Long ago, a huge fire erupted in a forest, and all the animals fled in terror. A wolf spotted a hummingbird high overhead flying back and forth several times and asked what it was doing.

“I am going to the lake,” the hummingbird said. “I draw some water into my beak and then I throw it on the fire to extinguish it.”

The wolf laughed and said, “Do you really think you can put this big fire out all by yourself?”

The hummingbird replied: “The forest is my home. It feeds and shelters me and my family. Maybe I can’t put out the fire, but I can do my part.”

The forest spirits, hearing the hummingbird, were moved by its devotion to the forest and sent a downpour of rain, which put an end to the great fire.

This story from “Bits & Pieces” shows what can happen when everyone does their part. If everyone does a little, no one must do a lot. Everyone can make a difference.

Helping others and making a difference in the world is what makes the world a better place. One person at a time, one day at a time, and one project at a time, you can make a difference that will leave a lasting impact.

Some of the biggest heroes in a business aren’t head honchos. They’re the regular line employees who take extra care to do their best. 

I love this story about Paula, the waitress. She is credited with turning the restaurant where she works into a neighborhood hangout, all because she took the initiative to be the friendliest waitress in town. She remembers customers’ names, their favorite dishes and drinks and those of their children. She even knows a little about the people – birthdays, hobbies, pets’ names and so on. Paula greets all her regular customers affectionately. Her restaurant now has two reservation lists, one for the restaurant and another for Paula’s tables.

The development of the World Wide Web in 1994 at MIT’s Laboratory for Computer Science is credited to Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist. According to an article in “Readers’ Digest,” “In the late 1980s, he proposed a project that combined hypertext (the system that allows you to click on links and open other webpages) and the internet. His goal was to allow researchers a place to share information online so that others could see it any time of the day. The result was the World Wide Web we know and rely on today. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004, and the British Council named his invention the “No. 1 moment that shaped the world.”

Recently I had the opportunity to speak to about 3,000 Subway franchisees in Las Vegas. I heard many stories about customer service, cleanliness and their number one problem: attracting and keeping good employees. But one story from an Illinois franchisee caught my attention. He told me that sales in one of his stores were up more than 50 percent. I asked him why, and he told me it was all because of Sally, the store manager.

He said: “She’s a people person par excellence and makes every single customer feel like they are her favorite and only customer. She moves mountains to get to know the people personally and has developed friendships with many of them.”

Security guard Frank Wills noticed tape over the lock of a basement door as he made his rounds at the Watergate office building in Washington, D.C. in June of 1972. He assumed a worker had left it there accidentally, so he removed it. But Wills found the tape again on the same door. He called the police, and you know the rest. Two years later, President Nixon resigned over his involvement in the coverup of the Watergate break-in.

Susan B. Anthony was both a revered and despised American political figure. In the late 1800s she crusaded for a woman’s right to vote, a law that was not enacted until several years after her death. Women have only been able to vote in this country since 1920. At that time, the majority opinion was that women shouldn’t vote and were not the equal of men. Anyone trying to change the status quo was considered a troublemaker. Still, Anthony soldiered on and eventually earned a following. She was the leader who inspired, motivated and refused to give up – the one person who made all the difference.

Mackay’s Moral: We can talk about making a difference or we can make a difference.