The true mark of a leader is the willingness to stick with a bold course of action — an unconventional business strategy, a unique product-development roadmap, a controversial marketing campaign — even as the rest of the world wonders why you’re not marching in step with the status quo. In other words, real leaders are happy to zag while others zag. They understand that in an era of hyper-competition and non-stop disruption, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to stand for something unique. - Bill Taylor
What is Faith? Faith believes in something. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, concept, or idea. It is the mental acceptance of the reality or actuality of something. In its positive aspect, it is a belief in the favorable outcome of anything undertaken.
There are two kinds of faith. The first is a faith that is predicated on truth and can be proven by experiment. The experiment that proves this truth produces the same result every time. For example, one might say two plus two makes five, but that does not make it correct. In fact, upon hearing this, one might become convinced and even convince others that this is correct, and still, this would not make it right.
The only practical way to get the correct answer to a mathematical problem is to conform to the established laws of mathematics based on truth. Therefore, applying this law gives you the correct answer: two plus two equals four at any time, place, and under any conditions.Truth.
The second is based upon ignorance, conjecture, or supposition. This is a faith that an evaluated experiment has not been decided. No matter the hunger in its tenets, this professed faith is still in a state of doubt and uncertainty until an empirical investigation can prove that it is either true or reveal that it is false.
For example, people believed that the world was flat for five thousand years. They had the utmost faith in their belief. Columbus came along and, by experiment, proved that the world was round. Their earlier faith was based on ignorance, and an investigation proved that it was false. People had an untrue belief, worsened by the church, that the sun revolved around the earth until Copernicus discovered the truth.
Over time, many other beliefs were also held to be correct until they were proven and established orthodoxy steadfastly blanketed established orthodoxy steered by knowledge. Still, that knowledge, too, maybe true or false. Knowledge is the state of being aware of something or having information. It is straightforward to be mindful of something untrue or to have information that may prove false. Therefore, the old saying knowledge is power’ should be revised. Knowledge is power if it is based upon truth. Otherwise, it may be a tremendous burden, a serious obstacle, a decided hindrance, and a current handicap to mental or spiritual development and progress.
And burdened is where we are today, handicapped by our misguided faith in the efficacy of our respective economies, the lack of credibility in our leaders, and the false idols of progress at whatever cost and success no matter what it takes. We are entering a period in our collective consciousness where the following momentous change in basic assumptions in feelings will leave most of us still thinking the world is flat and that we can keep on. Many unwary wills are left devastated.
And this is where the laws of the universe come into play. God, as all-pervasive energy, is invisible, and all his rules are hidden. No one can see life, spirit, thought, electricity, atomic energy, or any form of power. All we see is the manifestation of those powers. Humankind, despite his arrogance, does not create leverage. He merely discovers and appropriates it to his use, sometimes wisely, sometimes not. He has harnessed electrical, mathematical, chemical, atomic, and other forms of control. But the greatest of all energy is treated with only a passing glance, spiritual authority.
Many of today’s thinkers, scientists, and physicists are beginning to express that the most significant discoveries will be along spiritual lines. Here is a force that history now clearly teaches has been the most incredible power in the development of humankind. Yet, we have been playing with it so far and have never seriously studied it as we have the physical forces.
Now that we have an understandable conception of truth and its application to other forms of energy, the time has come, in survival and evolutionary terms, to devote more time to discovering the underlying truth of spiritual power. No doubt, someone will try to find a way to pervert it for personal gain or power, but by its very nature, this truth may not be so amenable to selfish human intervention. Appropriate use of this consciousness-raising power would be a great asset for improving and enhancing every aspect of personal growth and sorely needed synergistic social cohesion.