Becoming A "Butterfly"

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. Harry S. Truman This is a favorite quote of mine. Another favorite is: Express beauty and go one without waiting for a response.

If a leaders stands around waiting to be recognized or feeling sorry for herself because she wasn't recognized and someone else got the credit, valuable time is lost in making a difference. Once a leader is committed to a cause greater than herself, external applause and recognition will no longer matter.

A leader committed to a cause doesn't have the time to be concerned about who is on top. There is a wonderful book called Hope For the Flowers by Trina Paulus. In the tale, the heroes, Stripe and Yellow, want something more from life than eating and growing bigger. They get caught up in a "caterpillar pillar", a squirming mass of bodies, each determined to reach a top so far away it can't be seen. Finally disillusioned, they discover that the way for caterpillars to find their particular "more", who they really are, is to enter the cocoon and "...risk for a butterfly."

Once a leader stops fighting to get to the top and becomes a "butterfly" is when he can truly make a difference.