December 2006

It's a Wonderful Life!                                                        December 2006

Last night my wife and I continued an annual tradition. We stopped long enough in this busy holiday season to watch Jimmy Stewart play the unforgettable role of George Bailey in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life.

This classic is Heather's all-time favorite. She knows all the dialogue. In fact, there are two things I can be guaranteed when I watch this movie each year. One, my wife will recite every line verbatim for each character in the movie. Like most people, I fight back an incredible urge to reach over and choke anyone who recites movie dialogue throughout an entire movie as though they wrote the script. She’s my wife and I love her, so I resist.

If you’ve seen the movie, then you will understand the other thing guaranteed to happen each time my wife watches It’s a Wonderful Life. She will cry at the same parts of the movie every single year, no matter how many times she sees it.

If you’ve never seen this movie, let me be the first to welcome you to earth. It’s a wonderful story about George Bailey, a small-town dreamer who wants to travel the world and become a huge success. After he makes numerous sacrifices for his community, he finds himself stuck in Bedford Falls and considers his life a failure. He thinks the world would have been a better place without him, and wishes he’d never been born. A guardian angel trying to get his wings allows George to see what the world would have been like without him in it.

The lessons he learns in this movie are truly significant. As I settle in to enjoy the celebration of Christmas, I want to share with you the lessons I’m reminded of each year from this wonderful classic:

We're making a difference in someone's life

George Bailey got the opportunity to see what the world would have been like without him, and realized that simple acts that may have seemed routine at the time truly made a difference in someone’s life. Each and every day you perform simple acts that may seem natural and common sense to you, but you are changing the world. I think we all want to make a difference in this world before we leave, but so often try too hard. Perhaps we should stop trying, and simply live a life dedicated to service to others. We’ll all make a difference and (more than likely) never even know it.

Real wealth is not determined by money

George Bailey wanted to be rich. Like many people today, he used the accumulation of money as a measuring stick for success. The many sacrifices he made to support the people of Bedford Falls didn’t allow him to pursue huge financial success. In fact, it bothered him that all his friends were off getting rich, while the sacrifices he made were keeping him from being successful. At the end of the movie, his brother toasted him by saying, “To my big brother George - the richest man in town.” As you live your life, remember that one of the best lessons we can learn is that true wealth is measured by the love and support of family and friends, not by the size of our bank account.

Our kindness to others comes back around

The pressures of life (and carelessness of his Uncle Billy) caused George Bailey to think the world would have been better off without him. His entire adult life had been dedicated to helping others. In his time of financial need, the very people he had impacted his entire life came to his aid. He had given time and time again without expecting anything in return. When he needed the kindness of others, it came right back around. And the same is true for us. Be kind to others without ever expecting anything in return. When you need it the most, you’ll find it comes right back.

Enthusiastically, 

Clint Swindall - President & CEO

*DVD Review

It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra

Here's what I've been watching lately ...

I've never done a DVD review for Everyday Leadership. However, as we come to the end of the year, I think it's appropriate to spend some time learning lessons from one of the greatest movies of all time - It's a Wonderful Life.

I'm not a huge movie fan, so you may never get another movie recommendation from me. But when I look at the lessons about sacrifice, integrity, love and friendship, the impact of the movie is significant. While it may be an enjoyable, feel-good movie for the holidays, it sends wonderful messages about personal leadership.

I encourage you to enjoy this movie for the lessons it teaches, and to keep in mind that it was made 60 years ago. There will be some "dated" things that certainly aren't endorsed (like George Bailey getting drunk and crashing his car into a tree). Leave it to the critics to find faults with the content. Enjoy the movie for the life lessons!

*Quotes

Inspirational thoughts

“We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily differences we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee."
- Marian Wright Edelman

"There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try themselves, and those who are afraid that you will succeed."
- Ray Goforth“He who gives when he is asked has waited too long."
- Unknown

*Question to Ponder

Some time to think

I’ve always loved Christmas. In fact, some of my favorite memories are around Christmas time. We’d always go out and get a fresh-cut Christmas tree to decorate. We’d sit around and decorate stockings to hang on the mantle. We’d wait for family members to leave the house so we could wrap their presents.

Over this past year we’ve become involved with an organization called St. Jude’s Ranch for Children. This is not the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that treats children with cancer and other catastrophic diseases. This organization is a residential facility for abandoned, abused and neglected children. With locations in Boulder City, Nevada and Bulverde, Texas, more than 1,400 children have called the ranch their home over the years. The work they do to provide these children a home during an extremely tough time in their lives is phenomenal.

This year we joined with members from our church to add to their celebration of Christmas. Small groups from our church purchased Christmas trees for each house on the ranch, and headed out to help them decorate. After providing the decorations to a group of these children, we encouraged them to decorate the tree. After a long pause, one of the kids turned and said, “We’ve never decorated a tree. We don’t know how.”

Wow! We didn’t have much money when I was growing up, but my mother always made sure we had a tree. I guess somewhere along the way I just assumed that everyone had experienced the basic joys of Christmas. I was saddened when I realized that some of these kids had never decorated a Christmas stocking. I was saddened even more when I discovered some had never even had a Christmas stocking.