I believe humble people will take over the world. Maybe that seems like a strange thing to say. Just hear me out.

Eventually, I think modest people will own every football stadium, steel factory, brewery, peanut farm, fishing hole, longleaf forest, Tennessee mountain, elementary school, and low-level supervisor job at Walmart.

It will take some time. Maybe hundreds of years. But these folks are cropping up everywhere. They’re biding their time.

I’m talking about people like my cousin. At family gatherings, he doesn’t even fix a plate for himself. He fills yours instead, and when you’re finished, he’ll take it to the sink.

At the end of the night, you’ll find him and his wife doing dishes.

People like Danny. Who started a company with his friend. After fifteen years, his friend elected himself president and started buying new cars every few weeks.

They gave Danny a pay cut.

Danny told me, “When they fired me, it was kind of a blessing. I’m just not smart enough to run a big business.”

He’s blessed to be a janitor now.

People like Lisa. Who has spent most of her life living in a two-bedroom trailer. She has five kids. Five. No husband. She jokingly calls herself a failure.

Well, joke all you want, Lisa. But your daughter is no failure. She graduated from the University of Alabama on a full scholarship. Your oldest son did the same thing. Your youngest boy is a missionary in Chile.

Some failure.

Then there’s Billy, who stutters. His father beat him for it. Also, Amanda, who towers over her eighth-grade class, who thinks she’s fat, who speaks in a whisper.

Caroline, who’s wanted to be an artist her whole life, but is too busy caring for her disabled husband to have time.

Melissa, too unselfish to take the last biscuit at breakfast this morning. Ricky, a richly talented human being, and too good-hearted to believe it. Lyle, who refuses be called Doctor. Paulo Sanchez, the man who mows lawns for a living.

Not just these, but anyone who sits at the kid’s table instead of the head. Who tips waitresses too much. Who’s throws dozens of birthday parties for friends, but has never had one of their own.

Folks with calloused hands. Who have raised children to think more for others than for themselves. Single parents. Underprivileged. Handicapped. The deaf, mute, blind, grieving, sad, awkward, embarrassed, depressed. And anyone who’s ever been abused.

The world might ignore you now, but it can’t forever. Your self-doubt is your strength. This place will be yours one day.

Just hold on.

Your turn is next.