Don't Let Your Talent Take You Where Your Character Can't Keep You (Part 5 of 5)

Terry Baylor (00:00)
Don't let your talent get you somewhere that your character can't sustain you.

Ralph Owens (00:05)
if you don't do the inner work, the outer work just will not last.

money is an exposure of the heart. the terrible things that you see people do who have wealth it was always in their heart when they were broke, They just didn't have the opportunity to do it.

Terry Baylor (00:13)
Hmm

Ralph Owens (00:56)
In today's world of social media, where everything is driven by the visual, it's the inverse, right? He flipped that, you know, that coin on his head and was like, the external means nothing without the internal development first. Yeah, that's powerful, man.

Terry Baylor (00:59)
yeah. It's the inverse. Yes. Yep.

Yes, yes, yes.

And I love again, right? So this goes back to his ability to communicate, right? Because it's the same thing as saying, who are you? But the way that's being said, it causes such a inward analysis, right? Because most of us are more concerned firstly about how do people see me?

Ralph Owens (01:22)
Yes.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

That's right. That's right. That's right. That's right. And before anybody who just heard that says, oh no, that's not me. I can prove it to you. Whenever they take a group picture that you're in, what's the first thing you look for? You.

Terry Baylor (01:40)
What do you think about me? How do I look? You know.

Where am I?

Ralph Owens (01:57)
Yep. Exactly. The first thing you look for is yourself because you are first and ⁓ most important, I mean, most interested in how you look. Right? So that's all of us, right? Nobody gets a pass on that. Nobody's looking for that. That's right. That's right. You looking for yourself. That's right. That's right. That's right.

Terry Baylor (02:00)
like how I was smiling.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Let me see. Let me go say, how's Raph looking on this picture? No, man. am I at? Where am I at?

Ralph Owens (02:26)
So some of those other impactful moments is a depth as a requirement for durability. Come on, man. If you want to go the distance, you got to have an extreme amount of depth in your inward conviction as to who you are, right? And how you're going to live your life and the development of that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Terry Baylor (02:44)
Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And why? Why? Yes. Yeah, why are you doing what you're doing? Like really, why

are you doing it?

Ralph Owens (02:55)
Yeah, yeah, ask yourself the question. I mean, so many people just go through life every day without any awareness. I'm just doing what I was told to do. Right. Yeah, that's a scary thought. Some of the key takeaways. Leadership without grounding collapses under pressure.

Terry Baylor (03:05)
my goodness.

We've seen that.

Ralph Owens (03:16)
We have. We have on every level, on every level, in every scenario. don't care what you, I don't talk about you talking about government, you talking about church, or you talking about family. It all applies, right? And success without alignment produces hollow wins, right? You winning, but you don't have any alignment to strategy or whatsoever.

Terry Baylor (03:30)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Ralph Owens (03:44)
That wind is hollow, man. It's not going to mean nothing. It may mean something in the short term, but when you go to distance, it means absolutely nothing. And then that depth sustains a leader when visibility fades. Going back to the importance of the depth of your calling and conviction within yourself, it allows you to detach yourself from the visibility.

Terry Baylor (03:50)
Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Yes,

Ralph Owens (04:13)
I ain't thoughts on that.

Terry Baylor (04:14)
yes. Yeah, I mean, Ralph, in all of that, you know what I hear? What is my God given purpose? Why am I here on earth? I can say this emphatically. No matter what I've done, whether it's been leading youth, leading worship, leading leaders, leading organizations, building a company.

Ralph Owens (04:24)
question.

Terry Baylor (04:43)
⁓ getting married, ⁓ having a family. I understand that my core purpose here on earth is to inspire people. That's what I, at every level, no matter what I've done, it's been to inspire, not just inspire them, but to make their progress easy.

Ralph Owens (05:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (05:12)
to get to where they're going. It's just, no matter where I've been, no matter what I've done, I've been in situations to lead, but not only lead, to help others get where they're trying to get. That's just, that is a, so no matter what it is I'm doing, it's, look, I approach everything like this. It's just like leading worship. I can't take you somewhere I haven't been.

Ralph Owens (05:14)
Mm.

Let's go.

Mm.

Mm. Mm, that's good. That's good.

