What will matter?

By Michael Josephson

Ready of not, some day it will all come to an end.

There will be no more sunrises, no days, no hours or minutes.

All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else

Your wealth, fame, and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance.

It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed.

Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear.

So, too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will all expire.

The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away.

It won’t matter where you came from, or on what side of the tracks you lived.

It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant.

Your gender, skin color, and ethnicity will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days be measured?

What will matter is not what you bought, but what you built; not what you got, but what you gave.

What will matter is not what you learned, but what you taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, and sacrifice that enriched, empowered, or encouraged others to emulate your example.

What will matter is not your competence, but your character.

What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many will feel the lasting loss when you’re gone.

What will matter is not your memories, but the memories of those who loved you.

What will matter is how long you will be remembered, but whom and for what.

Living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.

It’s not a matter circumstance but of choice.

Choose to live a life that matters.

Are you smarter than a 2 year old?

I'm the lucky Grandmother of three delightful granddaughters. Yeah...I started young, and it's paying off now!

Not being the traditional Grandmother of yester-year, who rocked on the porch with hoards of grandchildren at her feet, I only occasionally get the delicious treat of spending whole days at a time with my grandchildren - and I love it! This past month I spent six magical days with Brielle, our 18-month-old little princess, who is the older daughter of my middle son. We had a blast!

She is, of course, one of the most beautiful, talented, intelligent and all-round wonderful little girls on the planet...that goes without saying. But, she's something else too; she's the embodiment of learning and growth. Each time I see her, even if there has been just weeks between her visits, she's learned a bundle of new skills. She blew right past crawling and went straight to walking. She's learned how to manipulate a spoon, dress her doll and can 'read' several books at a sitting.

It's amazing really, how she watches, mimics, and then masters an ability to do something she sees everyone around her doing. She's hungry to learn, eagerly tries anything you encourage her towards, and amazingly develops new abilities, literally every day.

Oh, and she's always scanning faces. She looks intently at the people in her world; she studies their emotional reactions, she takes cues from those around her as to what comes next, and is always reaching out to connect with people in her world. She's a consummate networker too; it doesn't matter to Brielle whether you are even dressed or not, let alone dressed 'properly', regardless of your age or stage in life, she assumes you have something to teach her and she's ready for the adventure.

It's not surprising that she wants to push ahead. Every time she conquers her fear of something new and accomplishes the task, the whole family rewards her with a round of applause. After months of this immediate reward, she's even learned to clap for herself - just adorable.

Oh, to be like Brielle again! When did we stop scanning our worlds to see what else we could learn? What happened to us to make us so sure it's ok to operate on autopilot, at work, home and in our relationships?

When did we get so grown up?

One of my favorite quotes is, 'You don't empower people, you create environments that help them realize that they have power'.

All parents (and grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc.) have to do for the little ones in our lives is to create a safe, stimulating and loving environment and they will learn, grow and flourish. And, I wonder...could it be the same for your employees? Could it be that - especially when they're going through a tough transition, or you want them to adopt some new skill or behaviour - that all you really need to do is provide environments where growth and learning are encouraged, and create workplaces where accomplishments are applauded and rewarded? Could it be that simple?

When you need managers who know how to create empowering environments for their employees....call us.

Remember - You can change it - we can help!

August 2011

A Story For You

I've just been perusing the papers, and the economic news is dismal - heck, most of the news is down right depressing right now. So, I'm going to tell you a story on this bright and breezy summer day, in case you need a smile.

Picture Charlie Brown, the comic character. Can't you just see him, seated in his cartoon airplane with his scarf flapping in the wind? Do you know the story of the real Charlie Brown? Well, he was a World War II pilot with the 379th Bomber Group at Kimbolton, England, and his B-17 was called 'Ye Old Pub'. After a particularly bloody battle, when he should have been headed back to home base, he was lost. His compass was damaged and he and his crew were flying directly over an enemy airfield.

 

A German pilot named Franz Steigler was ordered to shoot the B-17 down. When he got near Charlie's plane, he could not believe his eyes. In his words, he 'had never seen a plane in such a bad state'. The tail and rear sections were severely damaged, and the tail gunner wounded. The top gunner was smeared all over the top of the fuselage, the nose was smashed and there were bullet holes everywhere. Brown was struggling to control his damaged and bloodstained plane.

Despite having been given orders to destroy Brown, Franz flew to the side of the B-17 and looked right at the terrified pilot.

Franz could see that Brown had no idea where he was going and Franz waved at Charlie to turn his plane 180 degrees. Franz escorted and guided the stricken plane towards the North Sea and England. He then saluted Charlie Brown and turned away, back to Europe.

When Franz landed he told his C/O that the plane had been shot down over the sea, and never told the truth to anybody. Charlie Brown and the remains of his crew reported everything at their briefing, but were ordered never to talk about it.

Long after the war, Charlie Brown wanted to find the Luftwaffe pilot who had saved him and his crew. After nearly 40 years of searching, he finally found him. Franz had never talked about the incident, not even at post-war reunions.

They met in the USA at a 379th Bomber Group reunion, together with 25 people who are alive now - all because Franz never fired his guns that day.

Now doesn't that renew your faith in mankind? What could you do today that might go down in someone's history as the luckiest day of their lives?

Enjoy the summer!

Remember, you can change it...we can help!