I remember when Thierry Henry started at Arsenal, I read an interview where he said that what he wanted more than anything else was to be half as good as Ian Wright who he was replacing, he went on to say how much he admired Ian Wright and what a great ambassador he had been for the team.
Thierry Henry went on to be probably the greatest striker that Arsenal had ever produced eclipsing even Ian Wright, last year towards the end of his career he moved to Barcelona. I saw an interview this week with Cesc Fabragas the latest Arsenal prodigy speaking about how the young Arsenal player held Henry in such high regard.
The thing is since he has left the young player have raised their game and are now top of the league defying all predictions that said they were a spent force. Here is my point (made earlier this week by Seth Godin) the new thing is never better than the old thing, at least not straight away, but soon it will be. Add to that the another truth, the old thing does not last forever trust me as I approach my 40th Birthday that is becoming very apparent to me.
In church we so often try to hang on to the stuff that has worked for us in the past and in doing so can inadvertently suppress the new thing and not develop those who are up and coming. Other people may not do things as well as you can but here is the point, unless we train them and release them they never will.
We need to develop a flow through mentality when it comes to developing and releasing new talent, look at Paul with timothy or Elijah with Elisha. OK they may not be as good as us now but my desire is that eventually they will go higher, faster further and stronger than we have ever gone.
Remember you have never truly succeeded until you have been succeeded.