Terry Baylor (05:45)
⁓ So, and that's, you know, that's a core of now, granted, whether that's leading an organization, leading a business, right? That theme has ran through my life, no matter what. I've had to, you know, cause here's the deal, right? I ran along, I told myself this long ago, I have no desire to want to pastor and lead a church. I've never wanted to do that.

Ralph Owens (05:47)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm. Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (06:15)
But what I learned is I've been doing it anyway. It just doesn't have to be in that framework, right? It's still helping people get the best out of their lives. that's, I've done that my whole life. I mean, look, man, at the age of 15, man, I was coaching a baseball team and the guys I was coaching was 13.

Ralph Owens (06:21)
That's right, that's right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. can assess. I can, you know, all the years that we've learned that we've been around each other, I definitely attested that. I'm sure everyone else was close to you as well. Yeah. Now it's, it is very important to understand, you know, what you're calling is some of the guest reflections there is that leadership is not about who you're becoming. I'm sorry. Leadership is about who you become and not just about what you're achieving.

Terry Baylor (06:42)
So I've come to that. Go ahead, I'm sorry.

Yes.

Ralph Owens (07:05)
Right.

That's been a big thing for me over the last 10 years is the journey, the journey, you know, being so task driven and trying to reach an objective. You know, I started seeing that I was missing so much out of the journey that's happening along the way. And it's gotten to the point now where the journey is more important than the destination for me because it's who I'm becoming. That's the win. The win is who you becoming, not, you know, the end destination.

Terry Baylor (07:12)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Ralph Owens (07:36)
Right? ⁓ And if you don't do the inner work, the outer work just will not last. Right? You know, our society, you know, marketing is so good. Have you ever had that moment where you had like maybe an artist or an actor that you felt like you kind of knew based on all of the work that they've done and the stuff that you've seen out on media? And then you get a glimpse of today real life and you find out they were nothing like what you thought they

Terry Baylor (07:42)
Mmm.

Yes.

Ralph Owens (08:05)
Right? That's what this is talking about, right? The inner work. You can make yourself look as great as you want to, to make people think a certain way about you. But if you don't do the inner work, to be the best human being that you can be, all it takes is you one situation from all of that going away. Right?

Terry Baylor (08:23)
And

we can name several scenarios where folks have achieved their claim.

Ralph Owens (08:31)
Mm-hmm.

Terry Baylor (08:33)
You know, and we say this all the time right in church, right? Don't let your talent get you somewhere that your character can't sustain you.

Ralph Owens (08:41)
You got to say that again.

Terry Baylor (08:43)
Don't let your talent get you somewhere where your character can't sustain you.

Ralph Owens (08:49)
Mm. So true.

Terry Baylor (08:51)
I mean, that is, that is.

Ralph Owens (08:53)
That's a principle that goes throughout time.

Terry Baylor (08:55)
Yeah, here's the thing, man. Here's what, okay, I got to go back to the Bible. The Bible say gifts are given without repentance. Just because you amazing at something. But here's the thing, and this is what I love to tell people, man. I love this. This is what I love about God. He's so fair. He's so fair. He's given all of humanity some of the greatest elements to enjoy.

being on the planet. Like talents, that's a great gift. Creativity, that's a great gift. Marriage, that's a great gift. Relationship, friendship, those are amazing. He's given that to everybody. The question is, what are you going to do with it?

Ralph Owens (09:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It is. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes. Yeah.

That's it. That's it. That's it. That's good. That's good. That's good. So when you zoom out and it becomes clear, the real ceilings that leaders hit today isn't skill or talent. It's really your inner conviction and how you develop your inner self. Right? Yeah. That's where the real challenge is. That's the ceiling. Because to your point, you won't...

gain more success than your character is going to allow you to handle. Because as soon as you go past that mark, you will completely fall apart. We've seen people who, I hate to call these people out, ⁓ there's a company here called the Turkey Leg, everybody knows in Houston. They got successful, that success went beyond where their character can keep them, and they had a string of all kind of.

Terrible things that happen to them and that that company wind up going out of business, right? You know, I a mentor a mentor of mine He told me he told me a long time ago. I never forgot this he said man You got to understand that money is an exposure of the heart and what he meant by that was You could be a terrible person on the inside But a lack of money which equates to a lack of opportunity doesn't allow for that to come out But then when you do get a lot of money and people are not telling you no

Terry Baylor (10:48)
God have mercy.

