world how do we find in such a crowded
tumultuous world we live in how do we
find our calling and for those of us who
continue to seek that there is good news
because I think the answer is a whole
lot closer than what we think just give
you a little background when I graduated
from high school I had no clue what I
wanted to do so being not prepared for
college I took a job with Pizza Hut
and that’s not the pizza corporation it
was a Pizza Hut and and just be totally
honest with you I worked there for 18
months as a cook and a waiter and never
once did I get employee of the month now
we’re not talking about going after the
Nobel Prize here there’s there’s only
five people who work there and I mean if
any given a week they weren’t the same
five people because somebody was always
not showing up or getting fired for some
reason but my last month there it was
between me and one other guy and my car
manager pulled that little tab off of
the plaque and it was this other guy’s
name and I looked and I said Mike and he
says well it was close
I said Jim doesn’t even work here
anymore
I said you fired him two weeks ago for
stealing and he beats me out for
employee of the month and he put his
hand on my shoulder and he said bill
you’re just not Pizza Hut material so
keep in mind whatever you may take away
from our few minutes here together
hopefully whatever encouragement or
thoughts you may take home with you it’s
all coming from a guy who just wasn’t
Pizza Hut material
so but but I do spend my days Mandy said
I do spend my days working with a
tremendous organization
Evelyn charities and the Evelyn Center
for social enterprise which I was very
privileged to help start with the late
Joe Evelyn with $400 we received from a
yard sale and now we have more than 80
programs and partnerships and we help
families with heating and housing and
utility assistance and school supplies
coats pretty much anything that they
need families come into our office and
we ask what do you need how can we help
and I know the whole world’s not like
that but I honestly believe that it can
be theirs there’s no doubt that we live
in a very self-centered selfish and
vitriolic world but how did it get that
way was it was it always that way or if
we just not been paying attention of the
world is growing colder these past
number of years when did commended
kindness and humility take a backseat to
arrogance and self-absorption in 1950
the Gallup poll was taken of high school
seniors across the country and one of
the questions was do you think you’re an
important person and only 12% said yes I
think I’m an important person 65 years
later the same poll high school seniors
85% said yes I think I’m an important
person the London Daily News reported
that there are more than a million
selfies taken each and every day a
millennial in their lifetime will take
23,000 selfies according to this study
and more than 17 million social media
posts are posted each and every week
we’ve certainly become a look at me
culture and I think we need to talk I
think we need to turn the camera around
because the camera is only facing us
we’re missing so much more that’s out
there maybe we’re missing
our true calling really is in that poll
is also interesting that the goal of
Fame was at the top or the near top of
everyone who took that survey and in
1976 it ranked 15th out of 16th which
brings us to a bigger question what and
what on earth are we here for I used to
ask my grandfather that question when I
was little he would say Billy we’re here
to help other people and I’d say well
then what are other people here for but
in talking with my need talking growing
up with friends we always looked at you
know what are our goals what are our
aspirations what do we look one to do
and so many of them would say I just
want to be happy and then there’s
certainly nothing wrong with that
everybody wants to be happy but if our
own happiness is just based on ourselves
regardless of others I don’t think you
were ever gonna reach that I think all
we’re gonna do is trying to catch the
wind if our own purpose in life is just
to be happy ourselves I don’t think we
have much of a purpose in life at all
Ralph Waldo Emerson the 19th century
poet educator existentialist wrote
purpose of life is not to be happy it’s
to be useful it’s to be honorable it’s
to be compassionate it’s to know that
even one life has breathed easier
because you have lived and lived well
that’s what it is to succeed we can do
so much better when we’re not just
looking at ourselves all of us think in
some way we can make it on our own we
think if we need help and we reach out
because of weakness there’s something
wrong with us and we see someone
struggling it must be something wrong
with them otherwise they wouldn’t need
help maybe they’re not as smart as we
are maybe they’re not as well prepared
or just as good as we are
we’re all hypocrites that way we’ve all
been beaten and battered and bruised by
life in one way or another
we pretend were not a lot of us pretend
were not but that’s not the case we’re
all failures in some way at least the
best of us are we’re all bound by
something read a story not too long ago
about a fisherman in San Francisco Bay
and he noticed as he was trash working
he saw this beautiful female humpback
whale struggling at the surface of the
water
it’s got closer so that she become
ensnared in hundreds and hundreds of
yards of fishing line and crab traps he
quickly radioed for help and within a
few minutes dozens of boats came and
these tremendously brave men and women
entered the water and started freeing
the whale took them hours cutting the
lines off his torso where his mouth was
was shut and once they finished they
said the most miraculous thing happened
the whale started swimming in circles
around them and came and nudged each and
every one of them and gulls kept trying
that first fisherman and nudged him last
and then swam off each and every person
there said their lives would never be
the same again they say there was
something in reaching out there’s
something in freeing that beautiful
whale that freed something inside of
them the bonds they cut from her was the
same cutting from from them and it
doesn’t matter if it’s a whale it
doesn’t matter if it’s a if it’s a
neighbor I think every act of kindness
resonates throughout all of our lives
and when we live a life of service and
help three folks from there
what’s bonding them it frees us as well
and you’re saying well how can we do
that I’m just one person now I think of
that pretty much every day how can we do
that we have other responsibilities we
have family we have school we have
friends we may be taking care of elderly
parents what can we do well mother
Teresa said don’t don’t wait for leaders
do it yourself
person-to-person and always start with
the person nearest to you and never
think anything that you do for someone
in need no matter how small is not much
we’re here to help others I know I think
bright had said this and it’s a great
