business. The author describes in detail how to go about working on your business to be able to make it run smoothly, even when you are not there. 
In the last chapters of the book there is a section on marketing and sales that is very eye opening and thought provoking. I would recommend anyone in business or sales should read this section in particular. This book really challenges your thinking about how to make a business successful. I really recommend the entire book for for anyone in business or thinking about owning a business. -Paul

This is a great story that anyone with a big dream will be able to relate with. I will not give the story away but if you are pursuing a dream or would like to pursue a dream of yours, then this book is for you! This quick read will help you understand the ups and downs of pursuing a dream, and how you can grow through it. 

One thing that I learned from this book is that no matter how big my dream seems to me, God is so much bigger and so much greater. He is the one who put this dream in my heart but if I try to accomplish it without him the dream will probably die or not have a very big impact. The reason that God gives people such great dreams that are so much bigger than themselves is because he wants to use that to show His power and greatness, and so that He will be glorified and praised. If we try to accomplish a dream for self praise then we take that praise away from God.  So be in prayer about how God will use you to accomplish such great things, but do it with your eyes on God, not on yourself.

God Bless,

Paul

This is a great book that gives explains the theory side of leadership in easy to understand concepts while also showing how those theories have been put into action by people in real situations throughout history. I will just hit on the two concepts that struck me the most.

Three traits that someone needs to enter into leadership: 
Hunger: Must have a willingness and eagerness to learn and grow
Honeable: Must be willing to be taught and seek counsel from those that have results
Honorable: Must maintain and grow good character, have things in the right prespective, and have an attitude to serve not to be served.



And then there are the three qualities to measure ones leadership ability:
Character: The more trustworthy and the more courage to do what is right, one possess the higher their level of leadership.
Task: Based on ability in their field, how hard they work, how smart they are about how they work, and are they willing to do any task, no matter how small.
Relationships: Based on how good they are at building and maintaining strong relationships, how good they are at resolving issues in relationships.

I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to lead in any field of life. Just going into detail on the two concepts I wrote about will change how one looks at leadership, and makes it well worth the read. -Paul