Risk. Reward.

Tonight we watched the new show that is built off of the American Idol principle for inventors: aptly called American Inventor.  Theres one distinct difference, the people on this show have sold out to what they believe in.  A corrections officer and former soldier names Jerry Westley invented something called the Mobile X Gym, a set of bars and weights that are stored in a back-pack type container and are portable. Tonight the show was dwindled down twice.  I think from 48 to 24 to 12.  James made it to the 24 and gave his pitch to the judges.  He has invested over 100,000 dollars over a 10 year period in his investment.  He started the pitch with this quote, which is not his: Its better to chaise a dream and experience failure than to have a dream and never know its possibility.  Im chasing a dream.  This dream is a lot bigger than where I am now and who I am now. About two weeks about I met a man named Erwin McManus.  Erwin is a writer, speaker, and pastor (if you ask him, hes a cultural architect I love that term).  His message is what challenged Amanda and myself to reach for this.  I actually got to spend about 20 minutes with him, asking him questions and getting to know who he was.  The one thing that I walked away was hes 50.  Yep, that was the most significant thing.  Hes had about four years of significant influence.  Than means his influence started when he was 46 or so.  Thats twenty years away from me.  I have time.  I will need to continue to take initiative, create influence, and take risks, but in the end I am consumed with the fact that God has a profound calling on my life.  I will not be satisfied with anything less. Tonight, the show showed that Jerry Westley made it to the round of 12 on American Inventor.  He received a check for 50,000.00, which half-way recoups the financial losses that he took in development of his product.  In that moment, he found out that there is no reward without risk. In all moments that we face in life, there is a similar choice to make: to risk and reach for something great or to settle for what the moment is giving us.  For all believers this is decision that must be made constantly.  There is risk.  There is reward.