[March 4, 2021] One thing we should learn growing up is to help our neighbors. Good leaders encourage such volunteerism. I was scared of failing my freshman year of college, but I remembered that giving back is just what you do. This drove me to seek out a local soup kitchen in 1970 Lubbock, Texas.
My plan was simple, put in 3 or 4 hours a week to help the less fortunate. Easy right? Not so! A woman named Helen from the Church of Christ congregation ask me a few basic questions like “Can you cook?” “How many hours can you work?” Basic stuff. What surprised me was her last comment, “We can’t support our needy. You can best help by starting right now!”
An hour later, I’d been “trained” in the art of cooking, counseling, and the elements of overnight support of the most at-risk, mostly elderly and drug dependent. No one thought of a legal release document to indemnify workers and the church. I also met a cute little redhead with an attractive smile and warm disposition. Her name was Cory.
Helen was a real go-getter. She arranged for food and money donations, access to a kitchen and eating utensils, and managed all the helpers. Helen devoted all her time to make sure the indigent got the most simple meals and shelter. “Just the basics,” she would say. And it all made sense to me.
My first job was as the mainline cook. Not the apprentice cook, not the assistant, but THE cook. I had close to zero experience, but I was happy she would ask, so I said “yes.” Cory cooked with me. I was happy, Cory was happy, and Helen was ecstatic. I volunteered two 10-hour shifts on weekends. My grades suffered, but I felt good about what I was doing, and now I had a college-aged girlfriend.
Helen taught me a few essential leadership lessons:
1. Treat people right, even if they are poor and the “unimportant members of society.”
2. Learn to motivate. Find what people like and make the most of it.
3. Don’t take “no” for an answer. If someone says it’s impossible, prove them wrong.
4. Work hard, be honest, be kind, tell the truth, be on time and be ready to work immediately.
5. Be prepared for what can go wrong. Have a plan.
6. Be thankful for what you have.
I wrote these down long ago. Helen was a real philosopher – not really, but she did know people. She also knew and understood the Bible (to her, the best psychological text ever written). I never put this on any job resume, but Helen and her volunteers taught me a lot about real leadership in the soup kitchen.
Great article, Gen. Satterfield, you are spot on with this leadership article. BTW you have some fantastic lessons. Refrigerator posting quality. 😃
You have been fortunate to have had so many odd jobs that your learned from, picked up a girlfriend, and got to know the basics of leadership.
Good lessons. I’ve found that lessons are everywhere but we, as regular humans, tend to forget them ALL.
Good point, Rassmussen. I agree that as humans, sometimes we have to learn the hard way to insure we don’t forget those same lessons. But, alas, we will forget and pay a price later.
I think Gen. Satterfield is giving away his secrets. Like me, he has experience that counts.
A great article, Gen. Satterfield on ‘giving back’ to the community. But, it takes real, on the ground leadership to sustain it. Keep these personal articles coming our way. You make it so interesting. Thank you!
Enjoyed your blogging. Thanks. I will be recommending your blog to more of my co-workers. We are now just back to work after being out for nearly a year. We are all anxious to get back to work and do a great job. I’m poor now that I’ve gone without work for nearly a year. I learned during that time not to rely on the government to help me or my family out; the are totally unreliable. I also learned that the Democrat Party is at the heart of the problems we now have in the USA. I’m no longer a Democrat but a staunch conservative.
Yes, this blog helped me get thru the pandemic. A daily dose of positive leadership.
Real real leaders read, think, and write. If you can do this, the world is open to you.
Another excellent article from the hands of Gen. Satterfield, thanks! ❤
Hey, Gen. Satterfield, I hope that you’ve gotten a lot of lessons from your younger days through work. In this case by volunteering. It’s always amazing the positive things we gain if we just want to improve our communities and those that live there. I too worked in a soup kitchen but we focused on homeless folks. It was also rewarding and I learned so much that today I still tell stories about those times.
Hi Colleen, and I would believe you also are a better person for it.
We are all better for it when people step up. Helping our families, neighbors, and community is the ultimate value a human can give. It matters not your age or skills. Just jump in to help. That’s what I teach my High School students and for years now they come back to me after college or having a family and tell me this piece of advice was what helped make them a better person.
Thanks Gen. Satterfield. I enjoyed this blog post, like so many of your’s in the past on “leadership and …” that involves you growing up. Well done! There must be a time when you will start to run out of odd jobs you did.
Very entertaining and motivates me to learn with ease.
Another spot-on article about a young boy Satterfield. This is a very entertaining way to get the message across that we start learning how to be a good person and a leader at a young age.
Ha! Great article. Yes, you can learn leadership lessons even as a young man or woman. Thanks for sharing your story, Gen. Satterfield. 👍
On occasion, Gen. S. will share one of his childhood or young adult stories to show how he learned so much about leadership at that age and that those lessons carried him forward as an adult. Note that in every case, he never mentions that he was “given a job” or that he demanded “minimum wages.” He just wanted to work and learn.
Right and you didn’t hear that he was protesting or burning down buildings to support some wacko cause like global climate change (what a farce). He worked, was honest, and he was willing to learn. That is what young folks should be doing.
Yes, worth reading every word.
This is why we should not have any law regarding the rate of pay of anyone, anytime, or anywhere.
Hi Army Vet, glad you are still with us. Please give us another article soon. We love what you do for us and the soldiers out there keeping us free.
… and many of our young folks would rather cuss at people who try to help others than jumping in and helping themselves.