The village of Caowangba in China experienced a severe drought in 1959. The only water available to the village was from a well that could not supply enough water for the entire village. Since the primary source of food for the village was rice, the lack of water also led to a famine. Villagers started to leave.
A young farmer in the village, Huang Dafa, decided to act. There was a source of water 6 miles away if a canal could be dug. He decided to start digging the canal. The villagers thought he was crazy since the canal would have to be dug through the side of a solid stone mountain. The digging was also very dangerous since it was at a high elevation.
Eventually villagers decided to help, but without knowledge of engineering, there were false starts. They dug a 330 foot channel only to discover no water at the end. Huang suspended his efforts for 3 years to learn engineering.
The villagers who remained gave up on the project but Huang continued his efforts. Eventually when the canal was 80% complete, the villagers decided to continue helping. After 36 years of digging, the canal was complete and the village had enough water to be viable. Once the village was restored, Huang was able to convince the government to bring electricity to the village, as well as a road.
Few of us have the dedication of Huang Dafa to pursue a project for 36 years which others thought was impossible. Dedication is one of those human attributes that most of us would claim that we have, but do we? Certainly, Huang’s dedication is extreme. Think of the times you may have given up on an effort when you became discouraged.
Dedication is not just about completing a task. It’s also about beliefs and values. How dedicated are we to the things which determine the type of person we want to be? Think about your dreams and life goals. How dedicated are you willing to be to sustain your pursuit of these?
When you think of beliefs, values, life goals, and dreams, these require at least 40 years of dedication. So, each of us have the same challenge as Huang Dafa. Like Huang, we need to convince others that we have the will to achieve what we set out to do. We will need to continue our education. But the key to sustaining dedication is not how we benefit, but how we can help others.
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“I know the price of success: dedication, hard work, and an unremitting devotion to the things you want to see happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright (architect)