Mm.

Ralph Owens (11:13)
What was already in your heart is not going to come out. So money is an exposure of the heart. You know, the things that you see, the terrible things that you see people do who have wealth and things of that nature, it was always in their heart when they were broke, right? They just didn't have the opportunity to do it. know, so, you know, working on the inner man, the inner man is what we call it in church, the inner man, that is critical in order for you to be truly successful and sustained. ⁓ So as we close this out,

Terry Baylor (11:19)
Hmm

Hmm

Ralph Owens (11:43)
We have a few challenges for our listeners. ⁓ Where have you stopped asking the right questions? Both internally, introspectively, and externally in the boardroom and in the conference room. ⁓ Where are you confusing your effort versus your value? Are we being too busy and not focused enough on value?

Terry Baylor (11:51)
Mm.

Hmm.

Mmm.

Ralph Owens (12:10)
And where are you staying past your season? Right. Are you in tune to where you are in your current season? Right. You know, how much introspection and time or thought are you putting into that? Right. Or are you running away just because of a difficult situation and having to restart the season over and over and over and over again, which is preventing you from getting to the next level? So, so any any any closing thoughts on that, Terry?

Terry Baylor (12:40)
You know, I think those questions all really focus in on, you know, what we just talked about with the episode with Lawrence is ultimately, and it's again, right? The more you go, the more you're on your knees, right? We're talking, you know, and that's a reference to prayer ⁓ and building your inner man, right? Building.

in private as they say, right, will, you know, so I'll tell this story. So Ralph, remember when we worked at Calpine and they, they tore down, was that the Chronicle that was across the street from us? What was that building? So was some, so I remember that right now, you know what, I have video of that. So when we do this, I may have to get that video to you and we can, you know, put it on the podcast. But I remember them, they tore that building down.

Ralph Owens (13:23)
Yeah, it was. Chronicle.

Terry Baylor (13:37)
That's very symbolic, right? To what we have to do. Sometimes who we are, we see things in ourself. Okay, we gotta, we gotta, you know, we saw the implosion. I saw it, man. But, but after they got the implosion, right? Then now you got to clean up all the rubble. That's the work you got to do on yourself, right? Then after that, they got all that cleaned up. It was time to build. But you know they did first? They went deep, bro. I saw.

Ralph Owens (13:39)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I remember that, you know

Mm-hmm.

That's right. That's right. That's it. Yup.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, they laid a foundation.

Terry Baylor (14:07)
I saw those big old tractor trailer, tractor, dump haul trucks. forget, I don't know what they call them. They were going down probably two or three stories. They looked like toy trucks as massive as this ditch was they were building. They put metal rods and metal beams down deep because they knew how high they were going.

Ralph Owens (14:13)
Hmm.

Yes.

Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

That's good. Oof, that's good. Yeah.

Terry Baylor (14:35)
Ralph, I got this footage, man. I still got it. So I want to get it to you.

But again, guys, where you see your life going, that analogy that I just gave, we have to do that in our lives, right? Sometimes we got to tear things down. Once we tear it down, get away the junk, then we got to dig deep because we're trying to build a skyscraper in our lives.

Ralph Owens (14:46)
Mm-hmm.

It's Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

That's That's That's good. That's good. I think nothing else needs to be said. That's the perfect way to end the show. So stay tuned everybody to 2026. It's going to be good. We're going to dig deeper. We got even more guests for you bringing their individual stories and the values that come along with that. And we look forward to continue to share these life lessons with you. And we'd love to hear back from you. Take some time to ⁓ interact with us on our website.

Terry Baylor (15:06)
Hey.

Ralph Owens (15:29)
You can leave us a voicemail. You can sign up for our newsletter. That's a great way to keep up with everything that we're doing. You can leave a review. We would love for you to leave us a review. Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on our website. We would love to get the feedback so we can share this message with more people. Any closing thoughts, Terry?

Terry Baylor (15:48)
Thank you, guys. Thank you. Thank you. With great humility and care and kindness, man. We thank you for joining us. We appreciate every single listener and viewer. Thank you.

Ralph Owens (15:51)
Yes.

Awesome.

Yeah. See you in 2026.