The influence we as individuals can have on one another is powerful.  The significant role one individual can play in the life of another human being can be positive, leading to change, improvement and progress.  The impact we have on people can also be negative; leading to destruction, despair and defeat.  There are moments the impact can be felt immediately, and other times the impression isn’t fully realized until years later.

 

Niccolo Machiavelli said these words: “A return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man.  His good example has such an influence that the good men strive to imitate him, and the wicked are ashamed to lead a life so contrary to his example.”  John Maxwell put it another way; Leadership is influence.

 

Great leadership is about being a great example, about humility.  Leadership is about influence.

 

Influence is defined as the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself.

 

The Latin root word for influence is “flu”, which means, “flow.”  The English word “fluid” also finds its origin in the same Latin root word, defined as a state of matter, which, if not contained, “flows.” Influence represents the wonderful opportunity every human being has to “flow into, in, on, and upon” another human being directly, indirectly. 

 

The NeXT Basketball Foundation Awards are about how far reaching an individual’s influence can be upon another human being.