My Dear Nikken Friends:

A small group of thoughtful and dedicated people can change the world.

Margaret Mead has said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”  I would like to share with you one of my very favorite stories illustrating this wonderful principle:

“Miss Thompson was a school teacher…and this is the way Charles Swindall tells the story about one of her students:

Teddy Stollard certainly qualified as one of the least; disinterested in school, musty, wrinkled clothes and hair never combed.  He was one of those kids in school with a deadpan face, expressionless…sort of a glossy, unfocused stare. When Miss Thompson spoke to Teddy, he always answered in monosyllables.  He was unattractive, unmotivated, and distant.  He was just plain hard to like.

Even though his teacher said that she loved all the class just the same… deep inside she wasn’t being completely truthful.  Whenever she marked Teddy’s papers, she got a sort of perverse pleasure putting X’s  next to the wrong answers; and when she put ”F’s” at the top of the page, she always did it with a flair.  She should have known better!  She had Teddy’s records. And she knew more about him than she wanted to admit.  The records read:  1^st grade:  Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude.  He has a poor home situation.  2^nd Grade:  Teddy could do better.  Mother is seriously ill.  He receives little help at home.  3^rd Grade:  Teddy is a good boy, but too serious.  He is a slow learner.  His mother died this year.  4^th Grade:  Teddy is very slow, but well behaved.  His father shows no interest. 

Well, Christmas came and the boys and girls in Miss Thompson’s class brought her Christmas presents.  They piled the presents on her desk and crowded around for her to open them…and among the presents was a gift from Teddy Stollard.  She was surprised he had brought her a gift - but he had.  Teddy’s gift was wrapped in brown paper and held together with scotch tape.  On the paper were written the simple words: “For Miss Thompson  - From Teddy”.

When she opened Teddy’s present out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume.  The other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk at Teddy’s gifts, but Miss Thompson had at least enough sense to silence them, by immediately putting on the bracelet and putting some of the perfume on her wrists.  Holding her wrists up for the other children to smell, she said: “Doesn’t it smell lovely!!!”  And the children, taking their cue from Miss Thompson, responded with ooohs and aaahs. 

At the end of the day, when school was over and the other children had left, Teddy lingered behind.  He slowly came over to her desk and said softly:  “Gee, Miss Thompson, yah smell just like my mother… Her bracelet looks real pretty on yah too!  I’m glad you like my presents!”  When Teddy left, Miss Thompson got down on her knees…and asked God to forgive her.

The next day, when the children came to school, they were welcomed by a new teacher.  Miss Thompson had become a different person.  She was no longer just a teacher.  She was an agent of God.  She was now a person committed to loving her children, and doing things for them that would live long after she was gone.  She helped all the children, especially the slow ones. And especially Teddy Stollard.  By the end of the school year Teddy showed dramatic improvement.  He caught up with most of the students, and was even ahead of some. 

Well the year ended and she didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time.  Then one day she received a note:  

Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted you to be the first to know I will be graduating second in my class! 
Love, Teddy Stollard

Four years later, another note came:

Dear Miss Thompson,
They told me I will be graduating 1^st in my class!  I wanted you to be the first to know!  The university has not been easy - but I like it. 
Love, Teddy Stollard

And four years after that, another one:

Dear Miss Thompson,
As of today, I am Theodore Stollard, MD.  How about that!  I wanted you to be the first to know.  I’m getting married next month, on the 27^th to be exact.  I would like you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive.  You are the only family I have now; dad died last year. 
Love, Teddy Stollard 

Well, Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy’s mother would have sat.  She deserved to sit there because she had done something for Teddy that he would never forget.

Every day we all have an influence on others, hopefully it’s mostly a good influence!   Nikken can be a powerful tool for all of us to leverage our personal influence for the good of others.  The most wonderful feeling is knowing that you have made a difference in the life of someone else.  2010 can be your new beginning.

Resolve to make 2010 the very best year of your life! 

Dave

“All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.”     –Brian Tracy

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!