Shattering Rocks – A Simple Lesson That Will Last A Lifetime
Link to El Nuevo Herald column in Spanish: Here
Every summer my brother, a Jesuit priest, takes a group of high school students and parents on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic for two weeks to help a desperately poor little town with the most basic of needs. The group, which averages about 100 people, includes doctors who run their makeshift medical clinic and engineers who oversee their yearly construction project. The high school girls generally work in the clinic or with the town children, while the boys are more than happy to prove their brute strength and exert their energy in the manual labor of construction. As you might imagine, this is quite an experience for these young men and women, most of whom have never seen real poverty, as they volunteer two weeks of their summer vacation to serve those most in need. For some the experience is life changing.
As this year’s group prepares to embark on their journey, a journey that will undoubtedly be filled with adventure and wonder and meaning, I’m reminded of a story that my brother shared with me after one of his recent trips which seems curiously relevant for those of us in the world of business at such a difficult time in the global economy.
During a recent mission trip to the small town of Rincon Largo in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, the construction project that the group had committed to that year was to build an aqueduct that would bring water down from the mountain to the village below. Until then, the only method for supplying the village with water for drinking, cooking and washing involved carrying it down the mountain in large, heavy jugs that the women of the village would place on their heads – a difficult and strenuous process that could take up to five hours a day. When the gallant boys on the construction team saw how hard the women of the village had to work just to bring water down from the mountain, they were filled with resolve, ready to tackle the difficult task that lay ahead.
Though the project was well designed and properly planned, the boys quickly realized that the work itself was much more difficult than they could have ever imagined. They were struggling to keep pace with their schedule. Then, on the fourth day of construction, though they thought they had accounted for every contingency, they faced a problem they were not prepared to deal with – an obstacle they felt they could not overcome. A large boulder had sheared off the mountain side and landed on their only path. At first the strong, strapping boys were certain they could roll the boulder out of the way, but it was far too heavy for them. They grabbed picks, hammers, and chisels and took turns striking the massive rock with all their strength, but they only managed to break off tiny fragments at a time. After about an hour the boys were exhausted. Defeated. Powerless.
By then a crowd of villagers had gathered to watch the boys in their futile attempts to break the rock, and to the young missionaries’ surprise, the villagers were actually laughing at them. Finally one of the villagers ordered the boys to gather as many dry twigs, leaves and branches as they could find and place them around the bottom of the boulder. Once the boys had amassed a substantial pile to surround the rock, the villager lit a fire with his cigar, then sat back with his friends to watch the fire burn as they sang songs and drank their rum. All the boys could do was watch as they stood there perplexed. Every so often when the fire would begin to die down, one of the villagers would take a break from his singing to add more dry leaves to fuel the flames and then return to his fun. It wasn’t long before the boys realized that the rock was getting hot. Very hot. In fact, the boulder was so hot that it started to glow. Then, as if on cue, a line of women carrying jugs of cold water on their heads filed up the path and surrounded the red-hot boulder. With one perfectly orchestrated motion they simultaneously poured the cold water on the massive glowing rock and stepped back. Within seconds the immovable boulder shattered into a thousand pieces as everyone raised their fists in victory and cheered. No one cheered louder, though, than the boys from Miami. They learned a lesson they would never forget.
I think that each and every one of us can relate to the boys in this story. No matter how well you thought you prepared for the downturn, like millions of people across our nation you may be struggling in this difficult economy. The challenges may be harder to bear than you expected. Some of you may be facing a boulder on your path such as unemployment or the prospect of having to close your business and you don’t know how to get around it. Don’t despair. Don’t give up. And when you feel defeated and powerless remember the shattering rock. There’s always a solution, though you may not yet be aware of it.
If you have found a way to shatter a boulder on your path, I encourage you to share your story. Send me an email or post a comment on www.elnuevoherald.com/columnistas/manny-garcia-tunon, or on my blog at www.mgtunon.com/blog and let’s help each other out.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:16 am
Dear Manny,
Recently someone sent me an e-mail with instructions to visit your website. I can’t recall who sent it. I visited the site and gazed through it’s content and came across the article on “Shattering Rocks” which I found to be incredibly inspirational.
