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            Whenever there is a separation between values and practice, things break down.  In ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric, invading hordes to the north.  To get this protection, they built the Great Wall of China.  It’s 30 feel high, 18 feet thick, and more than 1500 miles long!

            The Chinese goal was to build an absolutely impenetrable defense – too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around.  But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence, China was successfully invaded three times.

            It wasn’t the wall’s fault.  During all three invasions, the barbaric hordes never climbed over the wall, broke it down, or went around it; they simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through an open gate.  The purpose of the wall failed because of a breakdown in values. - James Emery White in You Can Experience a Purposeful Life (Word, 2000)

Leadership, Summer, 2000, page 73