Harnessing Resourcefulness Leads to Success

by: Dr. Laurence C. Mascay

In 1894, Dr. Jose Rizal was in exile in Dapitan, a remote town in Mindanao, where he engineered a dam and waterworks with the help of his students. He built the waterworks with limited finances, inadequate tools, and meager materials, using stones, cast-off tiles, bamboo pipes, and mortar from burnt corals. Despite these challenges, he successfully provided a sound water system for Dapitan. Resourcefulness is “doing what we can with what we have, where we are,” says Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th president of the United States. Resourcefulness is the ability to generate the resources necessary to accomplish a project.

Filipinos embody resourcefulness, as seen in their everyday life and various circumstances. They create improvised boats out of recycled materials to cross flooded roads, use cooking oil mixed with salt as a light source during brownouts, and turn water lilies that block water flow and cause flooding into a source of livelihood by making bags, baskets, furniture, slippers, and cheap organic fertilizer. In difficult situations, Filipinos find ways to triumph and thrive through resourcefulness.
An online article shares the story of Sam Walton, the man behind Walmart superstores, who became the second-richest man in the world by employing resourcefulness. Growing up during the Great Depression, Walton milked the family cow, then bottled and sold the surplus. Later, he took control of the retail sales market by selling merchandise people could afford. He was among the first to introduce a “profit-sharing” plan for his employees, significantly contributing to Wal-Mart’s continued success. Walton took the existing concept of large retail stores and improved upon it, bringing it to small towns across America.

The Scripture says, “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. So, who will trust you with true riches if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth? And who will give you your property if you have not been trustworthy with someone else?”. Accordingly, God wants us to be good stewards of the resources He entrusts to us and find ways to maximize them for our good and the benefit of others. Unlike the man who received the resources of one thousand coins but dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money, who was called a “bad and lazy servant” and had the money taken away from him and given to the “good and faithful servant.” Consequently, with all your God-given resources, “do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can,” says John Wesley.

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