You Do Make  Difference!

    When I read this, it made  me think of how much we all do make a
difference...our  products...the business opportunity...and you never
know the magnitude of who or how many lives you REALLY can make a difference in....

    A teacher in New York decided to honor each  of her seniors in high
school by telling them the difference they  each made. She called
each student to the front of the class, one at  a time. First she told
each of them how they had made a difference  to her and the class. Then
she presented each of them with a blue  ribbon imprinted with gold
letters, which read, "Who I Am Makes a  Difference." Afterwards the
teacher decided to do a class  project to see what kind of impact
recognition would have on a  community. She gave each of the students three more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgment ceremony.

    Then they were to follow up on the results,  see who honored whom and report back to the class in  about a week.

    One of the boys in the class went to a junior  executive in a nearby
company and honored him for helping him with  his career planning. He
gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his  shirt. Then he gave him two extra
ribbons and said, "We're doing a  class project on recognition, and
we'd like you to go out, find  somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon,
then give them the extra  blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this  acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and  tell me what happened."

    Later that day the junior executive went in  to see his boss, who had
been noted, by the way, as being kind of a  grouchy fellow. He sat
his boss down and he told him that he deeply  admired him for being a
creative genius. The boss seemed very  surprised. The junior executive
asked him if he would accept the  gift of the blue ribbon and would he give
him permission to put it  on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure."
The junior executive  took the blue ribbon and placed it right on his
boss's jacket above  his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon,
he said, "Would you  do me a favor? Would you take this extra ribbon and
pass it on by  honoring somebody else. The young boy who first gave me the ribbons  is doing a project in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affects people."

    That night  the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him
down. He said,  "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was
in my office  and one of the junior executives came in and told me he
admired me  and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius.
Imagine.

He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon  that says
"Who I Am Makes a Difference." on my jacket above my  heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else  to honor. As I was driving home tonight, I started thinking about  whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want  to honor you. My days are
really hectic and when I come home I don't  pay a lot of attention to you.
Sometimes I  scream at you for not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you know that you do make a difference to me.  Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life.  You're a great kid and I love you!"

    The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't stop  crying.
His whole body shook. He looked up at his father and said  through
his tears, "Dad, earlier tonight I sat in my room and wrote  a letter
to you and Mom explaining why I had killed myself and  asking you to
forgive me.

    I was going to  commit suicide tonight after you were asleep. I just
didn't think  that you cared at all. The letter is upstairs. I don't
think I need  it after all." His father walked upstairs and found a
heartfelt  letter full of anguish and pain. The envelope was addressed,
"Mom and Dad".

    The boss went back to work a changed man. He was no  longer a grouch, and he made sure to let all his employees know that  they made a
difference.

    The junior executive helped several other  young people with career
planning and never forgot to let them know  that they made a difference
in his life...one being the boss's son.  And the young boy and his
classmates learned a valuable lesson. Who you are DOES make difference.