$6 BILLION in sales!

I am a mac fan. I like them for two reasons. One is that I've used them for over twenty years. Two is that they just work. They are related. One of the things I've noticed is that mac users expect perfection. As Apple goes, so goes the future of the mac platform. That's why today's news is such good news. Apple sales for their fourth quarter were over $6 Billion dollars, and their profit on those sales was $904 MILLION. That's astounding!

One of the great things about Apple is that they are an innovator who pushes technology forward. The iPhone is a great example. I have a Sony Ericsson P900. It's a great phone, and it does a lot of the same stuff the iPhone does. The iPhone just does it all better, and makes it easier to use.

I don't have one because AT&T is too expensive, but I will benefit from the iPhone by other companies copying it and being forced to make their phones better to compete with the iPhone.

Competition is good, and a healthy Apple is good for the industry. Apple is also a case study in the difference between a visionary leader and a non-visionary leader. Under Gil Amelio Apple nearly died. Under Steve Jobs the stock has gone up from $13 per share to $180 or so today, and that's after splitting at least once!

There is a leadership lesson in all of this. To be the top dog, a leader needs to have vision. A leader needs to look past what exists now and thing outside that box and dream of what can be. And then that leader needs to inspire the people to move there.

Why are churches so content to have leaders that copy others and think in the same boxes we've thought in for the last 50 years?

Joel

Hands

I think part of being made in the image of God is being made with a desire to create. Oftentimes we may not recognize this, or may make our lives too busy for it, but I think we have an inherent desire to create things.

Recently our TV died, and as part of its replacement we needed a new entertainment center. I built the last one we had about fifteen years ago, and it is a relic of a distant era. It is designed to hold CD's and videotapes, neither of which we use anymore. The CD's are in boxes to go in the attic (archival storage only) and the videotapes have been replaced by DVD's that we keep in our library.

After looking at a few stands, I decided to build a new entertainment center. I spend about $170 on wood, and got to work. It is incredibly rewarding. My hands are stained, my back hurts, my shoulders hurt, and I can't wait to get home to keep working on this thing. Somehow there is a connection to the creator that we experience when we create.

Joel