Michael Erickson touched me with his recollections of being young, in
school and unappreciated. He pointed out:
> If I learned anything from this man, it was that if hopes and dreams
> exist, I, the individual had to be the driver. My current achievements
> exist because I held out for them.
This relates back to everyone taking personal responsiblity for their own
lives, their own careers. Becoming the CEO of their own independent
company -- YOURS Inc.
> We can all wish for visionary leadership by our teachers, ministers and
> business management, but that sort of thing seems to be rare, and
> un-rewarded when it does "accidentallly" show itself, and it's really a
> shame. Imagine the potential if those who lead or teach could (or would)
> inspire, open the minds of those they are responsible for to the
> possibilities they individually have, help inspire some vision.
This does happen. Lots of people are leading, teaching and inspiring by
their speeches, books and presentations. Like Stephen Covey, Jim Rohn, Og
Mandino, the people are looking to open the minds of others. These people
are out there, but do not represent a loud enough story to a lot of people
amidst all the other 'stories' broadcast repeatedly by news, rumours, and
papers every day. You have to get in tune with the right people, look for
the local presentations, read the right books, or watch TPN in order to
get the teachings and inspirations from these few.
> Unfortunatly, a lot of people on the lower end of society have run into
> the "dead headed" way of teaching, leading and the like, and lost faith
> in the system (I did for a while).
So did I! Now I'm seeing this whole cycle as a necessary part of our
society's evolution. From the 'me' generation, to the 'career'
generation, to what could become the 'helping' generation, where people
are focusing on what they can do to help others, and as a result improve
themselves and their own success. I'm especially exciting about seeing
some of the results from putting the type of leading, teaching and
inspiring you referred to, put into half-way houses, prisons, and
hospitals so that the people on the lower end of society can rediscover
their own self worth and hope.
> Vision and aspiration are woven together, while it is the
> responsibility of the individual to develop and hold their own
> aspiration, I think its a shared responsibility to give dreams life,
> encouragement and support.
What an eloquent and wonderful way to express this!
Gary Scherling
Helping people help themselves
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/GScherling_GMS_TPN
--GSCHERL@fed.ism.ca (GSCHERL)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>