The Impact of Being World Famous!

Greetings to you my fellow BETs!

Last week, the world lost a great one.  Bob Pickell, a music teacher here in Plymouth Indiana for 38 years, passed away unexpectedly, and to the great shock of his family and this community.  Bob was my friend, and although we were not close, I truly respected his talents and his connectedness with this community. He, along with his great impact on lives, will be greatly missed…This cannot be stressed enough.

Some may question my opening statement of “the world” losing a great one.  I challenge you to think it through for yourself.  I have preached for about twelve years now that people should “act as if you are World Famous.”  I’ve asked my students and several audiences over the years to imagine how they would act differently if they were indeed, World Famous.

The only caveat I add to this is that when I say world, I mean YOUR world.  Where is it you have a sphere of influence?  That is your world.  Be World Famous!  Bob was.

I had an awesome choir teacher in high school; Ed Eby.  He was an older teacher when I came into his class, but he was dynamic.  He made us work to become better singers, but also to make us better people.  I bet over the years, I have shared a story about Mr. Eby to at least a hundred people.  I bet you all have had a teacher like this as well.  Someone who reached you in a way that you needed to tell the world.

So, let’s do Bob’s numbers:

38 years teaching X 500 Students per year(Probably low)                            19000

Let’s say that half of those, 9500, talk about him at home at least once

add 3 people at home X 9500                                                                             28500

Let’s also say half go to college and tell just 25 friends about him, so

9500 X 25                                                                                                             237,500

And let’s say just 20% of those tell 10 more friends

47500 X 10                                                                                                          475,000

Total:                                                                                                                    760,000

Remember, that’s just his school connections.  What about all of the other organizations he was involved with?  What about friendships and family connections?  How many stories about crazy Uncle Bob have been shared?  I would submit that the number above represents a small portion of his impact on the world; yes, the world!

So, 760,000 lives positively impacted.  Not bad for a mild mannered choir teacher from a town of 10,000 located in the middle of a very large cornfield!  I’d call that World Famous!

Well done, Bob.