Teamwork: Working Together

October 13th, 2009
Posted by steve

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.
~ Henry Ford

Teamwork is an important part of life. My team consists of my family, my girlfriend, my friends and my colleagues. Each person on my team has an important role and without them, I would not be where I am today. When life seems to be bothering me or if things just are not going so well, I can count on them to be there to lift up my spirits. If I’m happy, they are there to celebrate with me.

I love to set goals. How I meet those goals can sometimes only be met with teamwork.

If I could solve all the problems myself, I would.
~Thomas Edison, when asked why he had a team of twenty-one assistants

I would like to share a story from the book “Change is Good… You Go First” about the power of teamwork.

A man was lost while driving through the country. As he tried to reach for the map, he accidentally drove off the road into a ditch. Though he wasn’t injured, his car was stuck deep into the mud. So the man walked to a nearby farm to ask for help.

“Warwick can get you out of that ditch,” said the farmer, pointing to an old mule standing in a field. The man looked at the decrepit old mule and looked at the farmer who just stood there repeating, “Yep, old Warwick can do the job.” the man figured he had nothing to lose. The two men and the mule made their way back to the ditch. The farmer hitched the mule to the car. With a snap of the reins, he shouted,

“Pull, Fred! Pull, Jack! Pull, Ted! Pull Warwick!”

And the mule pulled that car right out of the ditch. The man was amazed. He thanked the farmer, patted the mule, and asked, “Why did you call all of those names before you called Warwick?”

The farmer grinned and said, “Old Warwick is just about blind. As long as he believes he’s part of a team, he doesn’t mind pulling.”

Think of the people on your team who help you out the most; the ones that when you work together, you accomplish more than you would have if both of you had worked alone.

Who’s on your team?