How often do we do that? Stop too soon. Fail to take one more step. Fail to do the one last thing that will put us where we need to be. Fail to plot our course.

It is easy to become discouraged when the lion's share of the attention falls on one or two. Some folks seem made for attention. They thrive on it, work better in the midst of it. But all the attention in the world wouldn't have helped Neil Armstrong get back to earth if Michael Collins had decided to grab a little attention of his own and fly on home without him.

Sometimes life seems such a heavy burden to bear. We let problems grow out of proportion. It swallows us up. We lie trapped under a pile of dirty dishes, unable to move, unable to find the way.

That young lady knows the secret not many know: You don’t always have to win to win.

We're like that, you and I. We become what we practice. We echo the attitude we surround ourselves with. We live the life we repeat. We do what we've learned to do. And, we do it over and over and over again.

Too often the only focus is the cost without adding to the scale the benefit that person adds to the organization: the value of their historical knowledge, the speed of completing work they’ve rehearsed hundreds of times, the respect for the process and the people, the willingness to go a little bit farther than what is expected, the intuition to know the next right step on their own.

Created in 1914, Extension has been and continues to be the development of people. How we do that has adapted over the years to meet the needs of a changing world; still, our core mission remains the development of people — their families, their communities, their businesses, their farms, their children.

I’ve always said my superpower rests in taking the complicated and making it understandable, finding the sliver of extraordinary and elevating it above the noisy clutter. I think every good storyteller needs that perception, that discernment to grasp what is obscure and see what is not evident.

John Milton Gregory knew. We all are better when we are all better informed.