It is an “I wonder” morning this morning as I listen to the news.
Perhaps it could be that I am still despondent about the poor support for British politics as demonstrated by the 30% turn out in the recent local elections, or the Euro debt crisis that appears to run frequently in our news.
A Chinese proverb suggests that
“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
To me, this typifies the thoughts that I have about skill acquisition and personal, team, organisation and country development. We should be encouraging people to grow, we should be enticing the satisfaction of motivation from all levels of people that are engaged, and not continue to create a reward structure focused on our future wealth. For any avoidance of doubt, my definition of wealth is not just about financial return, but having the individual, the community, the region and the country participating in enhancing and extending our sustainable planet. This touches on working to eliminate poverty (for it is a man-made commodity), and empowering individuals, community, regions, and countries to take difficult decisions quickly to achieve the goal.
As a wider society, we need to encourage people to want to make a difference. To extend themselves and be empowered to do their great things.
Montaigne wrote
“When good health and a fine sunny day smile at me, I am quite debonair
Give me an ingrowing toenail and I am touchy, bad tempered and unapproachable”
I wonder then whether we should help people to eliminate the ingrowing toenail where we are experiencing the reaction to the ‘stuff’ going on around us, and encourage more sunny days.
