There are four ways in which people use their gifts and
their actions that make them heroes, Marshall said.
The first is to own your choices, he said. A person who has
experienced tough situations – losing a job, serious illness,
difficult family struggles – might be tempted to blame those
situations for being stuck or not having much of a future.
A hero owns their path forward, Marshall said. They may
have experienced the same tough situations, but opts instead
to choose an outlook where they control their actions instead
of letting the situations control them.
Water system personnel are no strangers to challenging
situations, he noted, including changing regulations,
workforce struggles and difficult personalities. “What are you
going to do about those choices in how you approach these
things?” he asked. “Real heroes make those choices and turn
the challenges into opportunities for growth.”
The second characteristic of a hero is to actively take in
useful and helpful content – in other words, choosing to
consume productive information and energy as opposed to
negative words and thoughts.
It can be a constant struggle to actively consume useful
information, he said, especially when bombarded with so
many messages from media, advertisers, friends and family, and
even our favorite music.
“You are what you eat,” Marshall said. “Do you take care of
your own programming, or do you leave it up to someone else?
If you are going to be a hero, or a leader, you need to make sure
you are encouraged. It’s hard for people to keep on giving when
no one is giving to them. Where are you going to get your
energy and your motivation?”
Heroes also take the opportunity to leap into action when
needed. In other words, Marshall said, they take initiative to use
what they have and do what they can to make progress.
“Instead of waiting on the perfect circumstances, work on
what you can do right now,” he said. “You don’t have to wait
for a politician to make a decision. Figure out how to make
something happen now. Once you take one step, the next step
becomes illuminated, and then the next step, and so on.”
Finally, he said, heroes invest in others.
Marshall told a story about his journey to become a drummer.
Although he had a passion for the drums, his initial junior high
band audition resulted in his placement as a baritone saxophone
player – an instrument for which he held no passion.
When he tried to quit the band, his teacher asked him if there
was another instrument he would prefer. When it was clear
that he did not know how to play the drums – but wanted to
learn – the teacher worked with him until he became
proficient and even successful.
“He believed in me,” Marshall said. “For a geeky, poor kid
in junior high, that meant a lot to me. I was still a geeky, poor
kid, but now I was playing the drums.”
The teacher’s investment in him came even though the
teacher himself struggled openly with a serious speech
impediment. Marshall said that was the most impressive –
and, heroic – trait: the teacher invested time in at-risk
children even when it meant that he would need to face his
own struggles.
“Who here could be a Mr. Mullins for someone in their
community?” Marshall asked, and awarded a pair of
drumsticks to an audience member who raised their hand.
Marshall attended much of the rest of the conference,
signing autographs at a booth in the exhibition hall where he
sold copies of his books, including “The Seven Powers of
Success” and “Shattering the Glass Slipper.” Marshall’s
company is M Power Resources, based in Dacula, Georgia.
39
THE KANSAS LIFELINE
July 2018
By Sarah Green
Three guys? Who’s this? Three guys on Concert Hall stage setting
up a restrained fitting and valve assembly? Yes, It was none other
than KRWA’s Lonnie Boller and Doug Guenther and their
supervisor, Linda Windler, Thoroughbred Systems, to create
questions in the minds of audience members who waltzed off to
“Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head”.
An enthusiastic crowd attended the opening session on Wednesday, March 28.