Memorial Day

Posted on May 28th, 2006 by markgoulston

Mark Goulston

On this Memorial Day weekend I drove by a local cemetary in Westwood, California and saw the sea of American flags and caught a local parade honoring those people who gave their lives so that freedom could live.  Sounds hokey.  Sounds like an inconvenient distraction from my "pedal to the metal"  24/7 life of pushing my career forward... but it helps me to realize the truth of the the following quote and excerpt from my latest book (and realized how much the young soldiers who died too young gave back to a world they didn't get to enjoy).

Wealth is what you take from the world;
Worth is what you give back.

From GET OUT OF YOUR OWN WAY AT WORK and Help Others Do the Same by Mark Goulston, M.D.

Some years ago, famed special effects master Stan Winston shared one of the things that gave him a sense of worth. I was attending a board meeting of a charitable organization, Free Arts for Abused Children, that was being held in Stan’s amazing studio in Van Nuys, California. (Stan was the charity’s greatest financial supporter. He had donated some of his creations -- Arnold Schwarzenegger's “Terminator” head and Jurassic Park’s “velociraptor” model -- for silent auction at the charity’s fundraisers.)

The board members were seated around a central table when the chairman said, “I think we should all show our appreciation to Stan Winston, who has for several years, been our angel.”

Stan had been sitting on the periphery. After the applause of appreciation by the board members, Stan blushed and said, “No, no. You have it all backwards. This charity is my angel. I have been blessed in being able to make a great living doing what I love to do, but I don’t really know how much I help the world by entertaining people. This charity helps me to know that I am making the world a better place. You are my angel and conscience. I am the one that should be grateful to you.”

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