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“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48

When Bill Gates and Warren Buffet challenged their fellow multi-billionaires to give away a significant portion of their wealth as they had committed to do, it would be presumptuous to assume they had been directly influenced by the above passage. It would also be presumptuous to assume they were not. The fact of the matter is I don’t know what if anything in particular influenced their philanthropy except that they seem to understand that along with their extreme good fortune comes extreme responsibility. Other than that I am hesitant to speculate much about the motives of these two gentlemen since I do not know either one personally, nor do I know much about their personal values or beliefs.

Regardless of their motives, though, it is encouraging what these men did making a public statement about their wealth that ultimately says it is not theirs to keep but to give away – and to give away for the benefit of the greater good. At an even deeper level their message is all but an admission that their wealth had never been theirs to begin with, but a gift, their extreme philanthropy being a public recognition of that.

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded . . .” is not a message intended for just the mega-wealthy, though. It applies to all of us; for we have all been blessed in some way with more than enough. And just as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet seemed to have recognized it is not for us to keep but to give away. Some have been blessed with financial wealth, some have physical strength and energy, others have wisdom, and most of us at the very least have the ability to offer a smile or an encouraging word. Whatever our gifts, talents, or resources might be, they have been entrusted to us not just for ourselves but for the greater good. What a privilege to be called to offer our abundance for such a greater purpose!

As we were cleaning out our old house and packing things up to move last fall we discovered a few treasures that had gone unnoticed for many years, hidden in plain sight you might say. One of those treasures was an old King James Bible that had belonged to my great-grandfather. Propped up among some other old books on one of the high shelves of the built-in book cases in our living room it was simply out of sight and out of mind. At first I didn’t know what to do with it, but didn’t feel it was proper to discard it. Its old leather binding was cracked from age, but I also noticed its pages were tattered and worn from usage as much as from age. It had been given to him as a Christmas gift by his two daughters – my grandmother and great-aunt – in 1911.

My great-grandfather, Robert Boyle, died in 1924 long before I was born, so needless to say I never knew a great deal about him. What I do know is that he was an Irish immigrant, moving his young family to the U.S. in 1889 where he established a sheep ranch in northern Texas. His grandchildren called him Grandpa, same as my grandkids refer to me, a mere coincidence but touching. In his younger days I’m told he had studied theology at the University of Edinburgh in preparation for ministry in the Presbyterian Church, so the fact he read scripture regularly comes as no surprise.

I don’t know a lot of other details about his life other than these, except that I realized something I had never considered before when I discovered his old King James Bible. My great-grandfather left a great legacy to his successors; for in reading the notes he scribbled in the margins and the verses that were dog-eared it is obvious he was a man of great character, high moral values, a student of scripture and a man of God. Now here it is a hundred years later and he’s still making a difference in people’s lives – mine in particular. What a legacy!

I wonder in this day and age if we consider our own legacies the way we should, the ones that really matter. Grandpa Boyle’s old Bible made me pause and give some thought to that. Will I leave that kind of inspired legacy that will endure a hundred years or more? I need to be thinking about that so that the generations to come might know, and the children yet unborn. As a reminder we have given his old Bible in a prominent place in our new home where it lays open to Psalm 78.

If you’ve ever spent much time around farmers and ranchers as I have one thing you’ll notice is that age never seems to slow them down. I’ve seen eighty-year-old men toss a bale of hay into the back of a pickup truck as easily as an eighteen-year-old; the difference being that the older man uses finesse while the younger one uses brute strength. Farmers and ranchers don’t talk much about retirement either. Most are too busy to think about it. They’ve got work to do.

An article I read this past week strongly encouraged people to keep working for several reasons. First of all in today’s world there are few physical reasons for one to retire, work in fact supports good health, and work boosts happiness and well-being, among other things. I agree. I’ve got lots of friends sixty and older. Although some may have retired from a one career, myself included, many of us simply started another one. Others are still doing what they’ve always done and have no plans of stopping. And all of us without exception volunteer a great deal of our time and expertise to charitable causes. The point is, not a single one of us has dropped out. Most are as busy and working as hard as they ever have – harder in some cases, and certainly more effectively. It makes me wonder, whoever thought up the idea of retirement in the first place?

