Unheralded heroes

I learned about software development at the dawn of the software age back in what young people probably now refer to as “olden” times. Back then software could not be bought anywhere because no one had developed “canned” systems that could be sold. I was heavily involved with a big project where custom software was developed according to our specifications for a large paint factory for their manufacturing, plant scheduling, inventory control, warehouse, and distribution operations. After I left that company I went to another paint company and convinced my boss to allow me to head up an identical project. I worked tirelessly and literally put in thousands of hours on this project. It was very successful and it saved the company an enormous amount of money; however I never did get any recognition for working so hard on this project; and aside from a few private kudos from my boss, my efforts went unheralded. This was disconcerting to me as I had initiated the project and led the effort to get it accomplished. It was saving the company money but my salary and ego were essentially the same, (unfulfilled).

My boss later got fired for brutalizing and screaming at his employees and subsequent to that I found out through a friend who was high up in the company that my boss had taken credit for my idea and hard work. He told the President of the company that he was out in his garden and “had a brainstorm” and then went on to explain my idea as I had laid it out to him. My good Samaritan friend told the President of the company the truth concerning what had actually happened. The President called me into his lavish office and apologized to me for not knowing that it was me that had initiated and accomplished this “wonderful project” that was saving the company so much money. I assumed that I would receive a big raise, bonus, and promotion; however instead he walked over to the closet in his massive office where all of his promotional give-away items were kept and retrieved a promotional item to give to me for my effort; he gave me a Coleman lantern. Uhh Gee thanks boss! This was one of the important factors that eventually led me into quitting and starting my own business.

For the last two years I have worked on a marketing project for our company. This has been the most difficult project that I have ever tackled in my long career. I have tremendous personal self-discipline, but it was all I could do to maintain discipline to stay on this project through its completion. I literally had to “force” myself to work on it day after day, and I would say it has been the ultimate test of my disciplined nature. It entailed a tremendous amount of boring work where I had to create sales presentations, catalogs, and web site detail for every product that we sell for every vertical market and trust me there are a lot of products and vertical markets. I also overhauled the marketing department while I was at it and created processes and procedures for everything. We are wrapping up the final remaining tasks and it will be completed in a few days and although it was an absolute pleasure working with perhaps the best team of employees of whom I have ever had the pleasure of working and will miss the day to day contact with them immensely, I say good riddance to the project. I feel like I am being released from jail and am happy as a lark. I’m also very proud of what we have accomplished and am confident that Horizon will reap the rewards from that effort for years to come.

As evidence of a job well done, our sales team has already begun utilizing some of the sales tools that were developed as a result of this project and the thankful VP of sales sent the director of marketing who works for me a very nice e-mail thanking her and the department for all of their hard work. He went on to say how much those tools had helped him and his staff at a recent demo and how excellent and high quality they were. It was an extremely nice and thoughtful memo and he thanked them profusely and I am sure the folks on our team that put in the long hours for literally two years were appreciative. I looked at the e-mail and nowhere on it did I see my name mentioned. Hmmm

Our team just completed responding to a very large and prestigious RFP for some ten million dollars. I personally led the team to present our software, and negotiate the most difficult project that I have ever negotiated for the second largest school district in the country. Monday they sent a letter notifying our company of their intent to award the bid to us. This has been ongoing since August of last year and if memory serves me correctly we have put in some 4000-5000 recorded hours working on this project. When I received notification I promptly sent out an e-mail to the company and notified them of our win and tried to recognize as many of the key players as possible. I did not get them all and of course did not give kudos to myself for leading the team.

One of the team members who had worked hard on this project, but had not been mentioned in my kudos memo wrote me privately and thanked me for my contributions on the project and for leading the team. I wrote her back and thanked her and I also thanked her for her participation and apologized for not mentioning her in the kudos memo. I referred to her as an unheralded hero and told her there were many other unheralded heroes on the team who had likewise worked long and hard on it that did not get mentioned.

I suppose everyone likes recognition for a job well done, but often in life it is not forthcoming. This is particularly true in our spiritual walk as one of the tenants established in the Bible is that we should keep our good works private, (as in between God and us). God is watching and will reward in good time, but if we go all over town blowing about it to whomever might listen we will lose whatever reward He might have otherwise given to us, stating that we will have already received our reward from those to whom we had bragged. If we give a large amount of money to the church, we must keep it secret, “not letting the left hand know what the right is doing”. If we volunteer, help someone, preach, teach, pick up trash in the church parking lot, drive a bus, usher, give to the poor, visit the sick or someone in jail; whatever, we are bound to remain silent and humble.

This is counter to human nature as we all want kudos. If we think of it in human terms, it is difficult, but think of it in spiritual terms. Be patient, because the Lord is watching your every move and recording everything. He will not miss a single act of kindness or obedience and at the judgment He will not be going to a closet and handing out cheesy lanterns either. He will reward us with everlasting rewards and importantly, He will look us in the eye and tell us, “Well done my son/daughter!” All unheralded heroes will be eternally heralded and will possess crowns that make those gaudy “ten table” Super Bowl rings, ( they can be seen ten tables away), look like costume jewelry.

Matt.6:1
Take heed that you do not do
your charitable deeds before
men to be seen by them. Otherwise
you have no reward from your
Father in heaven.