S31:E30🎙️ LIVE AWLL From Proverbs — Chapter 30

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Hello everyone, and, uh, welcome to this special edition of the Leadership and Success Podcast. Throughout the month of January, we've been going through the, um, book of, uh, Proverbs. So Today is January 30th. We're going to be studying Proverbs chapter 30, and tomorrow will be the very last day we are going to have this special edition of the Leadership and Success podcast, right? So this is not a religious study, but it's really a survey of the book of Proverbs to seek ancient wisdom and leadership lessons that are still applicable today, right? More than 2,000 years after this book was written. And as you know, for this class, we have two Where are they? Okay. We have two books for our curriculum. One of them is the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, and the other one is the Maxwell Leadership Bible. And it has a lot of leadership lessons and principles and articles throughout. So that's where I got some of my ideas about what we are studying now, not all of it, but some of it. So before we get to Proverbs chapter 30, as is our custom, let's do our moment of gratitude. So we wanna take just a moment to remember and think about one thing we are grateful for today and every day. And I think today I am really grateful that there are a lot of people much more intelligent than I am, a lot smarter, and who can solve really a lot of the complex problems we are facing right now. I know I have a lot of experience. There is a lot of things I do know and I can contribute. I can add value, but I definitely do not have all of the answers. One thing that's been troubling me for quite a while now is the state of privacy in the US. In my opinion, it's a lot better in Europe where they actually have laws that ensure that the privacy of European citizens are guaranteed, right? We also have, for example, we have the Privacy Act of 1974, but as you can say, it's what, 50 years old? So it's definitely hasn't kept up with technology and the way society has evolved since. If you go back to our constitution, people would argue again much smarter than I am. I am not a lawyer, but I have read the US Constitution before I became a US citizen. And when I enlisted, I had to take an oath to it. And once I got commissioned, I had to take an oath to the US Constitution. And every time I got promoted from ensign all the way up to Commander, I had to take an oath to the US Constitution as well. So I've read that document as a layman. I understand what it means, but I guess most people would say, for example, the Fourth and the Fifth Amendment really cover privacy. But again, that was written for the 18th century. We are in the 21st century now. So I think we definitely need to have an upgrade in our laws and policy. But anyway, having said all of that, what I'm saying is I am grateful that there are a lot of very, very smart people out there who are trying to figure out problems that we are facing now to make our society better, right? To improve our way of life. And I'm very, very grateful for that. People from the academia, from the industry, from the military, from all walks of life, from the community at large, from technology, really thinking about these issues and how we can do better as a society. And I want to say hello to Jim Mole from Kenya. Thank you so much for watching. And Jim, let us know what you are grateful for. And also, if you have any insight about the Book of Proverbs chapter 30, please let us know as well. All right, let me do a quick review of what we did yesterday, Proverbs chapter 29. Yesterday we talked about 7 lessons. Lesson 1 yesterday, based on verse 1, was Correction is a gift, not a threat, right? Leaders who resist correction eventually lose credibility, and then they lose control as well. So pride will delay learning, but humility will accelerate growth. Like I said yesterday and several times throughout this special edition, I think the greatest lesson I've learned about leadership, especially when I was I had the great privilege of being the commanding officer for the Global Network Operations Security Center in Suffolk, Virginia, was that in order to be an effective leader, you do have to be humble. Humility is a must. Okay. Humility accelerates growth. You cannot be proud. You cannot be arrogant. That's not going to help you. So leadership lesson number 2. Yesterday we talked about righteous leadership lifts people based on verse 2. Leadership is felt emotionally before it is measured operationally. So people know when leadership is just or corrupt. All right, just trust me on that. So, and again, you can review