Doing My Part
By Rodney Bullard
CEO The Same House PBC | Former Senior Executive at Chick-fil-A / Global CSR, ESG and Marketing Leader | Best-Selling Author | Former AUSA | Former Air Force JAG l Corporate and Non-profit Board Director
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” – Plato
Bridges are not built all at once. They are made one step at a time. Each piece of stone or wood is laid in proper order. If a team tried to build the entire bridge from foundation to roadway at one time, it wouldn’t work. That’s the same with bridge-building within our communities. It’s about hearing a call and taking forward action. As Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. said, “The great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sometimes sail with the wind and sometimes against it—but we must sail and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
This is where Heroes Wanted, and Bridges Needed come together. The premise of Heroes Wanted is that we all can be someone else’s hero. We often wait for a superhero, a billionaire, some movie star, something extraordinary, and frankly, that person doesn’t exist and is not coming. It doesn’t require anything other than us to be ourselves and handle and give what we must live within our own 3ft. We each have something to offer. Suppose we all maintain our own 3ft and are bridges within each other’s 3ft. We all can be a bridge to one another just by our regular interaction and how we greet each other, treat each other, and think about one another. We are more powerful than we think.
Have you ever been on the job, and someone said something slight to you, but it was cutting or biting, and it just brought you down? They didn’t have any significant power to harm you, but they did. The converse is true with that, as well. We can uplift in the same way; if we can cut and destroy with little power, we can build a little strength, too.
It’s Pollyannaish in some ways, but it leads to bigger things. It leads to a relationship. It leads to us helping one another. A smile is just the beginning. Everybody plays their part. That’s 3ft. That’s the difference.