Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz tells the story of the fellow who was driving on a slippery country road when he slid into a ditch. He walked to a farm house a short distance away and approached the old farmer who received him warmly. When the motorist described his problem, the farmer stated that he did not know if he could help him or not, but he would do what he could. He explained that his old mule, Dusty, was blind and somewhat hard of hearing. The farmer hitched up the old mule and hooked him to the frame of the car. Next, he got behind old Dusty and in a loud voice said, “Pull, Charlie, pull!” No response. Once again, in a loud voice he said, “Pull, Billy, pull!” Nothing. Then, in a still louder voice, “Pull, Sally, pull!” Not a move. Finally he said, “Pull, Dusty, pull!” and Dusty proceeded to pull the car out of the ditch.
The grateful motorist, somewhat puzzled, asked the farmer, “You had only one mule and yet you called on ‘Charlie,’ ‘Billy,’ and ‘Sally,’ with no response. But the minute you called on Dusty he pulled the car out of the ditch. Why did you do it that way?” The old farmer smiled and said, “Well, Dusty’s getting a little old and doesn’t believe he’s as strong as he used to be. As a matter of fact, he’s gotten downright negative and if he’d thought he had to do it by himself, he probably couldn’t have. But, when he thought he had three other mules helping, he gave it his best shot and did it all himself.”
The message is two-fold. Number one, you probably can do a great deal more than you realize you can and, number two, in most cases in our world today there are people who are willing to help if we’ll just ask.
Thanks for all the great tips, Very informative!
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