Session – Condoleeza Rice
Three shocking moments of the 21st C.
- 9/11/01 – notions of physical security are blown up
- 2008 – housing crisis, global financial meltdown blow up notions of prosperity
- 2011 – Arab spring, totalitarian regimes do not stand, freedom breaks out, and this is not the same as democracy –> there is a journey towards maturity = strong cannot exploit the weak. Majority cannot rule, but make room for the minority.
Leadership is not just about having people follow me, but helping them see that they too can lead. Help others become leaders, but others will not want to become leaders unless they see that you are an optimist believing in the brighter and better future.
How do you stay an optimist:
- Keep perspective about how difficult your circumstances really are. If you are so focused on today’s headlines instead of looking for history’s judgment, you will achieve nothing.
- Out of hardship comes often comes great achievement.
- It is a privilege to struggle! There you realize your own lack of power and strength.
- Think about past faithfulness. That those things that seem impossible seem actually inevitable in retrospect. But those outcomes were not inevitable, but the fruit of sacrifice and suffering. The outcomes of people who put everything on the line. Those are leaders!
Make it a world not as it is, but as it should be.