World's Best Gumbo - Nubian Queen Lola's Cajun Soul Food Cafe

One Saturday my wife Kathleen and I were in Austin, Texas, to visit family and see the Texas vs. Kansas State football game (brother-in-law Charlie has season tickets with great seats on the 30-yard line). Since it was a night game, we decided to check out the art venues of the East Austin Studio Tour. Going from warehouse to warehouse we enjoyed a diversity of talent, genres and styles.

At the end of an experience like this, Kathleen typically asks, "What was your favorite thing?" But my brain doesn't work that way, so I usually answer something like, "I didn't really have a single favorite." But this time I quickly responded with a clear winner. "Lola," I said. "The Nubian Queen."

Sometime around one o'clock on our tour of studios, we started thinking about lunch. And sure enough, inside one of the warehouses next to a wall filled with India ink drawings, a woman had set up a serving station. A customer stood there with a Styrofoam bowl up to her mouth, piled high with rice and sauce. "Looks good," I said. "What is it?"

"Étouffée," she said.

Nubian Queen Lola (2011)

Always the gatherer of stories, Kathleen engaged the server in conversation. She called herself Nubian Queen Lola, owner of the Cajun Soul Food Café in Austin, Texas. Kathleen asked, "When are you open?"

She had a big smile, a spoon in one hand and a baby harnessed to her back. Her answer was touching: "I'm closed on Sunday, because that's the day I go visit my husband. He's in prison."

LOYALTY. COMMITMENT.

"We open at five on Saturday, because that's the day I feed the community. I guess I do that every day, but on Saturday I go out into the community." I found out later that she feeds homeless people.

COMPASSION. SERVICE.

"We're open from 8 AM to 8:45 PM the other days. You need to come visit me at my café. You need to taste my fried chicken."

She was serving two dishes: Cajun gumbo and Cajun étouffée. Kathleen ordered one and I ordered the other, seated ourselves outside at a picnic table, and dug in. We shared. And oh my. My oh my oh my. Served on rice, it was authentic spicy Cajun gumbo made with filé powder, chicken and sausage. The étouffée wasn't greasy. It was peppery with crawfish, garlic, green pepper and onion. I had to go back inside and tell her. "This is the best gumbo I've ever tasted. This is the best étouffée I've ever tasted."

EXCELLENCE.

I took another look at this woman. Lola is more than a wannabe selling a couple dishes on the street. She's a serious businesswoman with strength of character, a real brick-and-mortar restaurant, a kick-ass website and a weekly radio show. She's an action-oriented woman with a big heart.

INITIATIVE. OPTIMISM.

Now you see why Lola was my favorite of the tour. Her spirit inspired me! After the game I came home and wrote another couple pages for the draft of my book, "Conversations with the Wise Aunt," in hopes that my story might someday be as delicious and as helpful to people as her Cajun food.

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2011. Building Personal Strength . (2011 photo by Kathleen Scott, used with permission)

The Personal Strength of Service - Three Heroes

"Wouldn't it be a beautiful world if just 10 percent of the people who believe in the power of love would compete with one another to see who could do the most good for the most people?" - Muhammad Ali - American professional boxer (1942- )

Once a controversial heavy-weight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali nicknamed himself “The Greatest.” And maybe he was. Since he retired from boxing, he has devoted himself to humanitarian projects around the world, lending his name and celebrity presence to efforts to fight hunger and poverty. Some people say he’s busy traveling to promote these and other causes more than 50% of the year - this in spite of the disabling effects of Parkinson's Disease. For his efforts, he has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville focuses on peace, social responsibility, respect and personal growth.

“Everybody can be great because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” - Martin Luther King, Jr. - American civil rights leader (1929-1968)

In 1964, Martin Luther King won the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to end racial discrimination. He was the youngest person to receive that honor. He dedicated his life to promoting civil rights in the United States. He had expanded his focus to include ending poverty and the Vietnam was when he was assassinated in 1968. A martyr and symbol for human rights, his life and work are commemorated annually on Martin Luther King Day, a U.S. national holiday.

“There is joy in transcending self to serve others.”

"What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.” - Mother Teresa (Indian humanitarian (1910-1997)

The woman we remember as Mother Teresa was an Albanian Catholic nun who became a citizen of India. In 1950 she founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta and ministered to poor, sick, orphaned, starving and dying people. Over the years, her work expanded to 610 missions in 123 countries at the time of her death in 1997. She was beatified by the Catholic Church and is considered a likely candidate for sainthood.

Under pressure to meet the challenges of your work and personal life, it may seem like a stretch to think about whether you’re adequately serving others. It's easy to become focused on what you need from others, not what others need from you.

And yet, when you focus on what you can do for the people around you, when you think about how to help them do what they need to do, that’s when good things happen. Even as a manager, the key to becoming the best leader you can be is to understand that you need to be a "servant leader."

A Fortune Cookie for you...

Render service to others, for this is how you serve yourself.

More Fortune Cookies...

The story behind the Fortune Cookies...

Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .

Was He a Savior?

Do you know who Norman Borlaug was?

Last fall he died at the age of 95, a scientist who was called "the father of thegreen revolution. ” He earned that recognition by developing high-yield disease-resistant crops, which doubled the world food production and saved a billions lives.

A billions lives! For that, he received the Nobel Prize.

But almost no one knows who he is. One the other hand, Britney Spears, an 'entertainer" who can’t act or sing, is known all over the world for her inability to manage her personal and professional life.

Fair? No. Strange? Yes.

On SERVICE - Wisdom From Mother Teresa

On Veterans Day, I think of service. Few can serve in the military, but we all have the capacity to serve, as Mother Teresa explained...

“There is joy in transcending self to serve others.”

“Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier.”

"What we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But if that drop was not in the ocean, I think the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."