This morning I went to an Ace Hardware store. I know “Ace is the place for hardware.” But, I wasn’t looking for an answer to a hardware question.
My wife wanted a lemon tree for her birthday. I bought her one that looked healthy and was the right size. 3-foot tall. I repotted the small tree in a larger pot and placed it on the pool deck. Everything was fine. Wife loved the tree and in four months, the tree was budding. The only problem was some of the leaves turned yellow and fell off the plant. We expected yellow lemons, not yellow leaves.
Yellow lemon tree leaves alert that something is wrong. Off to Ace. I spoke with a salesperson and explained my problem. It wasn’t a hardware problem, but a garden nursery problem. But, Ace, being the place had the answer to my leaf problem—yellow leaves, either too much water or not enough. The sales person felt the leave and said, “It’s dry and brittle. Your plant needs water.” His answer was critical knowledge that I did not have.
On the way home I began to think about how much knowledge there is and how little time I have to tap into even a small part of it.
Did you know?
• Web-only retailers have net margins as low as 2.50 to 3.5%? While building supply and distribution retailers achieve average net margins around 5%. Being the world’s largest (Walmart), doesn’t mean you produce the highest net margins. In 2014, Walmart experienced a 3% profit margin.
• The average salary of a High School teacher is $45,890 per year.
• Harrison Ford reportedly will make up to $34 million for acting in The Force Awakens.
• NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodall was paid $35 million in 2013-14.
• About 3.3 million students are expected to graduate from high school in 2015-16. During this same period, colleges and universities will award 952,000 associate’s degrees; 1.8 million bachelor’s degrees; 802,000 master’s degrees; and 179,000 doctor’s degrees.
• In January 2015, 564,708 people were homeless on a given night in the United States. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that 47,725 veterans are homeless on any given night.
• The knowledge of these four personality types—Dominant, Intuitive, Analyzer, and Easy Going—can help you develop better relationships.
This afternoon, I was reading “The Diamond Cutter” by Geshe Michael Roach and I realized that it’s not the amount of knowledge we have on the inside, it’s the positive and negative actions that the knowledge produces on the outside that counts. We know to be generous. Often, we act grudgingly. I wish that my only problem was to know or not know and do or not do.
“Mentor In The Mirror,” available on Amazon
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