everything we've studied so far from chapter 1 all the way through chapter 29. Those episodes are available everywhere. Podcasts are available, all of the major podcast platforms from Apple Podcasts, Spotify. It's also available on YouTube and LinkedIn as well. So you can review all of those. This is just a quick, brief review of what we did yesterday. And again, tomorrow will be the very last chapter we do, Proverbs 31. And that's gonna be the last one. And that's gonna conclude this special series. So leadership lesson number 4. Yesterday we learned that discipline is an act of love, right? Based on verse 15. And that's really what I got to learn what leadership really means. Up to this point, I've used the definition from my primary mentor, Dr. John Maxwell, who says, "Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less." That's one of the best definitions I've ever heard. Because it makes it so that you don't have to have a title, you don't have to have a position to be a leader. You just need to influence someone. That means a mother who influences her child is a leader. A father who influences his colleagues, his children is a leader. A school teacher who influences students, pupils is a leader. If you can influence someone, you are a leader. If you can influence your peers, you are a leader. So I really love that. But really in the last 5 years or so, I've got to learn that for me, Leadership is love, right? You love the people you serve with, the people who report to you, and you serve them, right? You do everything you can in order to remove obstacles and help them meet whatever challenges they are facing in order to accomplish the mission of your organization, right? Love people, right? Mission first, but people, people always. Take care of your people, love them, and your people will take care of the mission. That's based on Proverbs 29:15. The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. So the insight here is avoiding hard conversation is not kindness. You might be nice, but you are not being kind because it is negligence. What you refuse to correct today will control you tomorrow. When we talk about leadership lesson number 5, vision anchors restraint. Based on verse 18: "Vision without values will lead to chaos, but values without vision will lead to stagnation." Alright, Leadership Lesson #6. Yesterday we talked about "Anger is a leadership liability," based on verse 22: "Uncontrolled emotion multiplies conflict and diminishes authority." And the last lesson we did yesterday was Leadership Lesson #7: "Humility preserves honor." Again, lead with humility. One of the greatest leadership advice I've got to experience, right, for my military service. Proverbs 29:23, "Because pride will isolate the leader, but humility will surround the leader with trust and wisdom." All right, so now let's get to Proverbs 30. What is the big idea about Proverbs 30? Well, It's attributed to Agur, son of Jakeh, not to Solomon, who wrote most of the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes and Songs of Solomon. So Jakeh is the one who wrote Proverbs 30. It's deeply reflective chapter. It reframes leadership through humility. That's that word again, humility, dependence on God, moral restraint, and keen observation of life. So unlike earlier Proverbs focused on instruction from authority— again, we believe Solomon is the one who wrote all of those— this chapter kind of begins with a confession acknowledging human limitation and ends with practical wisdom drawn from nature and society. So it reminds leaders that wisdom does not begin with confidence, but with reverence, with restraint, and teachability. Alright. The 3 C's of leadership I've learned in the Navy, right? One is competence, two confidence, and three connection, right? If you are going to be an effective leader, you have to be competent. You have to be able to get the job done. You need to have confidence when you do your work so that people can relate to you and use you as their role model, because as goes the leader, so goes the entire team, right? You have to be confident in what you do, and if you don't know, ask for help. And then connection, you have to connect with your people because your people are your greatest asset. Okay, so true leadership is not proven by power or abundance, but by character, by balance, and by discernment. So the theme for Proverbs 30 is humble leadership, knowing your limits, guarding your desires, and leading with reverence. All right, leadership lesson number 1: Wisdom begins with humble self-awareness. That's going to be verses 1, 2, and 3. Let's listen to that. 1, 2, and 3. The words of Agur, the son of Jaakob, his utterance.

