by Lion Jerold H. Sakoda

In the new millennium our community will need more global thinkers, more unity in a purpose, an aroused generation of participants and more leaders with clear vision. And whether you and I choose to agree or not, the "key" for success in the new millennium will be the position-holding leader's "ability to lead others successfully" because it is not the organizational entity that increases its services, but it is the "caring" by people in it that can. "Everything rises on effective leadership, or falls from the lack of it." So, being a leader of positive influence to meet this challenge can neither be ignored nor avoided because there can be no real success without successors. 

Leader of positive influence are people who acknowledge that if they really want to work and live in a healty and successful environment they must develop other leaders around them. They form leadership teams; they find ways to communicate and cooperate; they bring "caring and sharing" people into the workplace or organization and help them to develop as leaders who, in turn, can produce other leaders of positive influence.

They are not necessarily people in high-profile occupation. If your life in any way is in contact with other people, you are a person of influence. Everything you do and say as a worker, a manager, an executive, a parent, or a member in a sports team has an impact on the lives of other people. Even if you have had a begative effect on others in the past, you can turn that around and make your impact a positive one when you connect with leaders of positive influence.

So, if you're just beginning your professional career, connect with leaders who understand your circumstances and appreciate your potential value - the members of the Waikiki 2000 Lions Club.

If you are a manager or executive who want to truly be a leader of positive influence, you need to connect with other leaders of positive influence - the members of the Waikiki 2000 Lions Club, and with members of our International Association of Lions Clubs.

If you own a business, or want the organization of your employ to grow, you need to develop a team of leaders of positive influence around you - you can't do it alone. Even if the "key" people in your employ or group have had negative effect on others in the past, you can turn that around and make their impact a positive one by having them connect with leaders who understand your need - the members of the Waikiki 2000 Lions Club.

If you're slready a seasoned leader of leaders in your own right, we truly need your help to help us develop more successful teams of leaders to better serve society. It was Henry J. Kaiser who once said: "Love people and serve them." Mr Kaiser was an outstanding man, not because he was rich. But he was rich because he was outstanding in character and philosophy.

Or, if your desire is simply to help others who are not so priviledge, or you want to serve them solely because you care, the Waikiki 2000 Lions Club needs you the most. Ours is a meaningful humanitarian service - a journey toward peace, happiness, and prosperity through the enrichment of other people's lives.

Our members subscribe to doing more than simply planning fund raising, membership raising and the allocation of our limited and financial resource demanded by the times. We subscribe to the legitimate and overriding concern for our fellow members - the life's problems each member face or will face, and the means for seeing beyond their current circumstances.

We also subscribe to the principle that our alloted "volunteer" time for performing community service is a limited comodity and we are entitled to consideration and a helping hand from others. We see pluralism in the involvement of hundreds of capable but busy people - investing just a few hours of their valuable time each year - and the care in selecting meaningful projects as a value to be prized. Of greater importance, we respect the Universal Law of all human laws: "As ye sow, so will ye reap in kind!"

So make a difference to your own well-being, to those important to you, and to those around you. Be the "best" you were created to be!!! You too will "reap" the greatest single reward any person can receive - to have those you influence say that they are a better person, a better parent, a better citizen, a better worker, a better producer of "your" positive influence. Connect with Waikiki 2000's "Leaders of Influence"