One Of My Most Expensive Mistakes

"You are going to regret the day you met me."

That is how a staff member I hired started a conversation with me. He was right.

It is budget season in your head right now. Maybe not on paper yet, but in your head. You are starting to think about what 2027 needs to look like. The programs you want to launch. The gaps you need to fill. And if you are honest, there is probably a hire in there somewhere that you have been wanting to make for a while.

Before you post that job description, read this.

Feature or Bug? The Question That Changes Everything.

On his first visit to the church I was leading, RL Brown pulled me aside and told me something I smiled at and promptly ignored.

He and his wife Joann had just found our church. RL was 69 years old, the founder of rlbrownreports.com, and the premier economist in Arizona's housing market. Sharp, direct, rugged and about as low-maintenance as a man of his stature could be. He told me if they called Journey home, he would never want me to ask him to be an elder.

Within a year he became the first chairman of the board our new church ever had.

We led that church together for years. He taught me things about leadership, business, and life that I carry to this day. He was a gift I did not deserve and did not take for granted.