This man declared to Ithael, to Ithael and Ucal, surely I am more stupid than any man. And do not have the understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor have knowledge of the Holy One.

Okay, so again, Proverbs 30:1-3, we just heard that. So, Agur opens not with credentials, but with confession, being vulnerable. And I think it's so important for your team member to understand that you are a human being, And people do err, right? To err is human. And sometimes you do have to be vulnerable so people can relate to you. So this is not false humility, but it is intellectual honesty, right? Leaders who overestimate their understanding are the most dangerous kind. Those who think they can do no wrong, they know absolutely everything. That's absolutely wrong. Nobody knows everything. Everybody needs help. Everybody has limitation. And you have to be honest as a leader to say, yes, I know the answer for this, but here I don't know the answer, but I can find out. I can ask for help. I can reach out to my mentors, to my coach, right? I can read, I can do research, but I don't know what the answer is. So I'm not just gonna make up something. I am honest and I am humble and vulnerable because self-awareness is the gateway to wisdom. And, uh, I've said this very often, right? The more I know, the more I know that I don't know. Anything, because the more I get knowledge, the more I am aware of what I do not know. Right. I think humility is really, really key in becoming an effective leader. So how do you apply this? Effective leaders, they regularly audit what they don't know. They ask questions, they invite challenge and resist the illusion of omniscience, right? The illusion of knowing everything. Invite feedback, especially as their authority grows. The more authority you have, the more responsibility you have, I believe, the more humble you should be. And I have interviewed quite a few 4-star admirals and generals, but really I've never seen a flag officer, right, 1, 2, 3, or 4-star admiral or general who was proud and boastful and puffed up Never, never seen in 21 years I've been in the U.S. Navy. I have never seen it in any of the branches I have worked with in the military. But now I must tell you, I have seen very, very few senior officers like me, commander, lieutenant colonel, captain, or colonel who are a little bit too arrogant. I have seen that. But at the level of general and admiral, never. It looks like they all go to some type of humility school or something. But I think it, it really shows why they were selected to lead at that very, very high level humility. Because when you are humble, you are extremely effective. People can relate to you even though you've accomplished so much, you have so much knowledge and accolades and achievement and all of that, but they can still see you as a human being, someone who relates to them and they can trust and follow. All right. So where might confidence be masking blind spots in your leadership and who is empowered to challenge your thinking today? Over and over again, we see this theme through the book of Proverbs. You need to have in your inner circle a group of people who have your permission to speak to you freely, tell you exactly what they think, right? You don't want people who are gonna tell you what you want to hear. You want people who are going to challenge you, who are going to help you watch out for your blind spot. We all need that. Okay, so the anchor reflection here is leadership matures when certainty gives way to curiosity. I think curiosity is really a master key of success. I don't know everything, but I always want to learn, always learning. I am a student forever. I will never, never stop learning. There is some things that I don't know that I need to find out that's going to allow me to be more effective, to achieve greater level of success, be a better leader. And that something could be coming not just from my bosses or people I respect or my mentors or my coaches or thought leaders in the industry, but sometimes for the lowest ranked member of my team. And that's happened to me over and over again throughout my career because wisdom doesn't respect rank or position. Leadership, in our opinion, has absolutely nothing to do with rank or position because it's really when people want to follow you, that's where true leadership begins. Not because they have to, but because they want to, because you are the kind of person who deserves to be followed by the way you treat them, by the way you engage with with them and by your character and the way you treat everyone. Okay, so leadership lesson number 2. Here, let's talk about authority must be anchored in God's truth, not human wisdom. Let's read verses 4, 5, and 6. Let's see if I can make this bigger. Okay.

Who has ascended into heaven or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son's name, if you know? Every word of God is pure. He is a shield to those who put their trust in him. Do not add to his words, lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

All right. Eger contrasts divine wisdom with human speculation. Leaders who distort truth by exaggeration, spin, self-interest, they eventually lose credibility. So even for those who don't believe in God, that is okay. You've got to know that there are limitations to your knowledge. There are limitations to what a human being can do. So we need each other, right? So how do we apply this? Lead from principle, not preference. Anchor decision in timeless truth, ethical standards, and values, values, values that do not shift with convenience. You cannot say that, okay, my value today are diversity, equity, and inclusion. And then when we get a different administration in power, oh, I was just lying. That's not exactly who I am. My values are not are not completely opposite. That just doesn't make any sense. You have to have some core values. For example, as a sailor, my values are honor, courage, commitment. That's what my values are. No matter who is in charge, no matter who's my commanding officer, no matter who's the commander-in-chief of the US Armed Forces, those will be my values forever for the rest of my life because that's who I am at my core. So you have to know what are your values and you have to lead by your values. Again, a great podcast I would like for you to listen to is when I interviewed Terry Maxwell in season 5. I believe it was episode 3 or 4, maybe 5, but Thierry Maxwell, listen to that. She's a woman who lives by her value. That's how she lives. That's how she runs her business. And that's also how she agrees to do business with companies that want to hire her services in order to scale and grow. She absolutely abides by her value. And if there is a mismatch between her value and the value of the people she wants to hire, they will not get hired. If there's a mismatch between her value and the value of the businesses who need her services, she will not work with them. That is so powerful. Live by your value. Okay. Where might you be tempted to add to the truth to protect your image? And what core values anchor your decision under pressure? Especially under pressure. When there is no pressure, it's so easy to say, oh, these are my values, this is what I stand for. But what happens when you are under stress, when you are under pressure? That's really when your character is revealed. So if you say one thing, but then when you're under pressure, you do something completely opposite or different, then that was not your values. That was not who you were. Again, those values have to be core to your identity, to who you are as a person, and then what you do as a team, as an organization. So integrity is preserved when leaders refuse to edit the truth, no matter what. Okay. Leadership lesson number 3, ask for character, not for excess. Let's read verse 7, 8, and 9.

