The best groups that any person can be a part of are groups where everyone understands the objective and goals. When the ultimate focal point of the group is not one person or one person’s goal but the entire group’s objective. Organizations like this bring ultimate productivity and are the best organizations any person can be in because individuals become of less importance and the team’s goals are put first. Often in life, these groups are not recognized. They do their thing behind the scenes, and nobody really realizes until they are gone. In politics these people are referred to as “true statesman” in sports “team players” in churches “pillars” in life these are the people that carry very heavy loads and never complain about their workload or praise themselves for their accomplishments. These groups of people and singular individuals existed in the past and still prominently exist today. People like production agriculturalists, the last true statesmen, and the average hardworking individual in every group.  

Production Agriculture is the most honest profession in America. 1.8% of Americans labor tirelessly every day in order to feed the other 98.2%. The 1.8% see very little profit return spending their entire career paying off their farm. Currently, at the edge of town, there is a retirement auction. The equipment is outdated and antiquated but certainly, the man that operated that equipment through the years has fed and clothed hundreds of thousands through his crop production. Often times in agriculture, the sum of your wealth is what you can sell at the end. In production agriculture, good honest people retire from their life of honest work with nothing to show from it but old, worn-down equipment and a good conscience because they have fed and clothed people their entire lives. The man at the edge of town is not whining or complaining. Agriculturalists see very little profit return even though they are feeding the world, but they do not let profit return affect their circumstances. They pick their head up and carry on knowing that without them the world would not go on.  

A story is told about the last true statesman. When U.S. Congressmen George H. Mahon died a group of good men helped pay off his farm so that his widow could be financially secure. Unlike many of his colleagues, he never allowed personal kickbacks to come his way to benefit his personal situation. He served 22 consecutive terms, from 1935-1979 he took care of the people and not himself. The way the story was told, when other Congressmen really needed to get something done, this true statesman, George Mahon, would be the lynchpin that could bring two groups together. He played a role in so many things, the establishment of the Reese Airforce Base, the Webb Air Force Base, the development of I-27, and disaster relief during drought and tornados. Whether others agreed with him or not they understood that he had taken no personal favors therefore his ability to be honest was not tainted. He died with debt, but when he died others were able to see that he was a humble, honest man who did honest work, and many things would not have been done without him. Hopefully, because individuals like this operate quietly and discreetly some like him still exist.  

In work, church, and school environments there are individuals much like the agriculturalists and the statesman that do way more than anyone recognizes. There are people that are in groups that do many things but their presence is not recognized for its true value. The common denominator of all these people is that their focus is on the task and not on themselves. Many of these people have taken on the leadership style of the best leader who ever walked the face of the earth, Jesus. Most of the people that keep the world running, their style of life is “servant leadership” (putting other people first). Often times people walk into leadership conferences and hear this idea of “servant leadership” and think that they have come across some big breakthrough when in reality this model has been around since at least A.D. 70. These people that work behind the scenes know how to lead without ever bossing people around. They recognize the importance of their work and put their head down and work; because of this, many people follow them, and when the people who know the importance of their work are gone it leaves a very big hole.  

The most important thing a person can do is find admirable goals and objectives and make them the focal point of their existence. Self-promotion and arrogance will only lead to misery and unhappiness while servitude to meaningful goals will create happiness not only for oneself but for those around them. It is important that individuals be like the agriculturalist and the statesman, they must be the people behind the scenes with one positive goal in mind.