Learning from Rick

How many leftovers have you packed away in your plastic Tupperware court container? And maybe you've heard of Tupperware parties, perhaps bigger when I was a kid than they are now, but still in the rest of the world today there's a Tupperware party every one point five seconds. Well, I want to tell you about the man who was the CEO of Tupperware for twenty five years, Rick Goings. Rick has become a hero of mine for many reasons. Rick grew up dirt poor in the small town of Wheaton, Illinois.

He graduated from high school with no money and no prospects for college. At seventeen, he moved himself into a rooming house and slept on a chair that folded out into a makeshift bed. He found a job selling Encyclopedia's door to door, and in three months he sold absolutely none. Someone suggested he joined the Navy, and when he did,

the Navy discovered Rick's exceptional talent for leadership. After the Navy, Rick went to college, dropped out of college, started his own business, made a fortune, and then joined Corporate America, and climbed the ranks to top leadership positions in several companies until in he was named the CEO of Tupperware Brands. I introduce you to Rick not because he started from nothing and ended up running one of the world's most

successful inner national companies. I introduce you to Rick because of who he is and what he did to transform Tupperware from the inside out and in particular, given economic empowerment to fifty million women in more than one hundred countries, helping them to rise above poverty to middle class and enable many of them to take leadership roles for the

first times in their communities. Rick has been meditating for forty years, and he has taken the experiences and lessons learned from his practice to do what I think everyone should do when they meditate, use the energy, insights and convictions to develop themselves personally, but also to help make a better world in small or large ways. Rick and I met last year at his sprawling farm outside of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Rick patiently took this novice horseback rider on trails. He said Thomas Jefferson and James Madison might have followed two hundred and forty years ago. He wanted to talk with me about a new David Lynch found in initiative to bring meditation to the one million veterans who suffer from PTSD. If we can save even one veteran's life through meditation,

then it's like dropping a pebble into a pond. The ripples will spread out like a multiplier effect, impacting in a most positive way the lives of the children, wives and husbands, the whole community. Rick said. We meditated together as the sun went down, overlooking the rolling foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. Afterwards, Rick talked about the impact of meditation, quote t M has given me a firm base and a soulful foundation. It has given me a mindset of

purposefulness for my whole life. That's why every morning I write the words add value on a piece of paper that I taped to my computer screen. I always want to be thinking what can I do today to add value to someone's life. Rick's been adding value for a very long time. For thirty years, he was a top

leader of the Boys and Girls Club of America. During his years, the clubs serve sixty million kids, providing them with a safe space free from gangs, carrying adults when they often had none, and mentoring programs that gave them lifelong skills. But the Boys and Girls Clubs only served kids in America, So a few years ago, Rick and his wife Susan established the World Federation of Youth Clubs now in twenty four countries to bring the same services

to kids around the world. You know, Bob Rick says, only five percent of the young people in the world live in the United States. Every kid needs help. Since his stint in the Navy, Rick has been a leader for fifty years. I asked him what makes a good leader. Without pausing to think, Rick says, a leader has to have calm, clarity, and vision. A real leader makes us feel safe in times that are not safe. A right.

Let's end this time together doing something that I think should be a feature of our everyday life, and that's appreciation and gratitude. So let's take thirty seconds of quiet, thirty seconds to take a break, just take a moment. It turns out when we do that, it's good for our health as well. I'll be right back all right. Thank you for joining me today. I hope you heard something that inspires, that uplifts you and that you can

incorporate into your own life. This is Bob Roth. Stay calm. Yeah, Hey, all of you out there, I'd love to hear from you. You can send me your stories, your questions, or anything else on your mind. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram at meditation Bob. You can also send me an email at meditation Bob Roth at gmail dot com. I look forward to hearing from you.