Three Minute Leadership: The Power of Those Who Care
To: The Great Leaders Who Have a Passion for Continuous Learning
A friend recently shared with me a wonderful and simple story, “The Acorn Planter,” by Brain Cavanaugh, T.O.R, from his book, The Sower’s Seeds. It provides a pause for great leaders to reflect on the power and impact that a life of deep caring can have on changing the world.
“In the 1930s a young traveler was exploring the French Alps. He came upon a vast stretch of barren land. It was desolate. It was forbidding. It was ugly. It was the kind of place you hurry away from. Then, suddenly, the young traveler stopped dead in his tracks. In the middle of this vast wasteland was a bent-over old man. On his back was a sack of acorns. In his hand was a four-foot length of iron pipe. The man was using the iron pope to punch holes in the ground. Then from the sack he would take an acorn and put it in the hole. Later the old man said to the traveler, “I’ve planted over 100,000 acorns. Perhaps only a tenth of them will grow.” The old man’s wife and son had died, and this was how he chose to spend his final years. “I want to do something useful,” he said.
“Twenty-five years later the now-not-as-young traveler returned to the same desolate area. What he saw amazed him. He could not believe his own eyes. The land was covered with a beautiful forest two miles wide and five miles long. Birds were singing, animals were playing, and wild flowers perfumed the air. The traveler stood there recalling the desolation that once was; a beautiful oak forest stood there now – all because someone cared.”
Leo Buscaglia, American author and tireless advocate of the power of love, wrote: “Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.” What a majestic gift that is ours for the giving! And it is free and limitless in its abundance and availability. Choose always to “do something useful.” Fill your professional and personal life with those precious and priceless moments of caring – for your work, those whom you touch, your community, your environment. Care for things and causes for which no one cares; care for those whom you do not know. Buy acorns and sow them generously. Open yourself, as did the old man, “to do something useful” that at end of days those you touched will say of you that their world was changed – all because someone cared. Life is so very beautiful, and even more for those who choose to care.
Have a beautiful day and a magnificent, caring week!!!
Mike
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