The story is told of a businessman whose company was failing. Creditors were calling. He was desperate for some move that would turn things around. He went to his lawyer. No help.He went to his accountant. No help.
He hired a consultant. Nothing. Finally, in utter desperation, he went to the rabbi. "Rabbi," he said, "please give me one idea that could save my business."
The rabbi thought for a long moment. Then he said, "All wisdom is in the Torah. Take a chumash and a folding chair to the beach on a windy day. Let the wind blow through the pages. When the wind stops, whatever page the Torah opens to contains the answer to your problem."
Several months later, the rabbi sees the man walking down the street in a brand-new suit, smiling from ear to ear. "Rabbi," he says, "it worked!" The rabbi asks, "What page did the Torah open to?" The man smiles. "Chapter 11."
I thought of that old joke this summer while reading Chapter 11 of a different book: Jim Collins's new book, What to Make of a Life. Chapter 11 contains two teachings that stopped me in my tracks. The moment I read them, I thought: I have to share these on Yom Kippur.
The first teaching is what Collins calls the Mothershead Mantra. John Mothershead Jr. was a philosophy professor at Stanford. When Collins was an undergraduate, he invited Professor Mothershead, then in his late sixties, to dinner and asked him a question: "When you look back on your life, how do you sum up what you've learned from your long experience?"
Professor Mothershead responded: "I reject your question." Then he explained:"There are two ways to go through life. The first is to ride through life sitting in the saddle looking backward. The second is to ride through life sitting in the saddle pointed forward. I'm the second. I have no interest in looking backward. I'm not done yet."
There are two ways to sit in the saddle. Facing backward. Or facing forward.And on Yom Kippur, that raises a question for every one of us: How are you sitting in the saddle?
