Become The Servant Leader

We know ROI is the acronym for return on investment.  ROI - Return on Investment.  But what about ROL?  That’s Return on Life.  It’s one of the keys to becoming a servant leader.  It’s this idea that personal fulfillment comes from a life devoted to making the world a better place, and when you make the world a better place, you become a better person.

It reminds me of one of my most favorite quotes, it comes from a Scottish theologian, William Barclay, who once said…

Always give without remembering, always receive without forgetting.

That means focus on giving, not giving back.  That’s what Albert Schweitzer did.  He didn’t need to go back to school to become a doctor, he had money and fame, but Schweitzer went anyway.  By 1913, he built a hospital in West Africa.  He later expanded it by using his own funds.

By the time of his death in 1965, the Albert Schweitzer hospital included seventy buildings, and could take care of five-hundred patients at one time.  Today, the hospital is still the primary source of health care in Western Gabon.  Schweitzer once said…

Until he extends his circle of compassion to include all living things, man will not himself find peace.

Schweitzer believed in return on life - ROL - so should we.  Our value to humanity depends on how much of ourselves we give, to make the world a better place.