Before establishing his food packaging brokerage in Dallas, Fred Smith Sr. was vice president of operations for Gruen Watch Company and consultant to Mobil, Caterpillar, and GENESCO. He has extensively lectured at universities, spoken at business conferences, and mentored executives. A contributing editor for Leadership journal, Fred's special passion is interesting conversation. You can sample that at www.breakfastwithfred.com, his website.

Several years ago, I had a major operation in Rochester, Minnesota. Many nights I was awake. In the middle of the night, one of the nurses came in and said, "I'm going to ask something of you I've never asked of another patient in my life." When I nodded, she said, "Down the hall we have a young black woman who's dying. No one's with her, and there's not a single flower in her room. You have 19 arrangements. Could I take one to her?"

I pointed to an arrangement of exotic flowers from Hawaii with a beautiful bird of paradise in the middle. I suggested she take that. About 30 minutes later, the nurse came in choked with emotion, walked to the foot of my bed, squeezed my big toe, and left the room. She was essentially saying, "Tonight we did something good." I can never forget that feeling. Sometimes when I'm not sleeping at night, I wish the Lord would squeeze my toe and say, "We did something good today."