It was a drizzly morning as Sam was headed to his company’s headquarters for its monthly meeting. It was a twenty-five-mile drive, so he had left home while it was still dark which matched his feelings about having to make the long drive to meet with all the various department team members. There would be Grace from product design, Mike from accounting, Joan from marketing and Bill from management. Sam was tops in sales. Obviously today he wouldn’t be making any. He brooded about wasting a day in corporate collaboration. “Yes,” he thought, “I guess they all have their jobs to do, but I’m the one that makes the money, and a day of opportunity lost the field is a day without income. Who needs them and who needs this meeting? I sure don’t. I need to be selling!”
As the early light of dawn began to break, the rain began to come down a bit harder. Sam had taken an unfamiliar back road route hoping to save a bit of driving time, but he feared he had missed a turn a few miles back and was now lost. This only made him angrier about the meeting. “If they’d just leave me alone, I could be making myself and the company more money,” he mumbled to himself.
As he tried to drive through the increasing rain, watch the road, and read the map he held up against the steering wheel, he didn’t notice the sharp curve ahead. Suddenly his car swerved off the road and slammed to a stop in a large ditch. Though he wasn’t injured, the still spinning back wheels of his car were off the road and the front ones was clearly mired deep in mud and water of the drainage ditch.
Cursing to himself and to his cohorts for putting him in this situation, Sam began walking along the country road toward a farmhouse he had noticed about a half mile behind him. When he got to the front yard of the place, soggy, disheveled, and obviously upset, Sam noted an old man dressed in denim overalls sitting on the porch watching as he approached. Sam relayed his dilemma, mixing in a few choice comments about the useless meeting he was now obviously going to be late in attending, and asking if the farmer might be willing to lend him a hand in retrieving his car.
“Yup,” replied the farmer, “Old Warwick can get you out of that ditch.” He pointed to an ancient and decrepit looking mule standing in the field. Sam looked at the haggard and obviously blind mule and then looked questioningly back at the farmer, who just stood there smiling and nodding. “Yup, Old Warwick can do the job.”
Sam thought to himself that this was going to be as fruitless a waste of time as he was sure he could never make the company meeting now. But, since there were no other farmhouses close by, he figured he had nothing to lose. So, after harnessing the skinny mule, Sam, the farmer, and Old Warwick slowly made their way back to his car.
Once they arrived, the farmer hitched Warwick to car’s the rear bumper, snapped the reins and shouted. “Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack, Pull, Ted! Pull Warwick!” With what seemed to be very little effort, that lone scrawny mule pulled the car from the ditch.
Sam was amazed. He thanked the farmer profusely, patted the mule, and got into his car. After starting it up, he rolled down his window and asked, “Something I’d like to know, Mister, if you please. Why in the world did you call out all those other names before you called Warwick’s?”
The farmer grinned and replied, “Well, as you can see Warwick is old and blind now, but in his youth, he was the best dang mule I ever had and he darn sure knew it. He had an attitude. Still, he always worked best when matched up with one of the other mules. Perhaps he just wanted to show how good he was. Anyway, he’s the only one of the team still alive now. But, even today, as long as Old Warwick believes he’s part of that team, he doesn’t mind pulling his share and more. As funny as it might seem to you, young fella, if Old Warwick just thinks he’s got one or more of them mules pulling with him, it gives him the strength to pull the whole load! He’s still got that attitude, and, over these many years, its served both him and me well.”
“Well Sir,” Sam smilingly replied, “I think Old Warwick’s one wise mule. He’s sure taught me something. So, I sure do thank him and you for the opportunity to be schooled on this fine morning. Good day to you both!”
Sam’s remaining drive to his company’s meeting was uneventful, except for his attitude. It was as sunny and bright as the day had become now that the morning’s rainclouds had lifted. Sam was now excited and looking forward to the day ahead and to pulling whatever load that might come his way…as long as it was alongside his team.
A single leaf working alone provides no shade. –Chuck Page
Have an AWE-full weekend!
William “Bill” Bacque