Stewardship is Leadership: what's in your hand, a symbol of influence.

TEDtalks: Rick Warren: A life of purpose.

Pastor Rick Warren is the author of The Purpose-Driven Life and has become an immensely influential voice seeking to apply the values of his faith to issues such as global poverty, HIV/AIDS and injustice.
He teaches that doing good is the only way humans create significance in our lives.  Warren's mission is to attack what he calls the five "Global Goliaths", spiritual emptiness, egocentric leadership, extreme poverty, pandemic disease, and illiteracy and poor education.  Through his global focus and considerable platform, Warren has become a sought-after advisor to world leaders.

I really like and enjoyed this TED video.  Reasons why I like this video include Rick's dynamic speaking ability, his engaging personality and meaningful message.  I thought that the way he intertwined personal stories through out his message about leadership was intriguing and I was influenced to acquire characteristics of leadership.  I felt that his speech was very inspirational and his message needed to be passed on.  His message is to adapt a worldview and to live everyday though this worldview, this requires self reflection on what is truly important.

Aspects of his talk that spoke to me were how he explained that stewardship is leadership.  "Stewardship of affluence and stewardship of influence; essentially Leadership is stewardship.  If you are a leader, in any area you do not own it, you are a steward of it.  For instance, this is why he believes in protecting the planet.  This is not my planet, it was not mine before I was born and it will not be mine after I die, I am here for eighty years and that is it.  He asked the question If human beings are responsible for making the world just a little bit better place for the next generation? He believes that we are responsible and that his worldview.  You must understand what your worldview is. Your worldview determines the decision, relationship, level of confidence, really everything in our life.  What we believe determines our behaviors and our behaviors determine what we become in life" (Rick Warren, personal communication). I thought this message directly relates to nursing and how we can shape our futures in our nursing profession.  It is our responsibility to make the environment a better place for the next generation and we are responsible to shape and influence the next generation in producing the best patient outcomes.  We need to become leaders and help transition the nursing world to be the best it can be.

More Influential comments from Rick Warren:

"Look what is your hand, your identity, your influence, your income and say its not about me its about making the world a better place"

“Significance in life doesn’t come from status, because you can always find somebody who’s got more than you. It doesn’t come from sex. It doesn’t come from salary. It comes from serving.”

"The purpose of influence is to speak up for those that may not have influence." 

"Your net worth is not your self-worth and your value is not based on your valuables."