Standing on the shoulders of GIANTS

I have spent my whole professional life being aware that I stand on the shoulders of giants.??It is why I am a veracious reader of history.??Many of the successes we claim today, that we convince ourselves is “new”, is based on the work of many giants before we even formed the idea.??

?I remember Leonardo Da Vinci, Ada Lovelace, Charles Babbage, Alan Turing, Scott Mannering of my Ontario Northland Days, Doug Smith of the Manitoulin Group of Companies and many more who shaped my thinking and approach to innovation.

The truth is, I am always aware of others and their contributions either historical or personal to my growth as a person, a son, a brother, a father, a husband, a coach and a leader.?There are so many roads that lead to here, that so many helped create, to allow me to stand where I stand today.?

Much of what I do is to try to create an environment to make it easier for others.

The picture above is one of those “GIANTS”.??She was a 5 foot 2 inch force of hard work and passion for life.??She was one of the first twelve (12) women hired by INCO in the early seventies.??She belonged to a union of more than twenty thousand men.??Picture that and in that era.??She did not take that job to be an activist or to be a trailblazer to help the thousands of women in the future.?She was a single mother who knew that getting a union job, meant she could feed her children and get a safe roof over her head.??The men in that picture along with their female partners made her working life very hard.?She took each obstacle as just that, an obstacle NOT a barrier.??She smiled, she learned and she worked very hard for her family. ??She earned the trust of those men each and every day.

I am proud to call that woman my MOM.?She showed us complaining solves nothing, deeds speak and providing for your family, regardless of how, is noble.??Everyday she took the bus to take on the working day so that her children where taken care.??Life was hard on her but she lived and loved fiercely.

I stood on her shoulders so my children could stand on mine.??

Today she is with her Lord in peace for she has earned a special place in his heart by her deeds.??Rest well Mom, we shall take it from here.