You can’t get the maximum from the minimum …

Many people try to rise to leadership and do great things from a minimalist philosophy. But great lives and great leaders don’t come from doing the least required.

Simply doing what is required in almost any setting is not a mark of leadership, or a great accomplishment, but rather what is to be expected. Whether it’s in relationships, employment, service, charity, or any other endeavor, to make an impact or to lead requires surpassing the minimal expectations to setting the example.

There’s nothing wrong with competency, which is to consistently achieve what is expected and to accomplish what is appropriate. Competency is honorable. But basic competency will achieve, at best, the average. To go beyond that requires more than a minimalist philosophy.

To love greatly requires more than acquaintanceship. To succeed greatly in a career requires more than sticking to a job description. And to serve greatly requires an intent on meeting whole needs. To achieve great things or great heights means greater commitment, greater diligence, and greater costs for a greater payoff.

Millions of people hope every week their $1 investment in the lottery will bring them tens of millions in return. Yet almost every one of them learn that you cannot maximize any aspect of life from a minimal contribution. Whatever you want to accomplish well, whoever you really want to become, whatever you really want to do, requires an investment of yourself greater than the average in order to achieve more than the average.

Great leaders don’t become great leaders by parroting what other great leaders teach. They become great leaders by studying diligently and doing the work to develop a mastery in their field. Average leaders do the minimum and ride the coattails of other leaders who are blazing new trails. Highly creative, innovative achievers have a strong set of skills as the platform from which they work.

Jesus touched on this idea as recorded in Luke 6:38, “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”

A minimal approach to life will bring you a minimal return. A whole investment in life will bring you the rewards of investment.

Are you putting out the minimum with hopes for the maximum? Or are you making whole investments to achieve greater results?

Scotty