Greatness continues: Booker T. Washington

After a failed attempt at reading Mandela’s other compilation of writings (too disconnected for me), I downloaded a free copy of Booker T. Washington’s autobiography, “Up From Slavery.”  It knocked my socks off. 

#2 Greatness is cultivated and maintained through hard work to benefit others as much as if not more than oneself.

Booker T. Washington was one hardworking man.  As a boy he was a slave.  While still a boy, he was freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Then through an inspiring path became a lifelong educator and founder of what is now known as Tuskegee University, one of the first all-black institutes of higher education. Two ways Booker T. Washington exemplified the principle of “right living” and hard work is:

1.  He was convinced that the advancement of his people depended on hard work.

“I believe that my race will succeed in proportion as it learns to do a common thing in an uncommon manner; learns to do a thing so thoroughly that no one can improve upon what it has done; learns to make its services of indispensable value. This was the spirit that inspired me in my first effort at Hampton, when I was given the opportunity to sweep and dust that schoolroom.  In a degree I felt that my whole future life depended upon the thoroughness with which I cleaned that room and I was determined to do it so well that no one could find any fault with the job.

I think the whole future of my race hinges on the question as to whether or not it can make itself of such indispensable value that the people in the town and the state where we reside will feel that our presence is necessary to the happiness and well-being of the community.  No man who continues to add something to the material, intellectual and moral well-being of the place in which he lives is long left without proper reward. This is a great human law…” – Booker T. Washington

2.  He recognized the indomitable value of service, a form of love.

“In meeting men, in many places, I have found that the happiest people are those who do the most for others; the most miserable are those who do the least.”

And this is coming from a former slave, a man who’s live was bound in all possible ways by a dehumanizing institution and group of people that perpetuated the system.

Recently I’ve been faced with a staffing decision.  We have a team member who is ok but not really adding value to the team.  Often responding to tasks but not initiating them.  My follow-up with them on assigned tasks has become the norm rather than the exception.  For better or worse, I thought of that person often when reading and re-reading these quotes.  

It has also causes me to take another look at my own work ethic.  Am I pouring my passion and energy into doing my best for the good of the team and the organization or am I doing just what is expected of me?  I will be the first to admit I’m not that intense when it comes to work.  Living and working in this national emergency context over the past few months has changed that drastically.  I’ve never worked so hard (at my paid jobJ) and poured my energies into the service of another country in my life. It’s been fulfilling in a way I never would have imagined.  Booker T. was definitely onto something.