Work Person to Person
If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one. Get Daily Messages
Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person.
Mother Theresa
I had attended a performance of the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra earlier in the evening. The unique musical performance of the orchestra, using traditional as well as improved Chinese instruments that I had not heard before, had inspired me and I was capping the evening with a stroll along the waters edge of Victoria Harbor. As I stopped to enjoy the one of the most spectacular nighttime skylines in the World, I thought about my departure the next morning for Beijing and my participation as a panelist in the first conference on entrepreneurship ever held in mainland China. By playing a small role in this conference and introducing entrepreneurial concepts to Communist China's 1.3 billion people, I would be making an impact on the World, I thought to myself, that I could never make from my home in Kentucky 8105 miles (13,402 kilometers) away.
But later, I realized how foolish that thought had been as I sat my 9 year-old son's school chair with my knees firmly pressed against the bottom of his tiny desk during a "Doughnuts for Dads" appreciation breakfast. Along with about 20 other dads I listened carefully as one by one the children stepped to the front of the room and presented a short essay they had written about how their own dad made them "feel special." AI was deeply moved as each child told about the little things, often nothing more than a few words or a warm embrace, which their father had done to make them feel special and what a difference it had made in their lives.
Driving away from the school, only one mile away from my home, I thought about how wrong I had been that evening in Hong Kong. While I may have been indirectly touching the lives of a billion people with my involvement in a groundbreaking conference in Beijing I was making a greater impact on the World by working directly with my son and other people right here at home.
As we go through our daily routines, we too often forget that we don't have to have an impressive title, a prestigious office or a large audience to be great leader. Mother Theresa became one of the most well-known leaders of the 20th Century by working in a small neighborhood, in one of the poorest places in the World, and focusing on one person at a time. Great leaders like Mother Theresa never wait for perfect conditions or an audience and a microphone to lead, but instead achieve great things by simply making a difference in the lives of others, person to person, wherever they may be.
What opportunities are you postponing to achieve your dreams because the conditions aren't "perfect"? What effect could have on your community, your country and the World, by directly working with a child or an adult in your home or community? Are you putting too much focus on the success you could have if you only had a bigger audience or a better title and concentrating too little on the difference you could be making by reaching one person at a time where you are with what you have?
This week, work person to person. Never let your circumstances be an excuse for not doing what you can where you are. Look for someone today, and every day, that you can connect with one-on-one and begin changing the World, and pursuing your dreams, one person at time.
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