Two things I request of you: deprive me not before I die. Remove falsehood and lies far from me. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with the food food allotted to me, lest I be full and deny you and say, who is the Lord? Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

All right, ask for character, not for excess. Eger's prayer is quite radical, right? Enough. You recognize that both excess and lack can corrupt character, but leaders are often undone not by scarcity, but by abundance. I was just saying the other day, when you are poor, when you don't have enough, and I think most of us have been there, money seems like it's everything to you. However, once you get a certain level of success and you can meet all of your needs, you have a house, you have a car, you can pay for your bills and you have money left over. After a while, money isn't gonna mean anything anymore, right? Because no, you may have a house and you buy 2, 3, 4, 5 houses, but how many houses can you live in at the same time? Only one. How many cars can you drive at the same time? Only one. How many boats are you going to have? At a certain level, all of the money, all of the abundance really doesn't mean anything. That's how I think some people may have a lot of money, maybe extremely wealthy, but they are not fulfilled. Because I think to be fulfilled, you have to move from personal success to significance when you start thinking about other people, helping other people reach their goal, their potential, and live their life on purpose. So I think abundance, I'm not saying that is bad, but what I am saying is at a certain level, it's not going to satisfy anymore. So you have to watch for that. So how do we apply this principle? Practice restraint, define enough in compensation, recognition, power, and control. Sometimes people who are just seeking for that extra dollar, for more and more money, more and more power, eventually that is going to lead to their fall. Okay, know what enough means. Where you have enough, where you are happy, you survive, all of your needs are met, but still have time to spend with your family, your children. Because this is another problem too for people who are always seeking after wealth and abundance. Like I know in Silicon Valley prior to the pandemic, many of us, we work what, 50, 60, 70, 80 hours a week every week, never taking time off. And most companies in Silicon Valley, especially in the startup world, they would say, hey, you have unlimited vacation. You can take as much time as you want. However, they never want you to take a day of vacation. Every time you go away for a week or two or whatever, people look at you kind of cross-eyed, say, hey, what are you doing? So always working, working, working, working, and overworking and burning out, especially in tech, especially in cybersecurity. So what is it going to profit you to be working 70, 80 hours week after week, and you miss time with your spouse, you miss time with your children, and before you know it, they are gone to college and your kids don't have any personal relationship with you. You may have provided for them, you may have had a great house and great standard of living, but what does it mean if they don't have a personal relationship with you, right? On my podcast, usually I ask, what would you have liked for your final contribution to be if you had one and only one day to live? Towards the end of the podcast, I ask that to all of my guests, and I've never heard of somebody who say, oh, I really would like to go back to work and do two more hours at the office and close another deal. No, no. Almost everybody I talk to, they think about their family and their loved one and the legacy they're going to leave behind after they have gone. So you really have to balance that in your life. So what is your personal definition of enough? And how has success tested your character more than struggle? Sustainable leadership flows from contentment, not accumulation. Again, I have nothing against accumulation. I have nothing against abundance. What I'm saying is keep your priorities in order, know what is important, and where you should really put your focus. Alright, leadership lesson number 4: Respect boundaries and honor authority, based on verses 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Respect boundaries and honor authority.

Do not malign a servant to his master, lest he curse you and you be found guilty. There is a generation that curses its father and does not bless its mother. There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its filthiness. There is a generation— oh, how lofty are their eyes, and their eyelids are lifted up! There is a generation whose teeth are like swords and whose Whose fangs are like knives to devour the poor from off the earth and the needy from among men.

Wow!

Respect boundaries and honor authority. Agur critiques arrogance, entitlement, and moral blindness. Leaders who disrespect authority dismiss accountability or believe themselves above correction They erode trust and unity. You are not above the law. It's really bad when the leader says, okay, rules apply to everybody else except for me. No, because you are the leader, you are the servant of all. They should apply to you first and then to everybody else. You have to be a role model. You have to lead by example. So model respect for predecessor, for institution, and those you lead. Honor boundaries. Accountability is not a threat, it is protection. So how do you speak about leaders who came before you? And where might pride be disguising itself as independence? So the anchor reflection here is leaders who refuse accountability eventually lose authority. All right, leadership lesson number 5, unchecked desire is never satisfied. Let's read 15 and 16.

