For the weekly test, a teacher assigned her 12th-graders a test. They were to write an essay about any inspiring leader. Almost all kids wrote about famous leaders. But one student, Julius, wrote a very different essay. The intriguing title of his essay was “Benny: The Man on the Bus.”
“I’ve been taking a public bus to school since kindergarten,” young Julius wrote. “Most passengers were on the way to work and were too preoccupied to talk to anyone else. About a year ago, an elderly man got on the bus and greeted the driver loudly, ‘Good morning!’. Many people looked up, annoyed, and the bus driver just grunted. They wondered why this old man was getting so excited. The next day, the man got on at the same stop, and again, he greeted the driver loudly, ‘Good morning!’ By the fifth day, the situation had changed. The driver cheerfully greeted the man, ‘Good morning!’. The man greeted the driver and said, ‘My name is Benny. What’s yours?’ The driver responded, saying his name was Ralph.”
“That was the first time any of us on the bus heard the driver’s name, and soon, everyone that got onto the bus began to greet Ralph and Benny. Within a few weeks, Benny started extending his cheerful ‘Good morning!’ to the entire bus. Everyone on the bus started reciprocating cheerily with a bunch of ‘Good mornings,’ and the entire bus seemed friendlier.”
“If we think of a leader as someone who makes something happen, then Benny, in every sense, was a leader. He was our leader in friendliness.”
“About a month ago, Benny suddenly stopped getting on the bus. Some folks on the bus suggested that he may have died or taken ill. No one really knew what had happened to old Ben. The bus got quiet again, and I did not like it.”
“So, Inspired by Benny’s warmth, I began greeting everyone with a cheerful ‘Good morning!” and the mood in the bus lightened immediately. I guess I am now the new leader.”