How to become influential – #1

https://youtu.be/bOzw3ViAYu0 Auto-generated transcript: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds.And peace and blessings be upon the honour of the Prophets and Messengers.Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his followers.Peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his followers.Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, and upon his family and his followers.My brothers and sisters, I'm sitting here in one of my favourite places in Mitinayu Park.On the bank of this stream, which flows through the park.This is spring, so there are no mosquitoes.But later on, it becomes a bit of a test sitting here because of the mosquitoes.But right now, it's absolutely fabulous.It's early in the morning and you see the sun shining on the waters.Very, very, very beautiful part of the world.And one of my favourite haunts, I walk here from my house and. . .I go around the park.It's not a very big park, but I walk from my house, I go around the park and I walk back.And that is about six miles.So this is my Mashghala.Alhamdulillah, I want to talk about three things.Let's see how many of them we can hear.Maybe the first one.Question which gets, which I get asked because of my leadership development practiceand . . .the mistaken impression people have of my wisdom.People ask me, how can I become influential?And of course, by definition, they also mean wealthy, but they don't actually say that in so many words.But how can I become influential?How can I become powerful?Now, the answer is very simple.And first of all, there's nothing wrong with wanting to be influential and powerful.Because what is the alternative?To be powerless and uninfluential, nobody cares about you, you are a sort of, you know,a slave to people or something.No, that's not an alternative.So, wanting to be influential and powerful is good.How do you do that?The answer is pretty simple.You do that by three things, by doing three things.Number one is help people.Number two, become a cover for people, hide people's faults.Become a cover of Allah for people, hide people's faults.And number three is add value to people.So, three things.I want you to keep these three things in mind and we'll talk about them and we'll see how much, what we can do to this.So, first of them is help people.Secondly is hide people's faults.And I call it become Allah's cover for people.And that's my brother's term for it.I shall have a very beautiful and wise brother.Hide people's faults, become Allah's cover for people.And the third thing is to add value to people.So, let's see how do you do that.Help people.Very, very simple.Go around looking for ways in which you can help people.And some of these ways are so simple, it's unbelievable.We live in America and one of the joys of American life is that you get to take out your own light, own trash.So, in West Springfield where we live on our street, Wednesdays are trash days.Every Wednesday the trash goes.Every other Wednesday also recycling material goes.Each one of them has a different bin and each bin is about almost four and a half feet tall, quite big.And you might say, why do you need such a big bin for trash?Well, you live in America, you know why.Truly, the American lifestyle creates more trash and garbage than I've ever seen in my life.More paper, cardboard, plastics, you name it.Unbelievable amount of stuff that gets wasted.So, the issue of taking out trash.Now, you put the bins out in early morning, the trash truck comes around usually about eight-ish.But depending on where you are, I mean, obviously it can't come at eight o'clock in everybody's house.So, it comes along when it comes along.You go after it.You go after work and your trash bins are still sitting there in front of your house on the sidewalk or something,which looks bad, which looks nasty.So, what I started doing was, since I have flexible working hours,I started if I saw, say, about nine o'clock, trash is goneand my neighbor's bins are still out there,I would just go across because I would come out to bring my bins back into the garage.So, I would also walk across to the neighbor's house, take their bins, put them in front of the garage and that's it.I didn't send them a note or I didn't call them or not.Just take the bins, put them there, that's it.You'll be amazed how much difference that makes.What a huge impression it made.My neighbor came across me and said, you know, you are a good man.He said, we have lived here, people have been here 20 plus years, no one has done anything like this before.Something as simple as that.And of course, everything has a return curve to that,which is that now it's almost like a competition between me and my neighbor to say who can grab whose trash cans first and put them where they belong.So, if I take my trash cans and put them where they belong, I don't have to worry about it.So, if I delay a little bit on some day, I hear