The leech has two daughters, give and give. There are three things that are never satisfied, four never say enough: the grave, the barren womb, the earth that is not satisfied with water, and the fire never says Enough.

Hmm. Never says enough. A girl's insatiable appetite, power, recognition, control. He warns against all of that because desire without discipline is a leadership liability. It's okay to have desire, but you do have to have leadership. You need to have guardrails. So identify patterns of more. More influence, more credit, more control than intentionally practiced restraint and gratitude. That's another reason why we always start the show with a moment of gratitude. Every single day, take a moment. It doesn't have to take a long time, 1 minute, 2 minutes, just be grateful for where you are. Because I guarantee you, even though you might be in a terrible situation right now, there is somebody out there who would like to be in your shoes, who is in a situation much, much worse than you are. I've often mentioned, I come originally from Africa, Republic of the Congo. Being a poor person in the Congo and being a poor person in America, two completely different things. I think Jim Mulvaire from Kenya will be able to testify to that. When you are poor in the Congo or any countries in Africa, you are dirt poor. You absolutely have no idea where your next meal is going to come from. In America, you are poor, you get SNAP, so you get some meals. Sometimes you have tennis shoes that cost $300, $400. A big screen TV, you are driving a car. No, that's not poverty in Africa. For them, you are extremely rich, even though you may feel yourself poor. But even if you make like a 6-figure income and you live in a place like I am here, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, one of the most expensive zip codes in the world, even with 6-figure income, you still feel poor. But I'm telling you, for somebody who lives in Africa or South Asia or South America, they would love to be in your shoes. Okay? Everything is relative, but you really have to have that attitude of gratitude. Papa John often says, right, your attitude will determine your altitude. So powerful. Okay. So how do you practice gratitude as a discipline? And what desire, if unchecked, could derail your leadership? So the anchor reflection here is: what you refuse to govern will eventually govern you. All right, so leadership lesson number 6, we're almost done. Wisdom is often found in small overlooked places. Let's read 24 through 28. Wisdom is often overlooked in small places. So Proverbs chapter 20, 24 through 28. Let's go there.

There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise. The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their food in the summer. The rock badgers are a feeble folk, yet they make their homes in the crags. The locusts have no king, yet they all advance in ranks. The spider skillfully grasps with its hands, and it is in kings' palaces.

