Recently I attended the Equipment Auction of my brother-in-law, James Anderson, who passed away last December. Arriving at the homestead, there were rows of farm trucks, antique tractors, irrigation pipe, piles of metal, and 5 flatbeds full of stuff. And I began to wonder; who is going to buy any of this stuff because I DON’T SEE THE VALUE IN IT. Any yet as the auction started, things began to sell and by time the day ended, everything was sold. I then started helping the buyers load their treasures and strike up conversations with them. In one case, there was the person who bought several antique cream separators. Asking about them, he told me he cuts off the tops and uses the bases for custom end tables. An idea that never would have crossed my mind. Then there was the person who bought the horse collars and that person is using them as frames for mirrors and pictures. And I initially missed all this because I was jumping to conclusions and not seeing the value in other people’s: goals, talents, dreams.
In hiking I tend to get focused on what I value; exploring the Pike Peak Region front range and leading groups on hikes in this area. I look at the people having goals of: doing the incline 500+ times in a year, doing all the 14ers or 12ers and 13ers, or the ones doing the Leadville 100-mile race. And I think “Why”. Just like I saw the people buying things off the farm auction trailers and I wondered “Why” until I began to hear their stories. Now I want to take time to reach out to people I heard doing the incline XXX times or the peaks, and ask them “What drives them”, “When did you start”, “What value do you get out of doing these things”. And in understand the value they see; it will help me better understand the value I have in the things I do.
In our personal life, we see value in people and the things around us. Here again, we tend to make quick decisions about the value of people by: their job, their looks, their house, what they drive, where they live, etc. Nothing brings this home better than the story of “William Crawford, a janitor at the United States Air Force Academy in the 1970s. To the academy cadets, he was “just a janitor” and no one paid attention to him, greeted him, or made eye contact with him. Then while doing research on WWII and the Allied campaign in Italy, the light bulb went on and one cadet said “Holy cow, you’re not going to believe this, but I think our janitor is a Medal of Honor [recipient]”. And after that, the cadets and everyone in Colorado Springs saw the “Value” of William Crawford in a whole new way; as they began to understand his story. How much time do I take to understand the life and story of those around me?
In work, we tend to place more value those in upper management and the CEOs who have risen to “Rock Star” fame. We study them and try to emulate them, hoping their “value” will rub off on us. We can get down when we start to compare our own value against others at work. One answer here is to do a self-evaluation and realize that we ourselves have value with who we are and what we can offer to others.
Seeing the value of those around us starts with taking the time to understand and hear the stories of those around us. It’s removing the filters we see the world with and seeking to understand not what people do, but why they do it. And then processing that information to be enriched by the lives of all those around us. Who are you going to reach out to in your hiking, personal, and work life to understand the value of why they do what they do?
Al Andersen 