Influence – How to Exert it

I was in a old cluttered bookstore in Birmingham Alabama, killing a couple of hours before a wedding with my wife Marie and a couple friends.  I’m typically not a bookstore rat with Amazon in my pocket, but the store fascinated me.  As I rummaged through the piles of books that were only generally more or less organized, I found this small hardcover book.  It was old and yellowed.  It smelled old.  It was by Yoritomo Tashi, a Japanese Shogun who wrote the ideas in this book around 1186 A.D.  His words were interpreted into this book in 1915.

The title?  Influence – How to exert it.  

I thought about the word.  Influence.  John Maxwell says Leadership IS influence.  It’s true.  If you can’t influence anyone, you can’t be a leader, and to the degree you can influence people is the same degree that you can lead.

I opened it.  I wondered how long it had been here.  How long had it been since anyone opened this book?

I looked at the table of contents on the yellowed paper that had a message to deliver and had been waiting a very, very long time to deliver it.

It spoke to me.  I wanted to know what the Japanese Shogun named Yoritomo Tashi had to say to me from 838 years ago.  It learned that Yoritomo was one of the three greatest statesmen that Japan ever produced.  I bought the book for a few dollars and walked out, and something told me that the ideas in the book were far more valuable than that.

In the coming days, I will reveal many of the main ideas from the wise and powerful man.  It will take some days; probably many.  To start, I will leave you with some of the opening ideas on Influence.  I will simplify, complete and embellish many of his words.

When one learns influence – “the art of succeeding will become familiar to him, for he will know how to attract to him many voluntary collaborators.  His power will set him apart as being different than others…the radiating action of this expanding will acts on others…”

One thing I noticed right away is that the Shogun believed that only one with good intentions could influence others well and for long. 

He says “Good influence buries vice…the source of unhappiness and restlessness, to install instead perfect calm, the joy of living, and the security which always preceded happiness, or at least allows us to maintain that state which most nearly approaches it.”

People that are trying to influence others to do bad things or deceive others are evil, and ultimately will not be able to influence once they are found out.

I can’t wait to tell you more…

Tomorrow…