Wow, isn't this something? Wisdom is often found in small, overlooked places. Ants, locusts, rock badgers, and spider, they teach foresight. Teamwork, protection, and persistence. Great, great leaders observe carefully and learn humbly from anyone. Again, the lesson that my mama taught me so many times, right? She used to say, God gave me two ears and one mouth, and she wanted me to use those in that proportion, right? In that ratio. Listen twice as much as you speak. Okay, learn Be humble. You don't know everything. Find out where your people come from, their status, their emotional state, how they are doing. Be aware of your environment and your surroundings before you make a decision. Observe carefully and learn humbly. So how do we apply this? Pay attention to frontline workers, junior team members, and small systems. When again, I had the great privilege of being the commanding officer of the Global Network Operations Security Center in Suffolk, Virginia, my goal as the commanding officer, the highest rank officer in the command, was to ensure that I would create an environment where Seaman Recruit Zinga, who I used to be, you know, 21 years ago, that person would feel comfortable, will feel respected, and feel like he belonged. That's the person I was working for. Me, the highest-ranked officer, wanted to ensure that I was serving the lowest-ranked junior enlisted member in the command. That was my job. And I wanted all of my department head and my senior team to do the same thing. We are not there for ourselves, but we are there to add value and add value to the lowest-ranked member of the team. Because if we can take care of that junior enlisted service member, then I know for sure we will take care of everybody else, right? And the team will feel loved, accepted, and we're going to take care of everybody. And then they in turn will take care of the mission, right? That is so important. Pay attention to frontline workers. Like, even sometimes I would see people, they go for interviews and they so nice, not to the CEO, the board of directors, the chairman, all of the VP and all of the senior people in the enterprise, but then they kind of mistreat the people who might be at the desk or the janitor or people they feel like, oh, that's just a secretary, I don't have to be kind to them. That's a big, big, big mistake. That's another great lesson that General Colin Powell taught me. He was saying when he was secretary of state in this building, the people who took care of the parking, most of them were immigrants. It looks like mostly from Africa, and they will tell people where to park. And basically the way they would park people, depending on where you park, right, you might be the first to leave or the last one to go, because if there are many cars in front of you, then you are going to have to wait. And usually the way they would decide who's going to be, you know, in the premium parking space and who is not is by how they were treated by the people who worked there. When people were nice, okay, we go ahead and put you in the VIP spot. But when people were rude or completely ignored them, then they will make sure they would be in a parking spot that they probably didn't like. And the way, again, the Secretary of State of the United States found out, he got out of his ivory tower, from the higher office at the State Department building, he went all the way to the basement, to talk to the little folks, to talk to, I think they were not even employees, they were contractors. Can you believe that? Now I've been a DOD contractor in the Navy. They treated me very nice. In the Army, not so nice. Usually they think of contractors almost like second-class citizens, but that was like maybe 10, 15 years ago. So things may have changed there, but I could see the difference of how people treated me in the Navy as a DOD contractor and how they did in the Army, right? In the Navy, it was like, you are a subject matter expert. We wanna hear from you. What should we do? What do you think? Whereas in the army, it was almost like, okay, we don't care. Why are you even here? At least that's the feeling I had. I'm just being honest. But a 4-star general, Secretary of State of the United States of America, the most powerful nation in the world, he would go all the way to the basement and talk to those immigrants and ask how they are doing and care about them. I'm sure he had a million things to do with world affairs and crisis all around the world and things, but it took time to do that. That's really leadership. Take care of your people, get to know them, care about the individual. So powerful. And people will never forget that, right? Like Oprah said, I think she learned that from Maya Angelou, her mentor, people will forget everything you say, but they will never ever forget the way you make them feel. How do you make people feel, especially the least among you? Wow, that's leadership. So how well do you listen to voices without title? Great leaders learn from everything and everyone. And again, I've learned throughout my career, leadership, wisdom doesn't respect rank or title. So you have to be open for instruction, open for feedback, and be willing to learn from everyone at any time. Sometimes even from your enemies or people who perceive you as an enemy. I don't think I have any enemies at all, but I think a few people throughout my career maybe thought that I was. But even when people don't like me for whatever reason, maybe it's my accent, the color of my skin, or whatever it might be, it doesn't matter, and they really say mean things to me and they absolutely want to cut me down, I listen to what they have to say because I am open to wisdom, understanding, feedback, And then I ask myself the question, are you qualified to say what you just said? And if they are, okay, I will listen. If you are not qualified, then I can just ignore what you said. But then I will take what you say and then I'm gonna ask the next question. What you said, is it true or is it not factual or is it a complete lie? If it is a lie, then I completely ignore it. It has nothing to do with me. But if it is true, then I'm like, okay, I do have a problem here. Thank you so much for bringing light into this area of my life. Now I am gonna work on this. And I'm going to get better in this area. That's not the reason why I have excelled in some skills throughout my career, because people, I think some of them didn't really like me and they were really trying to criticize me saying how I was so bad in this specific area. And that was a challenge for me to get better and better, start learning, right? It takes about, what they say, 10,000 hours to become an expert in any field. That's about 5 years or so. If you study something every single day, and you are consistent, eventually you are going to become an expert in that field. And eventually I became very, very good because somebody criticized me 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago. Don't take it personal, right? Look for wisdom. Look for the gold nugget in the dirt. They may be throwing dirt at you, but no, shake it off and look for the wisdom. Look for the gold nugget. Look for what's gonna help you get to the next level. Okay, so great leaders learn from everything and everyone. Alright, leadership lesson number 7. This is our last lesson today. True leadership carries itself with quiet, quiet confidence. So let's read Proverbs 29:30-31.

There are three things which are majestic in pace, yes, four which are stately in walk. A lion, which is mighty among beasts and does not turn away from any. A greyhound, a male goat also, and a king whose troops are with him.

