Today is a Good Day!: The Story of Sambo

Once upon a time, there lived a hard-working and loving family. Sambo was the youngest of eight children. Every morning before school, the children's mother would wake them up with her sweet voice. Good morning, my children. Today is going to be a good day.

The children would wake, go outside, and do their chores. The chores were very difficult, and none of the children liked doing them, especially Sambo. You see, Sambo disliked getting out of bed in the morning to do his chores.

After the chores, their mother always prepared a hot breakfast for them. The children would eat and walk to school. After school, they would hurry home to do their afternoon chores so they would have time to play before getting ready for dinner. One morning, his mother came and said, "Good morning, my children. Today is going to be a good day." Sambo did not get out of bed. His mother repeated, "Get up, Sambo. Today is going to be a good day." Sambo replied, "Momma today is not going to be a good day. Today is a bad day, and I want to stay in bed." His mother said, "Okay Sambo, you stay in bed since today is a bad day." Sambo had a smile on his face as he went back to sleep. His brothers and sisters snickered at Sambo as they went to do their chores. Sambo fell back to sleep.

An hour later, he woke up to the sound of his brothers and sisters laughing at breakfast. His stomach growled. He was very hungry. Sambo walked down the stairs into the kitchen. He sat down at the table with his brothers and sisters. When he put two BIG pancakes on a plate, his mother stopped him and said, "What are you doing Sambo?" "Momma, I'm so hungry," Sambo replied. Momma said, "Oh no. Sambo today is a bad day. You go up to your room, and go back to bed." Sambo looked sad, "but I'm hungry Momma." "Remember today is a bad day Sambo. Now go back to bed." Sambo walked slowly back up to his room with his stomach still hungry. He was very sad. You see, in his room there were no toys, TV or computers. Nothing but his bed and a stuffed bear.

All day long Sambo sat in his room alone and hungry, until finally he heard his brothers and sisters come home from school. They ran upstairs to change their clothes for chores before they went to play. Sambo went down with the other children to do his chores when his mother saw him. She said, "where are you going Sambo?" "Out to do my chores, Momma." "Oh no, Sambo. Today is a bad day. Now go back up to your room." Sambo started to cry on the way up the stairs. He thought to himself, "I am so hungry and bored. I hope Momma lets me eat later." When dinnertime came, Sambo walked slowly down the steps to see if he could get something to eat. He was met at the bottom of the steps by his mother. She said, "Oh no, Sambo. Today is a bad day. You need to go back up to bed."

Sambo woke up the next morning to the sound of his mother. "Good morning, my children. Today is going to be a good day."

Sambo jumped out of bed and cheerfully said to his mother: "Yes, Momma. Today is going to be a good day!"

This story was told by a great man, my father, Fred L. Fabrizio.? He used this story to illustrate one of his core beliefs.? Every day is a good day, as long as you choose to make it a good day.

On October 21, 2005 my father woke up at 5am and went for his morning run.? He had breakfast with my stepmother Kathy.? They went outside and did what they loved to do work on the yard and the house.? You see they had to leave the house that day to drive to Columbus, Ohio for a continuing education class for his physical therapy licenses.? They never made it to the seminar.? They were both killed instantly in a car accident.

I remember that day as if it were yesterday.? My wife and I were in Las Vegas celebrating our wedding anniversary when we received the call.? I can still see the look on her face when she handed me the phone so my brother Mike could tell me the news.? My life will be forever changed.? Since that time I self published The Story of Sambo, one my father used to tell daily.

Everyday is a good day as long as you choose it to be. My father lived every day like it was his last. He woke up every morning and had a good day, no matter what.

Now go out and have yourself a good day!

Are You a Bucket-Filler or a Dipper?

You have heard of the cup that overflowed. This is a story of a bucket that is like the cup, only larger, it is an invisible bucket. Everyone has one. It determines how we feel about ourselves, about others, and how we get along with people. Have you ever experienced a series of very favorable things which made you want to be good to people for a week? At that time, your bucket was full.

A bucket can be filled by a lot of things that happen. When a person speaks to you, recognizing you as a human being, your bucket is filled a little. Even more if he calls you by name, especially if it is the name you like to be called. If he compliments you on your dress or on a job well done, the level in your bucket goes up still higher. There must be a million ways to raise the level in another's bucket. Writing a friendly letter, remembering something that is special to him, knowing the names of his children, expressing sympathy for his loss, giving him a hand when his work is heavy, taking time for conversation, or, perhaps more important, listing to him.

When one's bucket is full of this emotional support, one can express warmth and friendliness to people. But, remember, this is a theory about a bucket and a dipper. Other people have dippers and they can get their dippers in your bucket. This, too, can be done in a million ways.

Lets say I am at a dinner and inadvertently upset a glass of thick, sticky chocolate milk that spills over the table cloth, on a lady's skirt, down onto the carpet. I am embarrassed. "Bright Eyes" across the table says, "You upset that glass of chocolate milk." I made a mistake, I know I did, and then he told me about it! He got his dipper in my bucket! Think of the times a person makes a mistake, feels terrible about it, only to have someone tell him about the known mistake ("Red pencil" mentality!)

Buckets are filled and buckets are emptied ? emptied many times because people don't really think about what are doing. When a person's bucket is emptied, he is very different than when it is full. You say to a person whose bucket is empty, "That is a pretty tie you have," and he may reply in a very irritated, defensive manner.

Although there is a limit to such an analogy, there are people who seem to have holes in their buckets. When a person has a hole in his bucket, he irritates lots of people by trying to get his dipper in their buckets. This is when he really needs somebody to pour it in his bucket because he keeps losing.

The story of our lives is the interplay of the bucket and the dipper. Everyone has both. The unyielding secret of the bucket and the dipper is that when you fill another's bucket it does not take anything out of your own bucket. The level in our own bucket gets higher when we fill another's, and, on the other hand, when we dip into another's bucket we do not fill our own ... we lose a little.

For a variety of reasons, people hesitate filling the bucket of another and consequently do not experience the fun, joy, happiness, fulfillment, and satisfaction connected with making another person happy. Some reasons for this hesitancy are that people think it sounds "fakery," or the other person will be suspicious of the motive, or it is "brown-nosing."

Moral: Let us put aside our dipper and resolve to touch someone's life in order to fill their bucket.

Columbuses in your organisation

LEGEND has it that Columbus was at a dinner in which some jealous peers began scoffing at the admiral's success in finding the new world. The basis of their scorn: that anybody could sail across the ocean, and anybody could coast along the islands - it was the simplest thing in the world!

In reply, Columbus took an egg from a dish and said to the company, "Who among you, gentlemen, can make this egg stand on end?" One by one those at the table tried to do this. When the egg had gone entirely around and none had succeeded, all agreed that it was impossible. Then Columbus took the egg and struck its small end gently upon the table so as to break the shell a little. After that there was no trouble in making it stand upright.

"Oh, that's so easy, anyone can do it," cried the watching crowd.

"Yes," said Columbus, "it is the simplest thing in the world. Anybody can do it — after he has been shown how."

This is why a true innovation strategy needs to go beyond emphasising creativity and idea generation. Stretch goals can make innovation an explicit focus, resource allocation can signal strategic intent and an experimentative culture will encourage courage and persistence. Experiments are not punts or gambles. They are pilot efforts, which are evaluated with a spirit of scientific testing, funded according to results, with the learnings from hits - and indeed, flops - fed back iteratively into the innovation process.

The link between innovation and creativity is obvious. But to take an innovation through to disruption, you also need the courage to take on the associated risk. Are you supporting the Columbuses in your organisation?