The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters Author: Visit Amazon's Andy Andrews Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1404187804 | Format: EPUB
The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters Description
About the Author
Hailed by a New York Times reporter as “someone who has quietly become one of the most influential people in America,” Andy Andrews is a best-selling novelist, speaker, and consultant for the world’s largest corporations and organizations. He has spoken at the request of four different United States presidents and recently addressed members of Congress and their spouses. Andy is the author of three New York Times bestsellers. He and his wife, Polly, have two sons.
- Hardcover: 112 pages
- Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (August 31, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1404187804
- ISBN-13: 978-1404187801
- Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
I want to say up front, some people are going to be disappointed by this book, because they are going to measure it by volume, not by content. THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT by Andy Andrews can be read cover to cover in fifteen minutes, but I have read 1,000 page tomes that did not contain a fraction of the message and meaning of this tiny book.
If you have seen Andy's DVD, The Seven Decisions, this is the same message Andy presents regarding the butterfly effect, specifically where he talks about the actions of Col. Chamberlin and Norman Borlaug. These are both incredible stories everyone should hear. I have used both of these stories to close training meetings and they are always met with tremendous emotion.
I want to take just a moment to place my own little spin on the butterfly effect. Things happen for a reason. God has a Divine plan that is beyond our comprehension. Have you ever known exactly where you were going but for some reason took a wrong turn? You've made this same journey 1,000 times but for some reason today, you weren't paying attention and turned left instead of right. What were you thinking?
Some people might slough this off as nothing, but I don't believe that. What if you had turned right as you always do? Perhaps by turning left, you avoided an accident and in that accident a young girl might have been injured or killed. Whose to say that young girl might have one day given birth to the person who someday cures cancer? By making a wrong turn, that tragedy was avoided.
Now Andy's message here is much more deliberate and is more centered on the importance of every action we take, or don't, but the concept is the same. Actions matter. Actions make a difference and sometimes a much greater difference than we will ever be aware of.
Andy Andrews' book The Butterfly Effect: How Your Life Matters is one of those small gift books that will take you about 10 minutes to read (if that), but that has an interesting message that will tweak your viewpoint on life. You've likely heard of the "butterfly effect", where it's said that the beating of a butterfly's wings can stir air modules that will stir other air modules, until you end up with a hurricane in China. While taking that scenario literally might be hard to accept, the underlying truth is valid... a small action taken at one point in time can ripple out and have enormous implications.
Andrews tells the story of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, a college professor who was also a colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War. At the battle of Gettysburg, he was told that he had to hold the end of a 80,000 troop line strung out across miles. His platoon repelled a number of Confederate attacks, but attrition took its toll and they were without ammo (as well as most of the soldiers they started with). As the Confederate soldiers reformed for what would be the final attack, Chamberlain found out that all his commanding officers had been killed, and if he failed to hold the line, the Union Army would likely have to surrender or face mass slaughter. Faced with the choice of doing nothing or doing something, he ordered his ragtag band of soldiers to fix bayonets and charge. The Confederates, shocked at seeing an offensive being launched at them, figured the Union side must have been reinforced, and started to retreat. In short order, they ended up surrendering to Chamberlain, and he carried out his orders to hold the line.
Andrews then plays the "what if" scenarios out... what if Chamberlain had given up?
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