Exloring Life Eternal

Principles of Helping:

Excerpted from a report from a relief worker:

" When I talked to the head of the fishermen in that area, I outlined four guidelines about how boat building would be done:

1. I don’t know much, so I need your help in building boats.
2. I need to know the bottom-line cost for building a 13-meter boat.
3. You can easily deceive me, but you can’t deceive me for long. If I find out I have been deceived, our boat-building program will not continue. You are the ones who will suffer.
4. We need to work together. "We" will provide the money if your men will provide the brains and the sweat to build the boats.

... The fishermen are sincerely thankful for the help they are receiving and have warmly expressed their appreciation. When fisherman start giving you hugs, you know they are either from California or they are really grateful—these guys are not from California. The leader later spoke up “Thank you for the trust you have put in us. The other [foreign] boat builders think they know it all, but they don’t even understand that you have to build the boat shed longer than the boat so that when it rains, the boats do not fill up with water and get the tools all wet.” They had built a 10-meter shed for 13-meter boats.

... I am grateful that [I was] given ... great freedom to do things in a
rather unorthodox manner. Every fisherman knows that you have to get
your hook in the water before you can catch anything . . . then you can talk. It works the same way out here. Source: bolsers@cmalliance.org

To encourage others to trust you, you must first trust them.
If you want to help others, first you must let them help you.