After being in the mortgage industry for over twenty five years and considered myself to be professionally able, efficient and respected in my field, I find myself, along with hundreds, if not thousands of industry professionals desperately seeking an answer on whether to stay and weather the storm or seek an alternate career path or income flow capable of sustaining a respectable standard of living.
For over twenty five years in an industry and at age fifity five it has not been an easy transition. I have been through adverse times in the past and have bounced back. I was orphaned at age eleven. served my country in the military, experienced a divorce of a previous marriage with two children, lost a business and fell on hard times twenty years ago among other things.
I have no doubt I will be back, in fact the boulder in my path is turning red hot and shortly I will be pouring the cold water on it with God’s help and that of my loving wife, children and friends.
I made copies of the story for my co workers and shared it’s power of faith.
Your’s truly,
Robert Colon, Sr.
July 21st, 2010 at 8:19 pm
Robert, thank you for such an inspirational comment. I know the Lord will continue to bless you even in the difficult times – especially in the difficult times. My brother, Fr. Willie, would tell me that the Lord can bless us just the same whether we are experiencing “consolation” or “desolation”. We would obviously prefer consolation all the time, but life, we know, doesn’t always comply… Keep your faith in the Lord, and your friends and family close by. You will definitely shatter your rock! You have a friend in me. Let me know how it goes.
July 22nd, 2010 at 10:07 am
Manny,
A few weeks back you shared with us an inspirational story on how to overcome those obstacles that so often challenge us from successfully achieving our business objectives. The article, titled Shattering Rocks, illustrated the missionary efforts of a group of young men from Belen High School as they volunteered their personal time over the summer to help the poor communities of the Dominican Republic. In your story you mention a particular incident were the students, engaged in the construction of an aqueduct project, came upon a massive boulder that proved to be virtually impossible for them to move or break… at which time the students were able to witness what was undoubtedly such a unique solution by the very same poor community they were helping.
This story served as an important reminder to me of how, in business, we must constantly assess challenges from all perspectives, even those considered to be “out-of-the-box” solutions. The story also reminded me of a challenge that I myself experienced early in 2008 as a result of the global recession, and one which I would like to share with you today.
At the time, I was serving as the Director of Marketing for a multi-national engineering firm, which until then had experienced significant annual growth results (for both revenue and staff size). Soon after the global recession hit, it became clear that the firm had to scale back its staff size significantly, or risk shutting its doors. Having grown the marketing department to a size of over two dozen marketing professionals, across more than half a dozen locations throughout the U.S., Caribbean, and Latin America, I was now presented with a severe mandate from the organization’s officers and board members: reduce my staff by ¾ and increase marketing activities.
You can imagine the difficulty of the situation I was now placed in. Not only was I to begin laying off staff, an emotionally difficult task in and of itself, but I was also to figure out a way by which to increase the marketing activities across the entire company. The most immediate solution was to increase the workload and hours of the remaining staff [indefinitely]. This of course would have proven disastrous, as the remaining staff would soon reach a level of “burn-out” that would prevent them from effectively carrying out their responsibilities. The eventual solution arrived when I realized the opportunity available to me through our offices in Latin America, were the marketing support skills I needed are abundantly present in the multitude of young professionals competing for jobs in those markets, and salaries are a fraction of what they are in the U.S.
The Result – After a few months of planning and coordination, I was able to increase the department’s marketing support staff to a size that was actually greater than what I had originally started off with, thereby increasing the marketing activities across the entire firm… all within the anorexic operating budget assigned to me, and using the already present infrastructure of one of our Latin American offices.
Though I cannot morally consider this effort to have been 100% successful, given the nature by which I was forced to lay off staff, I can say with certainty that the solution was essential to the survival of the firm – and now serves as a life lesson… a reminder if you will… that even when faced with the darkest of obstacles, a solution is obtainable.
Thanks for letting me share this personal testimony.
Keep up the great work!