New Years Thoughts...

Happy New Year!

I hope that everyone had a special time with friends and family over the holidays and that for those of you (like me) who took some extended time off, you have re-energized those batteries for the upcoming year. Today’s post in some ways is a reflection on the year that just passed (and before) and a resolution or commitment for the year to come.

I’m sure we’ve all heard the statement “learn from your mistakes” or “You don’t learn as much from your successes as from your failures” or “You need to get out of your comfort zone” I’d like to add one more to that list…

“If you are not willing to risk failure, you will never truly succeed”.

This is something that came to me 17 years ago when I started up my retail/distribution company. I remember talking to my dad, who was the rock of employment stability. Dad had worked for one company for many many years and I knew that he would eventually retire from there. The thought of giving up a full-time stable job to become self-employed was just such a scary thought to him but yet I knew that he was proud of me for doing it (if not a little bit scared for me as well). I took a “leap of faith” so to speak in leaving a solid, stable, responsible, comfortable, certain job in order to venture into the uncertainty that being self-employed in the consumer “retail” driven area of business could only bring. That decision and the subsequent experience and opportunities it created, brought me to World Vision in 2006 and without it I’m sure I would not be here today. Now that to me is success!

This past year I challenged many individuals throughout World Vision/VisionFund to come and take a “leap of faith” with me in changing the way they think about something they have been doing one way for a very long time and in essence asked them to “trust me” in solving their business problems through the use of different technology and how it is supported. In 2008 I want to continue to earn their trust by continuing to put together a team of committed, hard working individuals whose sole focus is to make the VisionFund Microfinance Institutes (MFI’s), in all of the countries we are in, a success.

One last thought for today…Many times we take time to thank the Lord for our blessings but I know that one thing that I am guilty of is not thanking Him enough for the challenges and struggles that are put into my life. Over the years I have discovered that I have become very fond of saying to people “The Lord never said it would be easy, just that it would be worthwhile” Now that is my paraphrasing of many instances in the Bible where God’s people had to live in duress just to see the promised land or His Glory, but I truly believe it to be true. I am sure that we will come across struggles in 2008 but I am committed to the success of the solutions we bring to the MFI’s and to each of you and while I know that it won’t be easy, it will be worthwhile and I will thank God for all of it.

Thanks for listening,

Mike