The Great Wall Of China

The Great Wall of China

This morning, I was having my breakfast in front of the TV while watching NGEO documentary on Great Wall Of China. I finish my breakfast within 15minutes but decided to stay and watch the documentary until it ends. Here's the link to 39 interesting facts about the Great Wall which i think everyone should read : http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/04/18_great-wall.html

It's so amazing to see how an ambitious leader use their power to protect their ruling. That was the first intention of building the wall..to PROTECT. Here's what i wanna share 2 things that I learn from the Great Wall Of China:

1) Different leaders might have different vision, but they need to think to bring their vision and their predecessor's vision together for the benefit of the organization.

- The Great Wall was built by more than 4 emperor the Qin, Han, Sui, Jin and, most famously, the Ming (1368-1644). Suprisingly, these great wall are not joined! Each dynasty seems to have their own thought of protecting China and they fail to see the main purpose of building the wall at the first place.

-Because the Great Wall was discontinuous, Mongol invaders led by Genghis Khan had no problem going around the wall and they subsequently conquered most of northern China.

-Leaders have their own vision, some might have their own agenda to be famous than their predecessor...but it won't bring any good to the organization/team if they doesn't connect their vision. In fact, it may bring a total destruction to the whole organization

2) Leaders make their vision worth to die for, not die because of the vision.

-During the Ming dynasty, nearly one million soldiers were said to defend the Great Wall from “barbarians” and non-Chinese.

-apart from that, the manpower to build the Great Wall came from frontier guards, peasants, unemployed intellectuals, disgraced noblemen, and convicts. In fact, there existed a special penalty during the Qin and Han dynasties under which convicted criminals were made to work on the Wall.

-This wall building project cost thousands/millions of life! Some even born and die near the great wall without knowing if their hard labour is worthwhile.

-There's a saying "a person's character is known when he/she is given a power over people". I've learn this the hard way during my leadership in RYC. SOmetimes I misused the people who work with me. Yep, MISUSED. Taking them for granted without really asking them what's their vision for the ministry or how they feel about the ministry.

-to this day, I'm still planting the vision among the new leadership of RYC. God may give them an improved version of vision He gave me. I pray that this God-given vision is a vision worth to die for.

To conclude, what really matter is not how BIG the vision is, it's how BIG the heart of the people in achieving the vision.

Stay blessed.