… if you know me very well (if not… hi… I’m Steve … nice to meet you), you understand that I am a driven person who works very very hard to be a success. I believe in personal effort. I believe in individualism. I believe in personal achievement. I believe in long term and short term goal setting. I believe in hard work. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in myself.
All of the above is true for me, and that’s not all: I work to make my entertainment, impact, and message of the highest quality I possibly can. I do this myself. Personal responsibility, self-control, discipline, individualism are all VERY important to me. But I don’t stop there.
I also believe that teamwork is JUST as important.
It’s easy to forget that community, neighbors, other folks in the world make things happen and those things are supporting everything we do. It’s NEVER possible to be a “self-made man” or “self-made woman”. This is a HUGE illusion. If you THINK you are a self-made person, stop to think about all the things you DIDN’T DO yourself.
Cops do the safety thing for me, so there’s very little “raping and pillaging” in my neighborhood and this allows me the safety and freedom to do “my thing”. Highway people build and maintain the highways that I so easily cruise down to my gigs. I didn’t build that road. Neither did you.
I had loving parents. I went to a safe school with teachers that supported me. I didn’t do this myself. I was raised by folks that taught me right from wrong and loved me even when I did stupid stuff. I did not do that. THEY did that.
I got a loan from my dad to buy my first lawn-mower so I could cut the neighbors’ grass and make money. I got a car loan from the local credit union over a weekend so I could buy a car to travel back and forth to college. I didn’t make this happen: other people did.
If you think about it, the examples just go on and on and on and on. Rugged individualism matters, but only when we realize that we are also a community of people. We must do our thing alone sometimes and other times, we must cooperate and work together with others.
In my opinion, we’ve kinda forgotten this as a society. We NEED each other. We need the trust of others. We need the connection to others. We need the help. Even the Good Old Boy – “country boys can survive” – crowd are no exception. Those folks didn’t make the gun (or bow or whatever) they use to hunt with or even the shotgun shells they use. They were made by someone else. The metal was mined, refined by someone else. That metal was forged into a gun by someone else. The gun was sold by someone else.
You see? It’s all connected and you did not do it all by yourself. You had help.
These days I’m thinking a lot about children and how every day we teach them that others don’t matter. We teach them that selfishness is good. We teach them that being out for number one is the only smart way to be – it’s demonstrably not smart. We are teaching them that individual effort is the ONLY thing that matters. This is so totally wrong-headed.
Obviously, individual effort DOES matter. It’s important. We need to hold up our end of the bargain, but we have to learn to work together too. Working together is how humans have survived for so long.
Sometimes it’s individual effort; sometimes it’s team effort.
Sometimes we’re at bat (all by ourselves); sometimes we’re in the field (working as a team).
Sometimes we need to cooperate with each other. Sometimes we need to do things for each other as well as for ourselves.
We forget this at our own peril.
These days I’m working on team building for kids. I launched a MAGIC CAMP and I really love thinking about ideas to help kids grow while they are learning amazing magic tricks.
My latest idea is MONKEY BUCKS. See the monkey in the picture? Yeah … it’s just a simple monkey eraser. What if I rewarded kids at MAGIC CAMP for good behavior? What if every time a kid did something socially constructive during camp they got a monkey buck? Maybe the kid “helped” another kid understand a magic trick better. Maybe they said “thank you” or “please”. Maybe they remembered to bring their magic bag each day.
What if we gave them a MONKEY BUCK – but – they didn’t get to keep it? What if MONKEY BUCKS were awarded to the individual … BUT BUT BUT… they went in to the TEAM’S BUCKET? See what I’m getting at? The kid did the good thing but the TEAM WON because the kid did the right thing.
I’ll try out MONKEY BUCKS this summer and let you know how it goes.
Until then, please remember: we’re in this together. STOP thinking that your neighbors or “THOSE PEOPLE” are evil. Whether you like them or not, whether you agree with them or not, WE can’t win this game all by ourselves. We have to work together. Life’s just not set up that way.
In fact, what if getting along with those “A-HOLES” is one of the tests we are supposed to be taking in this lifetime?
What if it is? Are you passing or failing?
Passing? Hey, cool … have a Monkey Buck!
###
Monkey Bucks and Teamwork written by Rockin’ Eco Hero – Steve Trash
