One of my many mentors in my private sector life said it to me, and like you, it stuck to me.

I like it because in all things we essentially live a life of service if we are to find true meaning in our short time here. Service is a broad description, and reaches far away from what we think of here on these boards, or at the foundation. It doesn't matter if you are a sales manager at a big pharma company ( I was at the time I think); even then you have to guide your team, define the lay of the land, not as you wish to see it, but as it really is. Define your opportunities and obstacles, big and small, almost insurmountable like Goliath, or flicked away with an effortless gesture like a gnat on your sleeve; and you need to define the journey itself, from where you are to where they need to go. You have to teach and support them and facilitate their successes, not your own - as that is a by-product of theirs and will come in due time.

At the end of the process you have to acknowledge that nothing we accomplish in life is done just through our own efforts. We are standing on the shoulders of those that came before us, that figured things out that we added to, that broke the ground so our efforts could be more productive. To those people, and to the people on your team, if you receive any accolades at all, you need to remember to thank them for helping you, and making your journey even possible. I alone was OCF for so many years, until I was slowly able to surround myself with caring people and help them realize their own successes, in coming back from a disease, or guiding them in their helping others on the journey themselves.

There are so many examples in this life, but I am always turned off my the "self made man" concept. He doesn't exist. No one excels in a vacuum of pure individualism or thought. But those are not my words in the quote, they just resonate with me, and been proven true, in what I have learned from building companies to building a non-profit. I did little of it alone, and I never take credit for any of it without acknowledgement of my own facilitators and supporters, without whom OCF would not even exist. Not the least of them is my wife who let me sell the beach house in Laguna, that we could never afford to buy again, to gather together the seed money to start things that would become OCF many years ago. Her going back to work for the last 14 years has made it possible for me to work without compensation at OCF and follow my passion. That is (on this valentines day) the epitome of true love.

So please feel free to use it, it is not mine, and I hope it resonates with others who will buy into the message.