Last week, a very prominent leader in the hotel industry passed away from pancreatic cancer. When I say prominent, I mean probably the most recognized and important person in the hotel industry. He was my age and a great leader but more importantly, a very good man.

The day after his passing there were many news articles about him that was good to see but within a couple of days, it seemed that the hotel industry, and the news media simply moved on. It was almost like pulling your figure out of the water. It just closed back up quickly, and it was as though it never happened. This really saddened me to see this.

Clearly, for his family this was not the case where I am sure his presence will be mourned for years. The point I am making is this. Sometimes it seems that we pour our lives into the people that will remember us for the shortest amount of time and not the ones that will carry our memory with them. We all have obligations, jobs, and responsibilities we must do but as we go about our days, it is important to plan time with the ones that will remember you the longest. Certainly for me, and i would guess for you as well, is our family. KT

During the Super Bowl last night on February 7^th, 2021, Tom Brady took the newbies, rookies, Jr’s, and NFL neophytes to school. He was the show master and believe me, he put on a show. I believe this is correct,,,,, Tom Brady is the 10^th oldest player (43 yrs. old) to ever play in the NFL and I believe he plans to keep going.

It makes me snicker when you see (and hear) these younger players saying things about him being an old man and they are going to show him what real football is like, yada, yada, yada. Brady just takes it in stride and says “ok, we’ll see” and then goes out there and just blisters the other team.

He has played in 11 Super Bowls and (wait for it,,,) won 7 of them! The greatest quarterbacks in the history of the game (Montana, Young, Bradshaw, Aikman etc) were all probably sitting on their couch last night watching Brady at 43 years old win his 7^th Super Bowl ring. He has not only won more Super Bowls than any other player, but also any other team.

Brady was drafted the 199^th overall pick in the 2000 draft. The coaches and smart people in the room said he was too slow, too weak, couldn’t run fast and couldn’t throw a tight spiral. Well, 20 years after that draft, Tom Brady took them all to school yesterday and it was  sight to to behold. This should tell everyone reading this blog, not to always listen to what other people say about you. KT

Men are the worst communicators. Can I get a hello?

Men, as we all know are lacking in many areas of social etiquette. We don’t express ourselves as well as we should, we never want to talk about our feelings and we generally try to avoid conflict like the plaque. Social distancing and quarantine are no problem for a man because it is what most men prefer anyway. ha

I have spoken of this subject a few times, but it still makes me snicker. What I am referring to is people who think if they don’t respond back to someone, that same someone will somehow understand the message and read through the tea leaves and will feel good about it. Well, life just doesn’t work that way.

I am not speaking about someone you don’t know. I am talking someone you know well who a business associate or a friend or maybe both.  I have this friend who is probably sets the gold standard for this practice. In fact, when you look up this phenomenon in the dictionary, it has his picture beside it. ha

This is a person I have know for 35 years but you let me reach out to him on a subject he is not interested in, he just will not communicate. After several weeks when you call him out on it, he acts like he didn’t see your email or hear your voice message. If it is a subject he is interested in, he can’t wait until you call him back.

I had a situation recently where I didn’t want to make the call to a person. I almost sent a text or email, but in the end, decided the only way to handle it professionally was to have a voice call. After the call we both felt good about the decision and were still friends. That would have not happened with a text or email or even voice message. It needed direct communication between friends.

So when there is a situation with the potential of conflict, face to face or a person to person call is the only way to settle the situation down and still retain the friendship. KT

When you start something new, more times than not, it is complicated, scary and can look daunting.

I have a vivid memory of one such time in my life 20 years ago of me sitting on our fireplace hearth asking myself, what the hell have I done? Excuse the word but it’s the only way to express the seriousness I felt at that moment.

Me and two other hotel brokers decided to leave the firm we had been working with for years and start our own company. It’s like a lot of things in that it looks and feels simple at first but when you get into it, you realize how complicated it really is. We had been talking about starting our own company for months but when the day came to resign from the firm, it was like, oh my goodness! I left to come home after we resigned and didn’t answer any phone calls because I just needed time to think.

I got home and went over to the fireplace and turned on the gas logs and sat down. I thought, I have just done something I can’t undo and what in the world was I thinking? The next morning the three of us met at a pancake house and we looked like three frogs caught in hailstorm. Ha. Our eyes were big as saucers because we all knew there was no going back and there was only one path forward. Go do what we had planned to do.

The next several days were stressful but once we found some office space, our heart rates began to settle down and once we got the office set up, we when full bore on building a new company. It all worked out but that first couple days and weeks it looked like we had made the worse decision of our business career.

The point is, most everything is more complicated and scarier at first but as you put one foot in front of the other, you will find your footing and your anxiety level will settle down and life will return to something more normal. The key is to have faith in your decision and in your planning and simply go get the dream you had all along in your heart. KT