“May your influence never grow wider than your character runs deep.”
That is so powerful.
And that is so important.
And unfortunately, it is so uncommon to hear that or to think about that when we do.
Character Building
Everybody wants more influence.
I mean, influence is the currency of the day.
And in many ways, today, it’s like more people are after influence maybe perhaps than they are even after money.
And it’s fascinating to study, research and discover where influence comes from.
That’s one of the things that I spend a lot of my time doing.
It’s something that I’m interested in my study of business, personal development, and success.
And one of the best things that I’ve ever learned about influence came from a little bit of an unexpected place.
It actually came from my pastor.
And regardless of what your spiritual beliefs are, this isn’t a churchy thing.
That’s just where I happened to hear this. It was from Pastor Kevin.
And when we think about influence, what most of us think about is like being somebody important, having a lot of people that you manage, maybe being famous, or maybe having a lot of money, right?
We think that the things that lead to influence or the ways that we would describe an influential person are typically related to like how much is in their control, how much is in their purview, or how much are they overseeing.
But Pastor Kevin shared something with me that really opened my eyes. It sharpened a perspective about influence.
And it’s one that I don’t think enough people talk about.
It’s one that I don’t think we hear often enough about it.
And this, I feel like, has changed my life.
And it put words to something that I’ve always sensed, but never felt quite as clear on it until Pastor Kevin shared this with me.
Here’s what he said. It’s super simple.
He said he was sharing a story about someone in his life, a mentor of his, and it was his mentor who said this to him.
He said, “Kevin, my hope is that your influence never grows wider than your character runs deep.”
May your influence never grow wider than your character runs deep.
That is so powerful and important.
And, unfortunately, it is so uncommon to hear that or to think about that when we think of influence.
Because again, when we think of influence, we think of things like how many followers do you have, how much pull do you have, or how much power do you have?
We don’t typically think of influence as to how strong is your character.
I mean, although it is that, right? In more of a subconscious way, we sort of recognize that in Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King, or Gandhi. We respect these people because of their character, but it’s not something that we think about for our own lives as one of the ways to grow my influence.
This is important.
What Makes a Good Character?
This is something that I want to make sure that you realize that one of the best ways to grow your influence is to strengthen your character.
One of the best ways to grow your influence is to strengthen your character.
And it’s so easy to be tied up in the pursuit of materialism. Such as if I want to be more influential, I need to get a promotion. I need a bigger title, I need to get more followers, I need to have more subordinates/people who work for me, or I need more fame or notoriety. I have to sell more books. I need more video views. I need more downloads on my podcast or more subscribers, right?
These are the things that we focus on and people tend to think probably too much about them.
And what we don’t think enough about is what am I doing today to build my character?
What am I doing today to become a better person?
And as I become a better person, as I develop stronger character, I set the foundation for becoming a better leader and having more influence.
And it’s not that I’m against reach, right? At Brand Builders Group, that’s one of the things we teach people -how to do is increase their reach and how to reach more people.
We believe in reaches as an important part of the reputation formula. We’ve talked and taught about the reputation formula and reaches a part of it but reaches only a part of it because it’s definitely true that if I don’t know about you, you can’t influence me.
How to Influence Others as a Leader?
So, reach matters but what matters even more in terms of substance, in terms of sustainability, in terms of lasting impact on the world, in terms of deep impact in deep truth, and what you’re going to do to shape the world around you is that it is not so much reach as it is character.
It’s not so much reach as it is character.
It’s not so much importance as it is your reputation and who you are and what you are about.
And Pastor Kevin’s prayer from his mentor for him, which I think then became Pastor Kevin’s prayer for me is now my prayer for you.
And that prayer is that may your influence never grow wider than your character runs deep.
Let me know in the comments below if you agree- I love to know!