The Power of Working Behind the Scenes — Tao Te Ching

Lao Tzu opens by locating the Tao everywhere at once. All-pervading is the Great Tao! It may be found on the left hand and on the right. This is not a force locked in one temple or one ruler. It runs through ordinary and extraordinary life alike, present in what seems smallest and in what seems greatest.

Then he describes how it works without performing lordship. All things depend on it for their production, which it gives to them, not one refusing obedience to it. When its work is accomplished, it does not claim the name of having done it. It clothes all things as with a garment and makes no assumption of being their lord. All things return to their root and disappear, and do not know that it is it which presides over their doing so. The Way sustains what it never needs to announce or take credit for.

He closes with the sage's lesson. Hence the sage is able in the same way to accomplish his great achievements. It is through his not making himself great that he can accomplish them. Real achievement follows the Tao's model: serve the work, do not inflate the self, and let results speak without demanding credit.