No Limits: Blow the CAP Off Your Capacity

by John C. Maxwell

Perhaps the finest example of positive attitudes in the midst of difficult circumstances that I’ve ever seen is displayed by the Recycled Orchestra of Cateura. They have been called the Paraguay Landfill Harmonic Orchestra. The first time I saw them was when I was in Helsinki, Finland. I was there to speak, and right before I went onstage, they played. The audience and I could see instantly that they were different from any other orchestra. Most of the musicians were children. Maybe that didn’t make them different from all other orchestras, but something else did: their instruments were made out of the trash from their city dump in Asunción, Paraguay. All of us were spellbound as we listened to beautiful music played by beautiful children who have come out of difficult life. I was proud to have my picture taken with them that day, but I couldn’t get the fond memories of them out of my head for weeks afterward. So a few months later when I traveled to Paraguay, I visited their little music school near the dump. I talked with the orchestra’s founder and conductor, Favio Chávez. I met the man who makes the instruments out of the trash they collect. And I listened to the families who are being lifted in life by the work of those at their school. Favio started the school to help people. He wasn’t even a professional musician. He was an environmental engineer who played guitar. He said of the school, “Those who know a little train those who know a little less. We work together. ...