Seeing Potential is the key for a new Paradigm

Jul 14, 2008
Potential, Vision, and Commitment

from Steve Farrar - Articles by Steve Farrar
In the late 1800’s, a distinguished member of the British Parliament traveled to Scotland to give a speech. On the way, his carriage became hopelessly mired in the thick mud of a rural road. A young Scottish farm boy suddenly appeared on the scene with a team of large draft horses. He quickly had the carriage out of its dilemma and ready to resume the journey.
The gentleman insisted on paying the young man, but the lad refused. He was simply being a good neighbor. The English lawmaker was immediately taken with the young man and his attitude. “Are you sure I can’t pay you for your time and effort?” the gentleman asked.
“Thank you, sir, but it was the least that I could do. It was a privilege to help such an important person as yourself.” The boy replied. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” asked the man. “I’d like to be a doctor, but I doubt that will happen since my family does not have the money for such an education.”
“Then I will help you become a doctor,” said the politician.
Nearly fifty years later, another famous English statesman lay dangerously close to death due to pneumonia. Winston Churchill had become ill while attending a wartime conference, and England desperately needed his leadership as Hitler threatened to destroy their nation. Churchill miraculously recovered because his physician gave him an injection of a new wonder drug called penicillin. Penicillin had recently been discovered by the brilliant medical doctor, Alexander Fleming.
Alexander Fleming was the young boy who had pulled the stalled carriage from the mud. And the man who promised to return the favor by sending him to medical school was Winston Churchill’s father, Sir Randolph Churchill.
Randolph Churchill saw what no one else had seen in the face of that young Scottish farm boy. He saw potential. And his commitment to helping that young man reach his potential saved the life of his own son nearly half a century later. And by saving the life of Winston Churchill, indeed, he may have saved all of England.
—Steve Farrar