“Stewardship Law” – The Single Most Powerful Principle of Success.
Your success in anything will vary in direct proportion to how well you understand and adopt this principle. This principle is one of the simplest, yet also one of the most widely misunderstood principles of success.
To understand this principle, you must first realize that we ALL have a stewardship, and we each only have temporary possession of our stewardships (because we all eventually die). You are the temporary steward (authority) on *some* things. We all are. But you do not own everything, and you are not the authority over everything. Only *some* things.
As you pass through life’s activities you will cross many different stewardship boundaries throughout the day, and you will cross within the stewardship authority or jurisdiction of many different stewards (authorities) each day. If you do not believe this, then try getting into your car and act like you own the road and see how far you get. Or enter Walmart and act like you own the store and see how far you get. Or enter your neighbor’s home and act like you own it and see how far you get. The obviousness of this statement is such that I would question the sanity of someone that disagrees with it.
Each stewardship has an authority for it that you must recognize. Here is how, in what I term “Stewardship Law”:
1. Strive to identify the proper and legal stewardship boundaries (this will allow you to identify when you have crossed any boundary).
2. Whenever you cross a stewardship boundary, strive to identify who the proper and legal steward is.
3. While operating within that stewardship boundary, strive to please the proper and legal steward with your actions.
Violate this principle in the corporate world, and you risk being fired. Violate this principle in the public world, and you risk being arrested. Violate this principle in the military during peace time, and you risk being court-martialed. Violate it in the military during war time, and you risk being shot.
And in all cases, violate this principle and you will go nowhere. You will never achieve success of any kind. In contrast, live it and you will always achieve success.
This principle can be extended. As one example extension, realize that the police officer that pulls you over answers to somebody within his police-related “stewardship”. It might be a Sergeant, then up the ranks, but eventually reaches the Chief of Police. The Chief of Police in turn answers to the City Mayor, who answers to the county, who answers to the Governor, who answers to the President.
Similarly, a Walmart department manager might answer to a store manager who answers to a regional manager who answers to an executive manager, etc. And in the military we see the exact same pattern. We see this pattern *everywhere*. Thus, there is a “tie-back chain” of authority for each stewardship, with one person being higher in authority for that particular stewardship than another person is. Some people term this the “Law of One Above Another”. I prefer the term “Stewardship Law”.
It’s real. It exists. It’s everywhere. Live it and succeed. Ignore it and fail.
It’s your choice