Influenced or Influencer?

Being influenced and being an influencer are not the same thing.

Yet both are important.

It is nearly impossible to be a positive influencer if one is not being influenced in deep and significant ways.  Alternatively, once an individual has been influenced deeply and significantly, there ought to be a burden to pay that gift forward in the form of influencing others.

Every individual ought to be and have both those who they are influenced by and those whom they are influencing.  It is important then to understand which role we are playing in which relationship.

The beautifully ironic thing is that when there is an understanding about who is playing what role in a relationship, there is potential for the roles to flip and the relationship to be symbiotic.

As John Maxwell put it, "Leadership is influence.  Nothing more and nothing less."