my trash cans being rolled up the driveway,and I know my neighbor has beaten me to it.And now he, husband, wife, one of them has taken the trash cans and brought them in front of our garage.Help people.You will be surprised how many different things, ways in which you can help people.Another thing which we do is,when our, again, started with just, you know, casual thing.But now, any time we go out anywhere, we leave for a few days,we tell our neighbors we are going to be away for this period of time.And can you please keep an eye on the house?And they do.And we do the same thing for them.And once my neighbor said to me, we are going to Florida, could you please keep an eye on the house?And I did.One day I was sitting in my study and I saw a car come into their house.So, I went down and I just walked over and said, hi, how are you doing, what's up?You know, my neighbors and I don't want to take their name here, but they are out, can I help you?So, this person said, no, no, no, thank you very much.They called me and I am so and so and this is my address and this is my phone number.They are very particular about all these things.And he asked me to do this thing for him.And I said, no, no, no, no, thank you very much.They are very particular about all these things.And he asked me to do this thing for him.You know, in the house.I said, sure, no problem.So, we check on each other, helping.At work, maybe you know some technology, right?Especially nowadays, a lot of young people.It's a huge opportunity for you to get a lot of brownie points which will come in, very useful.You know some technology and almost by this, it's not always the rule, but almost by definition, young people know these technologies better than older people.So, you know some technology.You know some technology.You know some technology.You know some technology.You know some technology.So, you have older colleagues who may be struggling with something.Just offer to help them.Can I help you with that?Can I do this for you?Now, obviously, I'm not saying turn into a doormat where everyone, you know, sometimesyou say the reward of good work is more work.So, don't fall into that trap.Feel free at, if you feel that you're being taken advantage of or somebody is, you know,making a career out of asking you for things, then politely say, sure, absolutely.say, sure, absolutely, I'll do thatas soon as I finish thework which I'm doing. And the workwhich I'm doing is going to take meanother 10 days. So, you know, afterthat, I'msaying that, you know, like puttingaway. But the point being that you aremaking clear that, look, I'mhappy to help you, butyou know, don't impose. Alsoremember that I have a life and Ihave work to do and I have assignments and so on.So, without getting into arguments,you can do that very politely, verysubtly, and there'sno problem with that. But help people.Look for opportunities to help people.No matter who they are,what they are, I don't want to go intoa long list of things that you can do,but just look around yourselfand you will find opportunities tohelp people. Volunteerfor things. Volunteer for school.Volunteer in schools.Volunteer in yourcity affairs. Just volunteer.Don't ask for money. Believe me, if you justvolunteer without asking for money,you will get a lot of work. And you canpick and choose what makes sense to youand you gain a lot of experience.They can't give you money, but they can'tstop you from getting experience, and experienceis worth money. So, it's like that, right?So, just volunteer.All kinds of things. Walksomebody's dog or something, you know.It's seriouslythe amount ofleverage you can getby helping people make thisinto a habit. And of course, as you know,all of this is alsoearning you rewards with Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. Because helping peopleis, you know, this is one of thegood deeds that you can do. Andit is a sadaqah jariyahbecause thisworks in your favor when you meet Allahsubhanahu wa ta'ala. All of these,all of this is sadaqah jariyah.So, I remind myself and you,let us do that. Let us make surethat wehelp peopleand we become influentialin the process.Don't think I need to remind you.Maybe let me remind you, in closingwith one of the beautifulstories from the life of Rasulullahsallallahu alaihi wa sallam, where one dayhe came out of his house in Makkahand he was going somewhereand he saw this old lady withher baggagestanding by the side of the road.So, he greetedher and he said, my mother, can I help you?She said, you know,I need to take,I need somebody to help me.Take this stuff to theplace where caravans go from.It's like saying, can you help me get to the bus standor something, or the railwaystation.So, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, sure.He picked up her things, put it onhis shoulders and they're walking thereand this lady says, you know,you are such a nice man and so on,but in this town. He asked her,where are you going?