Taking Initiative: A Leadership- and Life-Lesson for Grown-ups From a 9-Year-Old Boy in Missouri

For the first few years of our lives, we’re completely dependent on other people, particularly our parents. They feed us. They bathe us. They get us dressed in the morning and they put us to bed at night. It’s a lifestyle that’s easy to get used to. As a result, self-reliance and taking initiative is not something that comes very naturally to young people. But once they do learn it, it can become one of the most productive character traits they’ll ever possess. Just ask Steve Blair.

When Steve was nine years old, he was lucky enough to live only a couple of hundred yards from Fleetridge Elementary School, where he attended fourth grade in Raytown, Missouri. As an adult, he could probably hit it from his back yard with a good golf shot. But to get to school each morning as a nine-year-old, he had to follow the city streets the long way around, through several turns, and along at least one very busy thoroughfare, Norfleet Road.

To a young boy who desperately wanted to ride his bike to school, that was a problem because Norfleet Road didn’t have much of a shoulder and no sidewalk. So riding his bike to school wasn’t an option his parents even entertained. 

After he complained about his predicament at school, one of his social studies teachers asked him,

“Well, Steve, what are you going to do about it?”

And that turned out to be the right question.

“Maybe,” he thought, “we could cut a trail through the woods between my house and school.” But that required going through private property. Plus, it would only solve the problem for Steve. What about all the other kids who might want to ride their bikes to school? Steve and his teacher settled on a solution. Norfleet Road needed a sidewalk!

Steve’s teacher told him the one person who could order a sidewalk built was the mayor. And once again, he asked Steve the right question.

“So, Steve, what are you going to do about it?”

And with that, Steve decided to write the mayor a letter. It was short and to the point. It read simply,

“Dear Mayor, would you please put a sidewalk on Norfleet Road so me and the other kids can ride our bikes to school?”

At that point, Steve might have suspected his complaint had become more of a lesson in civil government from the social studies teacher than a legitimate attempt to get to ride his bike to school. So he promptly forgot about it.

Then a few months later, at the end of his fourth-grade year, something happened to Steve that had never before happened in his life. He got called to the principal’s office.

Over the school loudspeaker, the entire student body and faculty heard the most dreaded words any grade schooler can imagine:

“Steve Blair, please come to the principal’s office. Steve Blair, please come to the principal’s office. 

Steve made the long and fearful walk to the office, all the while wondering what he could have possibly done wrong, what the consequences might be, and how he was going to explain it to his parents.

When he arrived at the office, he found the principal, a strange man wearing a suit, and his mother! Steve burst into tears and sobbed uncontrollably. These were the unmistakable signs of trouble. His mother was crying too, which meant the strange man was probably there to take him to jail.

In between sobs, he managed to stammer out, “Why am I here? I didn’t do anything, I swear! I didn’t do anything!”

The principal assured Steve he wasn’t in any trouble and that he could stop crying. He handed Steve an envelope. Inside was a letter from the mayor. Steve read it out loud.

“Dear Steve, Thank you for your letter. I wanted to let you know that next Monday we will begin work on your sidewalk. And I’d like for you to meet us there to have pictures taken for the newspaper.”

“I’m going to be in the newspaper?” Yes. And the strange man? Well, he turned out to be a journalist, not a police officer.

Sure enough, the next week Steve met the mayor and a photographer at the construction site to have his picture taken. And his story did make it into the newspaper. More rewarding to Steve, however, was this: When the mayor said in his letter that they would begin work “on your sidewalk,” he really did mean your sidewalk.

As soon as the concrete was poured, Steve (and only Steve) was allowed to put his name and handprint in the wet cement. And from that time forward, that sidewalk would be officially known as the Steve Blair sidewalk. That brought the number of fourth graders at Fleetridge Elementary with their very own city sidewalk to a grand total of one, a very special honor indeed.

Steve rode his bike to school every day of his fifth-grade year, rain or shine. And every time he got to the point in the sidewalk that bore his name, he looked down and smiled. That sidewalk was a standing monument to a valuable lesson Steve learned that year. He learned the value of being “at cause” for something. From then on, if he had a problem, he asked himself the same question his teacher asked him that year: “What are you going to do about it?”

And the two words to emphasize in that sentence are you and do. It’s you that needs to do something. Don’t wait for someone else to solve your problem for you. And you actually need to do something. Just complaining about it isn’t enough.

So, whether you're nine years old, or forty-nine years old, the next time you have a problem, find yourself complaining about something, or spot an opportunity to make the world or your company a better place, ask yourself the same question Steve's teacher asked him: “Well, what are you going to do about it?” And then do it.

And if you're the boss and spot that opportunity for someone else in your organization, instead of telling them what to do, ask them that same question and watch something amazing happen.

Source: Parenting with a Story: Real-life Lessons in Character for Parents and Children to Share, by Paul Smith

Paul Smith is one of the world's leading experts on business storytelling. He's a keynote speaker, storytelling coach, and bestselling author of the books Lead with a Story, Sell with a Story, and Parenting with a Story.

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