Daily Consistency is Better than Occasional Brilliance!

Twenty years ago I started listening to John Maxwell leadership tapes. I got a new one every month in the mail for bucks. It came on a cassette tape with a printed outline. In one of his lessons, he talked about taking baby steps toward personal growth. Maxwell said only 10% of people who are over 25 years old will read a book. Less than that will make an effort to continue growing intellectually and spiritually. The main point he was making, is if you continue to make even baby steps in your growth, you will quickly pass most people around you.

I went to work for Steve Laswell, the sales manager at News Radio 1000 KTOK in Oklahoma City back in 2000. I would sometimes get discouraged and his advice was good. He’d say, “Just make sure you are moving the needle in the right direction every day. Do the right thing, for the right reasons, expecting the right result, and it will come.”

Today is a reminder that greatness in your world is a process of doing the daily drudgery with consistency and excellence.

Oseola McCarty was born March 7, 1908. She lived her entire life in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. For the first 87 years, she never married and never learned to drive. She walked nearly a mile pushing a shopping cart to get groceries she rode with friends every week to Friendship Baptist Church. She was a washer woman. She washed other people’s dirty clothes to earn a living. She did walk one other place, to the bank. When she was young, she opened a savings account and began making daily deposits of pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters.

When she was 87 years old (in 1995), she stopped by her bank and a bank manager wanted to talk with her. She sat at his desk, and he said, “Oseola, do you have any idea how much money your daily deposits have added up to over the years?” He went on to tell her she has accumulated one quarter of a million dollars. He asked her what she wanted to do with her money. Oseola had no idea and wasn’t sure where to start. The young banker placed 10 dimes on his desk. He told her they represent her money and asked her how she would like it divided up. As a committed Christian woman, she pointed to the first dime and said she wants it to go to her church. She then pointed at three other dimes and said she wanted to leave them to her nephews and nieces. Then she said, “With the rest of the money, I would like to set up a scholarship fund at the local university for deserving black students who are not afraid to dream big.

One week later, the University of Southern Mississippi received a check from her for $150,000 to set up such a trust.

In 1998, she was awarded an honorary degree from USM, the first such degree awarded by the university. She received scores of awards and other honors recognizing her unselfish spirit, and President Bill Clinton presented her with a Presidential Citizens Medal, the nation’s second highest civilian award, during a special White House Ceremony. She also won the United Nations' coveted Avicenna Medal for educational commitment. In June 1996, Harvard University awarded McCarty an honorary doctorate.

I tell you this today, because it is likely you are not noticing the daily deposits you are making in your work and in other people. The daily words you deposit in the ears of people you encounter most, like your spouse, your children, your employees and whoever else you are influencing!