It Matters to That One

One day a man went for a walk on the beach at low tide. While he was out, he noticed a small boy picking up the starfish that had washed ashore and throwing them back out to sea.

When he caught up with the boy he asked him, "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping the starfish. If they stay out of the water, they dry up and die. If I throw them back in the water, they live," the boy replied.

The man took a look up and down the beach. There were literally hundreds of starfish washed up on the sand.

"But look at how many starfish there are! You can't really expect to make a difference!"

The boy looked up at the man for the briefest of moments, then bent over and picked up another starfish and threw it out to sea.

"Made a difference to that one," the boy said.


If you are active in the academic IT world, you might be familiar with the work of a friend of mine, Stephen Haag, who is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs at the University of Denver's Daniels College of Business. He is an accomplished author and lecturer and generally regarded as a major smarty pants.

But what I wanted to talk about was the fact that he and his wife are adopting two baby girls from Russia in the new year. In fact, we've had to arrange a project we are working on together so that he can be in Russia for the month of February to finalize the adoption.

We've all seen the documentaries that bring a tear to your eye about these poor abandoned babies in Russia, or Romania, or China or wherever else, and there are so many-- how could anyone possibly make a difference?

Well, Stephen- hats off. You're making a difference to those two.