I carry a picture and a quote from Saint Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) in my wallet. She said, “Never worry about numbers, help one person at a time, and always start with the person nearest to you.” That should really make us stop and think. It is easy to get overwhelmed by all the people in the world that need help. Just help one person and start where you are.
Every year I speak 4-5 times over the summer in Pennsylvania for a group called PFEW. High School students from all over the state come to learn about business and leadership. After I finish speaking there are never less than 20-25 kids lined up to speak to me about how my talk affected them. A boy approached me after my talk two years ago and he wanted to tell me about his twin brother who has autism. A great deal of my talk is about my son who has special needs and was diagnosed with autism as well. I try to teach kids that no one should eat lunch alone at school. This young man told me how much that affected him because although he and his brother go to school together, they do not share the same lunch period. His heart breaks every day because he cannot eat with his brother and cannot switch his lunch period because of his class schedule. He knows that his brother eats alone all the time. I felt his pain.
I told him that if he wanted his brother to have company at lunch he should find someone in his lunch period who was eating alone and sit with them. I assured him that the good and positive energy from that act would be transferred to his brother and that soon someone would sit with him. He looked at me as though that sounded kind of strange. Which it does unless you truly believe in positive energy. Then I spoke with him about what Mother Teresa had said it made more sense to him. We shared a long embrace and he promised me that he would find someone near him who needed company. He also said that he knows his brother will be ok also. There is someone near you who needs you. Be there for them.