Go in search of your people, Love them; Learn from them...

Today, I was surfing in the Internet trying to find more about the notion of "neighborhood", I found this famous Chinese proverb. I have seen it in many places - in the newsletters, in offices of NGOs, and in trainers' training slides on community-building:

Old Chinese Verse:

Go in search of your people,

Love Them; Learn from Them;

Plan with Them; Serve Them.

Begin with what they have;

Build on what They know.

But of the best leaders,

when their task is accomplished,

and their work is done,

The people all remark:

"We have done it ourselves."

A leader is not the owner of the whole work, but these are the community members who own the input, the process, and the output. It's their right to decide, and it is with them to say: okay we know what to do; and when they do it, they are the real owners. 

I searched the web to find out who has said these Chinese words : I found it: Lao Tse, but I am not sure. However, when I went after Lao Tse, I found this wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi; it seems he is an inspiring philosopher. Also I found the following picture : 

Photo：Lao Tzu's "Go in search of your people" drawn by David Werner
courtesy of "http://blog.livedoor.jp/share_jp/archives/51265344.html"

I was trying to see if Lao Tse has been a leader of his own time or not. The only thing I found was from Wiki on his life (taken from Morgan, Diane (2001). The best guide to eastern philosophy and religion (1st ed. ed.). Los Angeles, Calif.: Renaissance Books): 

Lao Tzu was born in the village of Chu Jen in the Kingdom of Ch'u. (He may have been born sometime in the sixth century B.C.E. [Before the Common Era]. Traditionally, he is said to have lived at the same time as Confucius, but recent scholars place him about two centuries later.) Lao Tzu spent most of his life as an archivist in the library of the Zhou Dynasty court, a boring job that gave him lots of time to think. He quit when he saw things were getting corrupt, and then went into exile. Lao Tzu became disturbed by the corruption he saw everywhere around him and decided to take the easy way out- literally, and leave the country. He traveled west on a water buffalo to reach the great desert. At the westernmost gate, a guard who recognized him, demanded that he write down his teachings, unrecorded until this point. The collected teachings became the Tao Te Ching.

 If this is from Lao Tse, he had to have experiences in empowerment of people, something that has been ignored in his life. Maybe he had been in search of his people when he left the country...