It pays to be a Winner

This story is about a person working in a freezer plant. It was almost the end of the day. Everyone had packed up to check out. A technical snag developed in the plant and he went to check.

By the time he was finished it was late. The doors were sealed and the lights off. Trapped inside the plant for the night without air and light, an icy grave was almost upon him.

Hours passed. Suddenly he found someone opening the door. Was it a miracle? The security guard entered the room with a torch and helped him to emerge. Riding on his back the worker asked the security guard, "How did you know I was inside? Who informed you?"

The security guard said, "No one sir; this unit employs about fifty people. But you are the only one who says hello to me in the morning and bye in the evening. You had reported in this morning, but did not go out. That made me suspicious".

He never knew a small gesture of greeting someone would prove to be a lifesaver for him. You never know-it may work a miracle in your life too. Education is not a degree or certificate that can be shown to others as proof. It is our attitude, actions, language and behaviour with others in real life.

The Clandestine Surgeon

Dr Hamilton Naki was not only a great surgeon but he was a unique man. Never officially recognised on the world stage, he was number two on the medical team that completed successfully the first heart transplant into Louis Washkansky in Cape Town in 1967. The chief surgeon Dr Christian Barnard wanted him on his team.

So what made him so different? Dr Naki was black, unheard of in the land of apartheid, where he could not operate on a Caucasian or touch their blood. But the most amazing thing was that Hamilton had left school at 14 and was a gardener and a cleaner at the school of medicine. But he was curious and learned quickly. He learned the surgical technique by observing the doctors performing transplants on dogs and pigs.

Over time he became a first rate surgeon, never having studied medicine or surgery at medical school.

But the hospital considered him so skilled that they made an exception for him. He pursued his studies and gave his best regardless of racial discrimination. He was the best! He taught white students, but had a lab technician's salary, the maximum that the hospital could pay a black person. He lived in a shack without electricity and running water in a ghetto as befitted a black.

Dr Hamilton Naki taught surgery for 40 years and retired as a gardened, with a pension of $275.00 a month. When apartheid ended, he received a decoration and the title of doctor honoris causa. Nobody ever pointed to the injustice that was done to him. Despite the secrecy and the racial discrimination, he continued to give the best of himself with his love, until he passed away in May aged 78.

Walking in their shoes

To help his staff of young architects understand the needs of those for whom they design housing for the elderly, David Dillard sends them on 'sleepovers'. They put on pyjamas and spend 24 hours in a senior living centre in the same conditions as people in their 80s and 90s. They wear earplugs to simulate hearing loss, tape their fingers together to limit dexterity, and exchange eye glasses to replicate vision problems.

Dillard says, "The biggest benefit is (that) when I send 27 year olds out, they come back with a heart 10 times as big. They meet people and understand their plights."
It's a great way to not become too critical with those who struggle with challenges. Offer encouragement, strength and hope to inspire those who are less fortunate.