OFI 972: Everyone Has To Get Pulled Out Of The Ditch Now And Then

This morning I was out feeding our bull and goats on the part of our farm nearest the road.  I heard a noise that caused me to turn around and look over towards the road, and I saw a pickup turned sideways on the road, blocking the westbound lane.  The tailgate was sticking up in the air abnormally, and I could tell that they had slid into the ditch on the side of road.  I heard the wheels spin a couple times as the driver attempted to back out, and it was clear that was not going to happen.

I hurried and fed the hay that I had in the back of my Ranger and drove out of the driveway and over to the pickup.  There can be a lot of traffic on our road, but luckily it was reduced this morning due it being Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  I pulled up to the pickup and the driver got out.  It was the son of one of our neighbors how lived about a mile down the road.

He had been coming around the curve near the front of our place and hit black ice.  His back end came around, and he went straight into our neighbor’s pasture fence.  This was the exact spot that another vehicle had taken out this same fence last winter.  When there is black ice on that corner, any vehicle that loses traction on the rear end does about the exact same thing and winds up in the exact same place.

I told him to hold on, and I drove back to my place.  I got my pick up started and grabbed some chain.  Autumm hopped in with me to help slow down traffic and we headed back out there.  I stopped in the southbound lane, hooked a clevice to his pickup and one to mine.  Then I connected our two trucks with some chain and pulled him back up onto the road.

This whole event made me think of the fact that we all need to be pulled out of the metaphorical ditch every now and then.  Whether it is because we have hit our own form of black ice and had an accident, or we have done something stupid.  Maybe life just hasn’t gone our way, and we find ourself in a situation that we never intended and we don’t know how to get out.

I couldn’t help it, I just kept seeing metaphors this morning.  The chain really got me thinking as well.  There are a lot of people helping to pull you out, even if you cannot see them.  They could be five or six or fifty links down the chain, but they are doing their part to help.

I thought back to an email I received from a listener named Lauren Matthews.  She said,

“I’m loving the podcasts so far. We just bought a pecan orchard but I’ve always been interested in cattle farming. I’m a nurse, but since your first episode I’ve been looking into an Ag program nearby! Keep doing what you’re doing! You’re inspiring lots of people, I know of one person for sure!”

I am always thrilled to receive messages from listeners like that, and this is especially true when somebody lets me know that I am really helping them or inspiring them.  In the way that I have been able to impact Lauren’s journey, I am the link in the chain that she is connected to.  I am the only link that she can see.  But there are a number of links in this chain.

There was a time in my life that I was working in a job that was no longer a fit for me, living in the city and not even allowing myself to dream about the lifestyle that I had now because it was too depressing.  I just didn’t think it would ever be possible for me.  But, I didn’t quit.  I kept trying to find what it was that I was looking for, hoping that I was wrong and could somebody find my way to this life.

Back then, hosting a podcast wasn’t even on the radar for me.  But, I was listening to a lot of podcasts and radio in an attempt to get the information, reassurance, inspiration and confidence that I needed to find my way to this life.  One of the people that I listened to back then was Dave Ramsey.  Autumm and I were getting our finances organized, and his advice really made a difference.  Then one day, he talked about his friend, Dan Miller, and Dan’s book “48 Days To The Work You Love”.  I purchased and read that book, and I started listening to Dan’s podcast about finding your way to work you love.

I became intimately familiar with Dan’s story, and even ended up going to a coaching course at his home in Franklin, Tennessee.  Dan talks about how he became the coach, writer and podcaster that he is.  It goes back to his Mennonite upbringing in Ohio and the first time he listened to a self-help record, yes record, put out by Earl Nightingale called “The Strangest Secret”.

In interviews, Earl Nightingale attributed his message to being inspired by Napoleon Hill and his famous book “Think And Grow Rich”.  And Napoleon Hill attributed his inspiration to meetings with men like Andrew Carnegie, although there is controversy as to whether or not this actually happened.

So, whatever impact I have on listeners, such as Lauren, I am just the first link in the chain that is helping to pull her out of a situation or towards the life that she is looking for.  When it comes to my influence in Lauren’s life, the chain links are Lauren, me, Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie, etc., etc., etc.

The point of all of this is two fold.  First, we are all going to be a link in a chain that is helping somebody, in some way.  This is much like the lesson that is taught to George Bailey in “It’s A Wonderful Life”.  Without us, or if we were to break the chain, who knows how many people’s lives would not have been impacted for the better.

The second point is that anyone can be a link in your chain.  Regardless of the truth about Napoleon Hill’s claims about Andrew Carnegie, Andrew Carnegie is part of that chain.  Dan Miller was a pivotal part of my journey, and my ability to finally start my own business which led to the Off-Farm Income Podcast.  If Andrew Carnegie had not inspired Napoleon Hill, etc. it is very possible that Dan Miller had not been there to inspire me.

So, never take for granted those people who make up the links in your chain as you look back.  And with the decisions you make today, remember that a hundred years from now you may still be having an impact on people because of the chain you have formed and the people that has helped, over and over and over again.

More Places You Can Listen to Off-Farm Income And Matt Brechwald: