Many years ago I read “Start with Why’ by Simon Sinek. I did the activity and decided that my ‘Start with Why’ was to change the world one cup of tea at a time. In all my businesses, whether I am training, coaching or mentoring I’m usually helping someone with a challenge (quite often over a cup of tea!) and however complex it is, I pride myself on helping them to take just one positive step forward – changing their world just one step and one cup of tea at a time. If they are reading my books, I have taken care to make all the chapters and activities ‘bite-sized’ – just right for pondering over a cuppa.
At home, I’m in a small village of just 80 residents so we have all got to know one another. So when my neighbours Tony and Carmel asked us all to donate a bag of groceries to help villagers in Ukraine where they had a local contact, we didn’t hesitate for a moment. We knew it would do good. Tony and Carmel have a wonderful reputation for direct action. Tony was a high court judge before he retired but also wrote a book about their experience of adopting their now adult son from a Romanian Orphanage which most of the village bought and read.
We received photographs and letters of thanks from the villagers themselves. We knew that our physical bags of groceries were going to help another family just like ours – but overseas and in exceptionally difficult times but this gave us a more personal connection, and in a small way our direct action made us feel little less helpless about the scenes we were seeing on the news.
We have now supported them every time they take a lorry over. For Mother’s Day when my children asked me what I would like to do, I said I’d like us to do a family shop just as if we were going to have a weekend in, but instead to do it with those Ukrainian families in mind. Although the circumstances are horrific, I loved filling my trolley with others in mind – and my trip out with teens who let’s face it don’t really dig a family shopping trip for groceries!
Carmel had recently bought a second hand ambulance which Tony has physically driven to the border, meeting another donated ambulance and driver along the way! On their journey, the came to rest at a Nunnery who were taking in and looking after displaced and orphaned children. They promised to visit on the next trip out with some supplies for them all.
One of the things they noticed was how much time it took to make a round of tea – there were so many people and lots of kettles plugged in all around the place! They sent a note round the village to ask if anyone had an old tea urn they could take on their next trip out.
Well with my Start With Why in mind, I thought of a great idea. What if Tea Break Training bought them a new tea urn? And what if I asked everyone I know to donate the price of a box of tea bags to go out with the urn before Christmas. So that’s the simple ask. Not thousands, just the price of a box of tea bags and if you are feeling flush, perhaps a bit over to buy a packet of biscuits.
Obviously you know me, it won’t be cheap rubbish tea. It will be proud Yorkshire Tea in the red boxes! Changing the world, one cup of (Yorkshire!) tea at a time!
