I told Bert Wolfson, RHD’s chairman of the board, that I would stay for seven years when he hired me in 1970. Just seven. Luckily, he never called me on it, and I’ve stayed at RHD 33 years longer than I’d planned.
This year Resources for Human Development celebrates 40 years of serving people of all abilities all across this great nation. And someone asked me about that recently; how what I once thought might be a short-term commitment turned into what, for many people, is a lifetime commitment.
The best answer I could give – and I make this analogy because I love sweets – is that RHD has always been like a candy store to me. I’m continually fascinated by it, by what it is and what it’s become and by the people who make RHD what it is.
The amazing thing was, and continues to be, the robustness of the human environment.
Let me give you an example: We had our holiday gathering at the end of December, and we were able to announce some good financial news we were having. We always have a little party at RHD’s central office, and people give gifts and celebrate and dance – especially this year, because we had live music.
The group that was up there performing was our MIS group, a number of RHD employees who keep our computer systems running. They call themselves the RHD All-Stars, and they were wonderful; they were just great. People got up and danced and laughed and had a terrific time.
Someone said to me: “Oh, my gosh – I thought those guys were computer geeks!” Everyone seemed to marvel that, right under our noses, this group of people had this hidden talent. More importantly, they were willing to get up on stage in front of people and take a risk. It strikes me that you have to be willing to make a fool of yourself to take that chance in the first place. And it inspired other people to run out onto the dance floor, and I have to tell you that some of the things we saw on that dance floor – from some people you might not have expected – defied the laws of physics. But it was great fun.
You find that again and again in people here, that willingness to take a chance, to put yourself at risk, to be in a vulnerable situation where primarily you have to not care what anyone else might think. And it’s a hard, hard thing to take a risk. The message in so many corporations, from the top and through the executive ranks is that there is one way, and it is my way or the highway. That usually serves to avoid risk, and stifle creativity. We don’t work that way at RHD. And the way people have responded to that environment, and still respond to it, is the amazing thing for me.
It’s hard to keep a 40-year-old organization from getting stuck in the mud. But we keep fighting to foster a culture that looks for better ways to serve people, that isn't afraid to take risks -- to challenge accepted ways of thinking to make our communities better places to live.
That’s the question to people here: If you stay, will you fight for it? Will you fight to keep that going?
RHD has always been a fight I’ve believed is worth having. Over the decades, we've worked with hundreds of thousands of people to improve their lives, their families and their communities. There are few rewards greater than that, and that's why it’s been a fight I’ve been thrilled to carry on for much longer than I’d envisioned. And that’s why I’ve been honored and proud to be at Resources for Human Development for 40 years.
And counting.