Wolves howling in the distance

A story from former U.S. president Ulysses S. Grant

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Years before he would become a great Civil War general and President of the United States, a young Ulysses S. Grant was in his 20s, serving as a logistics and transportation officer in the Mexican-American war (1846 - 1848). In his personal memoirs, he shares one of my favorite stories.

Grant and his men were traveling across the prairies of East Texas when they heard wolves howling in the distance.

On the evening of the first day out from Goliad we heard the most unearthly howling of wolves, directly in our front. The prairie grass was tall and we could not see the beasts, but the sound indicated that they were near. To my ear it appeared that there must have been enough of them to devour our party, horses and all, at a single meal.

They began to speculate among their group as to how many wolves were out in the distance.

“Grant, how many wolves do you think there are in that pack?" Knowing where he was from, and suspecting that he thought I would over-estimate the number, I determined to show my acquaintance with the animal by putting the estimate below what possibly could be correct, and answered: "Oh, about twenty,"

Ultimately when they approached the wolves they realized there were only two wolves.

Seated upon their haunches, with their mouths close together, they had made all the noise we had been hearing for the past ten minutes. I have often thought of this incident since when I have heard the noise of a few disappointed politicians who had deserted their associates. There are always more of them before they are counted.

There are a number of interpretations of this story as it relates to man’s relationship to the unknown or our ability to get carried away by group think. To me, the most interesting lessons are around writing and organization.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed in life, the most effective tool I’ve found is writing. Sometimes it’s a stream-of-consciousness brain dump or I may look at my goals and journal to get myself to remember why I’m doing the things I am doing in the first place. My personal favorite is writing down a list of all the things I am worried at the moment and asking the question “is there anything I can do about the worry right now?” Often I find that, to quote Grant, “there are always more of them (i.e. worries) before they are counted”.

Let me know if anything stands out to you.

- Adam