Be a Trim Tab

In a world of more than six billion people, it seems hard to believe that you can make an impact.

However, the 20th Century genius and social leader Buckminster Fuller shed some light on what one person can do.

He said:

“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do.

“Think of the Queen Mary–the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder.

“And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trim tab. It’s a miniature rudder.

“Just moving the little trim tab builds a low pressure that pulls the rudder around. Takes almost no effort at all.

“So I said that the little individual can be a trim tab.

“Society thinks it’s going right by you, that it’s left you altogether. But if you’re doing dynamic things mentally, the fact is that you can just put your foot out like that and the whole big ship of state is going to go.

“So I said, call me a Trim Tab.”

Never underestimate the influence that you as an individual can have. Find what you were born to do, become a “trim tab” in your sphere of influence, and the world will change because of it.

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Stephen Palmer is a book writer for mission-driven leaders, a small business lead generation website design architect and persuasive website copywriter, a co-founder of The Center for Social Leadership, and the author of Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America.

He co-authored the New York Times bestseller Killing Sacred Cows: Overcoming the Financial Myths that are Destroying Your Prosperity, as well as Hub Mentality: Shifting from Business Transactions to Community Interaction.

He is a liberal-arts graduate of George Wythe University and a graduate and faculty member of the “non-traditional business school” Wizard Academy.

Stephen resides in Round Rock, Texas with his gorgeous wife Karina, awesome son Alex, and princess daughters Libby, Avery, and Laela.

Subscribe to Stephen’s blog and contact him at stephen [at] leadershipwriter [dot] com.