Microsoft ripped me off
1 share of Microsoft stock in 1985 that sold for $21 is now worth $7,500. I feel ripped off because I always wanted to buy that share but never got around to it. On top of that nobody ever clearly informed me that this would happen or I would have made the effort, I would have scraped up the $21, maybe even $42! And when I went in to cash in on my INTENTIONS to own that stock, Microsoft just laughed me out of the building! The fact is that I had the same POTENTIAL as every other person to cash in on that boom but I never did, I never got around to it, I always intended to and got mad at myself for bypassing the opportunity.
This reminds me of so many things in life: if we would just make some minimal investments early the payoffs are huge later. Also, we are often found kicking ourselves when we know we missed a big opportunity, one that was right in front of us but we dismissed. On top of that we sometimes show up thinking that we can cash in on good intentions and find ourselves winding up short.
I have watched disappointed “church people” who have come to expect a “payoff” from the church but never got it because they never really invested anything in the church. They always intended to go to a small group, a church picnic, have someone over for dinner, but just never got around to it. Then when they have a death, or a birth, or a wedding, or a shower, or a surgery or some other event and no one shows they complain how the church failed them. They are trying to cash in on an investment they had never made! I feel sorry for those people.
On the other hand what makes a leader so invaluable IS the investment that they make in others. The payoff is in proportion to the time and amount invested.
Bottom line? Make the investment! It is never too late to get into the market and reap rewards. Intention doesn’t get it and doesn’t payoff. We must make people our priority. Know their names, do special things for them, listen, care, love in the name of Jesus. The rewards will grow as time passes and on the day when you need them they will be there for you.