Wow, a king whose troops are with him. Quiet confidence. Agur closes with images of confident, composed leadership. Calm, cool, and collected, knowing who you are. Because if you know who you are, you do not have to shout. When you are strong, you can show restraint. You don't have to boast because you know exactly who you are. You know where you come from, you know where you are going, you know your capability, you know what you can do, right? True authority does not rush, boast, or dominate. There is no need for that. It moves with calm assurance. And when you are calm as a leader, you give permission to your team, even in the midst of chaos, to be calm as well. Hey, we know this, we've done this before. Let us just practice as we train, right? Let's put into action what we know. We are ready for this, right? You really exude confidence. And people can be calm, they can think, and they can take action and do the right thing in order to pass through whatever crisis the organization is going through. That is so, so critical to be an effective leader. All right.

Wow.

Lead with presence, not performance. Let consistency, courage, and character speak louder than theatrics. So do you lead from confidence or from insecurity? And I think that's really what people perceive as charisma. Somebody who is like someone like General Colin Powell. I mean, I got to meet him 2015, I think it was in Atlanta. I mean, this man, when he moves into a room, I believe there is a molecular change, like at the atomic level. People know there is greatness in the room. Somebody is here. Everybody just stay at attention and they are ready to listen. The room just goes silent because he walks with presence, with integrity, right? There is that je ne sais quoi, right? Executive presence that goes with him. And I think it has to do with character speaking louder than theatrics. He is solid. His words have weight, right? He doesn't talk a lot, but when he speaks, his words mean something. So powerful. Okay, so how does your presence affect the room before you speak? So leadership authority is felt long before it is declared, right? In Africa, we say that the lion is the king of the jungle. The lion doesn't go around, "Roar, roar, I am the king of the jungle. Look at me, look at me, I'm strong, I'm beautiful." No, no, no. The lion already knows that he is, so he just lives in his awesomeness. No need to be proud, arrogant, and have all of these theatrics and things like that. When you are a leader and you know exactly who you are, you don't have need for all of that. You can just be calm and confident and focus on your mission and get to action. So leadership authority is felt long before it is declared. So this was Proverbs 30. Tomorrow we're going to do Proverbs 31. That's going to be the very last chapter of our very special edition of the Leadership Success podcast. Ancient Wisdom Mentoring from the Book of Proverbs. Again, not a religious podcast, but really the focus here is ancient wisdom and leadership lesson from the Book of Proverbs written more than 2,000 years ago, but still relevant today in the age of AI, 2026, the 21st century. So as a close-up, this chapter reminds us that leadership is not about knowing everything, and nobody can know everything anymore. Right? When I was a PhD student at the University of Alabama, my primary professor, my mentor, he had had his PhD maybe about 20 years before I did back in the '80s. And back then in microbiology, he told me he absolutely knew everything there was to know about microbiology. But in the year 2000, 2001, when I started my PhD program, it was impossible to know everything because knowledge just expand exponentially. It's impossible to know everything. We cannot keep up with it, right? So that is okay. You don't have to know everything, but you don't have to have everything either, or controlling everything. It is about knowing yourself, honoring God, restraining desire, and leading with wisdom drawn from humility and observation. Be humble, lead with humility. Leaders who embrace their limits become more effective, not less, because they are anchored in truth rather than ego. And people like to work with people who are humble and go above and beyond. I think you will see that over and over again. Okay, that's what I believe is the main lessons from Proverbs chapter 30. So let me know what you got out of it. Let me know what you think about the 7 lessons I have given you and any verses I didn't highlight. Let me know what your thoughts are on those if you have any insight. Well, thanks again for watching. So I'm gonna be back tomorrow, Saturday, January 31st, the last day of the month of January. And we're gonna study Proverbs 31. Again, looking for that ancient wisdom and leadership lesson from the book of Proverbs. I will be back next week with more interview on the regular Leadership Success podcast. Thank you so much for being with us today. I appreciate you very much. Please like, share, think of someone who might benefit from this podcast. And I really do appreciate that. Thank you so much and see you tomorrow. Bye.

Thank you for tuning in to the Leadership Success podcast with your host, Coach BZ. If today's If this episode added value to your leadership journey, be sure to subscribe, share, and join us again for more wisdom nuggets on how to lead better and achieve greater success. Remember, leadership is the most critical skill of our time. The world will always need leaders to inspire others, drive innovation, and execute meaningful strategy. So why not count yourself among the bold leaders shaping the 21st century? Until next time, stay inspired, stay committed, and keep leading with excellence.