Chapter 1Sixteen Miles UpstreamIn December 1970, an American agronomist named Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the world food supply. If you’ve never heard of him, you aren’t alone. Most agronomists fly under the radar, but Borlaug is credited with saving more than one-eighth of our planet’s population! In addition to the aforementioned Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. Borlaug was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. He is one of only seven people to have received all three awards.
In 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany while Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected president of the United States. During the Second World War, Roosevelt and Hitler loomed large on the world stage. Very few people, for better or for worse, have had more impact on more people than Roosevelt and Hitler, but Norman Borlaug is one of them.
That same year, 1933, a nineteen-year-old Norman applied to the University of Minnesota but failed his initial entrance exam. Despite that inauspicious start to his academic career, he wasn’t given to giving up. “Borlaug had a penchant for hastily deciding on some goal, heedless of its plausibility,” said one biographer, “then working relentlessly to achieve it.” Borlaug was cut from the cloth called gradually then suddenly.
Norman Borlaug overcame that failed entrance exam and earned his bachelor of science in forestry while wrestling his way into the National Wrestling Hall of Fame. He went on to earn his PhD in plant pathology at the University of Minnesota in 1942.
While millions of men his age were shipped off to the Eastern Front to fight against the Third Reich, Borlaug felt called to fight a very different battle—world hunger. Dr. Borlaug took a research post at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico where he cultivated a high-yield, disease-resistant variety of wheat.
In December 2006, both houses of Congress passed the Congressional Tribute to Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Act. According to said act, “the number of lives Dr. Borlaug has saved [is] more than a billion people.” Let that sink in for a second. A billion people! Very few have saved more lives than Norman Borlaug, and most people have never even heard of him. That includes the people whose lives he saved.
Norman Borlaug’s compound impact on the twentieth century is tough to tabulate. He certainly deserves the awards and accolades he received, but legacy involves multivariable calculus. Borlaug is credited with saving a billion lives, but credit is complicated because it never belongs to one person.
“Is all that we see or seem,” wrote Edgar Allan Poe, “but a dream within a dream?” It’s a rhetorical question, but the implied answer is yes! Every dream has a genealogy—it’s a dream within a dream. So let me play a little game called connect the dots.
Mentoring ChainIn 1943, the vice president of the United States, Henry Wallace, grew concerned about an impending worldwide food shortage. Wallace, who had also served as secretary of agriculture, helped establish a research station in Mexico whose sole purpose was addressing food insecurity by creating hybridized wheat for arid climates. It was Wallace who appointed Borlaug to run that research center. So Henry Wallace deserves partial credit for Borlaug’s success, does he not? He’s the one who saw potential in Borlaug. He’s the one who opened the door of opportunity. But if Henry Wallace gets partial credit for that Nobel Prize, you have to trace the food chain.
In 1891, George Washington Carver became the first Black student admitted to Iowa State University. After completing his master’s degree, he became their first Black faculty member. During his undergrad years, Carver had a professor of dairy sciences who invited him over to his house on weekends. That professor, Henry C. Wallace, had a son named Henry A. Wallace. George Washington Carver used to take young Henry on “botanical expeditions” that instilled in him a curiosity for creation, a love for plants, and a vision for humanity.
If Henry Wallace gets partial credit for influencing a future Nobel Prize winner named Norman Borlaug, then George Washington Carver gets partial credit for influencing a future vice president named Henry Wallace. But wait, there’s more.
When George Washington Carver enrolled at Iowa State University, Joseph Budd served as head of the horticulture department. Budd had a daughter, Etta May, who taught art. She didn’t just have an eye for art; she had an eye for talent. She said of Carver, “Painting was in him.” Under her tutelage, Carver painted Yucca and Cactus, which won honorable mention at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. “I am greatly indebted [to her],” said Carver, “for whatever measure of success has come to me.”
George Washington Carver may not have saved a billion people like Norman Borlaug, but he did save the agricultural economy of the South by introducing crop rotation. Why did he pursue agronomy rather than art? “Miss Budd advised me to take up agriculture in order to render a greater service to my people.”
If George Washington Carver gets partial credit for influencing Vice President Henry Wallace—who influenced a Nobel Prize winner named Norman Borlaug—then Etta May Budd gets partial credit for influencing Carver.
We could play this game all day! What game? The long game. I love stories, but I love backstories even more because they reveal the overstories. Every dream has a genesis story, as does every dreamer. All of us were influenced by someone who was influenced by someone who was influenced by someone else.
Long vision is a long throw lens—it always aims at the third and fourth generation. But long vision also looks at life through a wide-angle lens. It always thinks ecosystem. It not only considers the consequences; it recognizes that there will always be unintended consequences.
Secondhand InfluenceIn 2014, the city of New York used a computer program called ClaimStat to map and index roughly thirty thousand annual insurance claims. The city had paid out $20 million in settlements for playground injuries, so investigators decided to examine what was happening upstream. They discovered that one swing was responsible for five broken legs because it was hung too low! “All someone needed to do was go out and raise the swing six inches, and the big problem would have been eliminated.” Note to self: Some really big problems have six-inch solutions!
Most of us tend to focus on downstream symptoms rather than upstream causes. That’s true of medicine and marriages and mental health. Instead of solving for symptoms, long vision looks for long-term solutions. The irony? The solution is often as simple as raising a swing six inches!
Our actions and reactions have second, third, and fourth generation impact. Of course, the same is true of inactions. Like secondhand smoke, secondhand influence has real-world implications. For better or worse, we are more influenced by more people than we think. And whether we know it or not, people are watching us. That includes the little people who live in our homes called children.
One of the most mortifying moments for parents is when your kids say something inappropriate and they’re quoting you! Kids are parrots. That said, nothing is more gratifying than your kids giving expression to the values you modeled for them. Either way, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree!
All of us have been negatively impacted by poor choices made centuries ago. We are also the beneficiaries of blessings we did nothing to deserve. We hint at these secondhand blessings when we celebrate Memorial Day or Independence Day. Freedom is not free. It was secured by soldiers whose names we’ll never know.
Remember the Golden Rule? “Do to others what you would have them do to you.” When you bless someone, it doesn’t just bless the person you’re blessing. That’s a shortsighted take on the Golden Rule. Why? It always has a domino effect. When I do marriage counseling, I hope it has a positive influence on husband and wife. But I’m also cognizant that it will impact their kids in tangible and intangible ways.
A few years ago, I started a coaching cohort with pastors. Why? Because pastors need pastors! If I mentor twelve pastors, I’m not just influencing twelve people. I’m indirectly influencing the thousands of people they lead. Influence is exponential.
Can I bring that idea down to earth?
Copyright © 2025 by Mark Batterson. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