call Mark Twain said they’ve got two
most important days of our lives the day
we’re born and the day we find out why
and that’s what we’re looking for how do
we find out why you know sometimes it’s
our job our vocation or calling is our
job but many many times it’s not work
with a great guy
bill Waddell and Bill’s was mid 70s now
when he graduated from high school he
worked as a salesman for a industrial
supply company now this is a great guy
this is a guy who could sell
three-day-old ice I mean he is he is
just he is just tremendous but his and
he started his own company and sold it
started franchises a brilliant
businessman kindest heart event we’ve
ever met Stevie’s a good friend I know a
former coach of of Steve’s and but that
wasn’t his vocation that was his job but
Bill was and is still with people our
community if someone needs a job they
need help they call it bill if someone
knows of a family that doesn’t have food
or a little girl that doesn’t have a
coat or even fixing a road going up one
of our mountains so medical personnel
could get there to help a little boy who
was sick bill was the guy they call but
question is how do we get to be that way
how did he get to be that way I think it
starts by asking first of all what one
question and the questions not what
could work in the world give to me what
do I have coming what’s in it for me the
question is what do I have that I can
give to the world what thoughts do I
have what skills what talent do I have
that I can give to the world and I think
this is where you find it this is how
you know you’re there so when your
heart’s desire meets the world’s needs
when your heart’s desire meets great
need in the world you know where you
found your calling on November 16th 1963
President John F Kennedy just a week
before he was assassinated visited Cape
Canaveral and as he was touring around
talking to the astronauts talking to the
scientists and the engineers they were
all telling him what what piece of the
space race they had and what they were
doing and as he was leaving he saw a
young man in the hallway mopping the
floor and the president went up to him
and he said sir what do you do here and
the young man looked at him he said mr.
president I’m helping put a man on the
moon
now other engineers scientists
astronauts
brilliant people saw their piece of it
this young man who probably in most
people’s opinion had the meaning
meaningless job there saw what he was
doing it was much bigger what do you
have that you can offer the world mother
Teresa Martin Luther King jr. Indira
Gandhi Steve Jobs Steve woody who you
heard from earlier amazing job bottom is
doing none of these people ever set out
to change the world
they just set out and the whole world
changed we all know people who live
lives of dedicated selfless service
question goes back what do you have that
you can give to the world what talent do
you have remember what mother said never
think anything you do for someone in
cookie Mills is a friend of mine in
Nashville he lived in a small
african-american community back in the
60s nice houses very well-kept yards and
lawns and we graduate from high school
we started working for progress energy
which our energy company and retired
thereafter after 30 some odd years and
he started going back as always visiting
the neighborhood started falling into
disarray he older people were moving out
passed away he already started getting
overgrown things were rusting and drug
dealers had moved in and so he found a
call within a call he got a few folks
they started going door to door and
knocking on them telling drug dealers
get out we don’t want you here are
people who live here afraid for their
kids and even come outside and they said
no they threatened cookies life but he
didn’t give up they started taking
pictures of the drug deals going on they
started posting him everywhere and
eventually the drug dealers left cookie
started cleaning up the neighborhood
ended up with a company called I can
cove properties and he he fixes these
houses up he brings in modular homes we
rinse them at a very low rate to these
single mothers and dads and these young
couples and people who need a second
chance people who need a first chance
when they need food and he Christmas
presents so they need something he’s the
guy they come to he found a call within
a call he and his wife have two kids
four grandkids but as he says I got
fifty two kids who call me granddaddy
and I can came from something his father
always told him he said don’t tell me
what you can’t do show me what you can
do and he also probably says I can is
also the last four letters in
african-american you may recognize these
folks they’re Alan Andrew ray they’ve
been on ABC’s American Home Makeover a
number of times they met in college got
married
started working with a with a family
company that oversaw nursing homes and
rest homes and as they started seeing
folks coming in they notice there was a
lot of people that they didn’t think
should be there these were people that
were going there because their families
and loved ones were afraid of their
safety they’re afraid to leave them at
home because they might leave the oven
on or something like that so they
developed technology heat for wounded
soldiers and for everyone that they were
able to stay in
and not have to go to these places it’s
called simply home they’ve helped tens
of thousands of families and Joe and
Janice Brummett Joe and Janice had small
Arby’s franchise sold it to a partner
who pretty much were running it into the
ground so Joe and Janice had to take it
back or they would have lost everything
but Joe kept saying I knew something
else was there so we were fortunate with
Evelyn and the barometz to develop
joyful holidays at home it’s a program
that provides food for students during
long periods of time away from school
summer Christmas Easter and they all
then only get food that we get from our
food-for-thought program for the Ingalls
markets and southern conference but the
other card an Arby’s card and every one
of these kids can eat all summer long
all Christmas long every single day at
Arby’s for free when your heart’s desire
meets the world’s greatest need I had an
opportunity to correspond with Mother
Teresa
for a number of years till about a year
before she passed away she told me this
story she won a Nobel Prize in 1979 and
in 1980 she received a letter from a
young lady saying I’m coming to Calcutta
I’m coming to dedicate my life to the
poorest of the poor
and mother wrote her back and said stay
where you are
find your own Calcutta find your calling
right where you are and that’s probably
best advice I think anybody can ever get
you want to find what you we’re supposed
to do in our lives we need to find our
own Calcutta it’s a lot closer than we
think when your heart’s desire meets the
world’s greatest need
it’s a lot closer than you think the
greatest stories in life can’t be
written they have to work here Calcutta
Waits hope you all enjoyed the day as
much as I have
thank you [Music]