When you consider the enormous population of “baby boomers” (est. 76 million) plus those born before the boomer generation we have the greatest resource of experience, education, and wisdom ever in the world’s history, much of it untapped. How can we make better use of this great resource? One place to start might be to change our vocabulary, to quit using the “R” word so much. How about changing AARP to something like AAEC, Association of Active Elder Citizens instead of using the word “retired”? Wouldn’t that be more appropriate, more energizing, and more encouraging to keep older citizens engaged in the marketplace? And think about the pressure it would take off Social Security and pension systems by keeping people involved as contributors and not just withdrawers?

Wouldn’t everyone be better off if we all kept working? I plan to and so do my friends. Most of us are too busy to think about retirement. We’ve got too much work to do.

“Don’t aim at success – the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run – in the long run, I say! – success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.”

Dr. Viktor Frankl, who penned these words in the preface of the 1984 edition of his famed bestseller Man’s Search for Meaning, should know. When he wrote the original book in 1945 he had intended it to be published anonymously under the absolute conviction that it could never earn literary fame for himself. He simply wanted to tell the story of his experiences, observations, and personal survival from the atrocities of the concentration camps. Or in his words, “I had wanted simply to convey to the reader by way of a concrete example that life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones.” Yet, in spite of efforts to convey a quiet but profound message and do so anonymously, he was convinced by his friends to claim authorship, the unexpected consequence of which was a highly acclaimed bestseller.

Since World War II Dr. Frankl’s writings have revolutionized the field of psychiatry, no doubt impacting thousands of patients around the world in positive ways, which was his only intention from the beginning. Never was it in pursuit of fame or fortune. Yet, in the long run success did follow – precisely because he had forgotten to think of it.

How much better off would we all be – indeed, how much better off would the world be – if we focused our best efforts on something or someone greater than ourselves rather than on success itself? Do we, I wonder, often times limit our success – or worse, miss it altogether – because of our focusing on it? What if our highest energy and best talents were focused on doing the right thing for the common good? Success will surely follow.

Prior to this season who ever heard of Jeremy Lin, the sensational star of the New York Knicks? The guy seemed to emerge from nowhere, didn’t he? Now he’s headline news, not just on the sports page but on the front page. And even if you’re not a Knicks fan, or a basketball or sports fan for that matter, I’ll bet you’ve paid attention to the stories about Jeremy Lin. Why? We love Cinderella stories and David and Goliath stories, underdogs and unexpected heroes who rise up in triumph. They are more than just good at what they do, they persevere to become remarkable as we talked about last week.

There is another reason we love these underdog come-from-behind stories like Jeremy Lin’s, and that is because they give us hope. They give us hope that we too still have a chance to become remarkable. They encourage us to persevere, to not give up on our dreams and desires. Jeremy Lin’s story and others like his inspire us to keep believing in ourselves, that what could have been still can be.

In my profession I see Jeremy Lins every day. As a business and executive coach I see potential in every client I work with, often far greater than they can imagine about themselves, and it is my job to help them visualize that potential and to encourage, inspire, lead and guide them toward it. My great reward in doing so is in watching them develop and progress, and in seeing the joy on their faces as they grow to become more and more remarkable.

There is greater potential in each and every one of us, often times more than we can imagine. For those of us engaged in the coaching profession it is that unrecognized, untapped potential that drives us to do what we do. Our job is to believe in people.

I’d be willing to bet Jeremy Lin has a coach, and I’m not talking about Mike D’Antoni (head coach of the Knicks). No, I’m talking about someone behind the scenes who has encouraged and inspired him, leading and guiding him toward reaching his great potential. We all need someone like that – a friend, colleague, mentor or coach who believes in us and helps us to believe in ourselves, that what could have been still can be.