There have been times in my life where I made a decision and chose a path that seemed, in the short-term view, like a mistake. Probably the three biggest decisions that seemed like the wrong decisions at the time all involved my work.

In 2000, two of my friends and I left a great company to start our own brokerage firm.  At the company we left, we had a good income, no risk, no liability and great working environment. I remember the day we left to start a new firm, and I came home and sat on the fireplace hearth and said to myself, what the hell (excuse me) did I just do? Here I was leaving a great company to strike out on my own with two friends; we hoped it would work out. The morning after the three of us left the company, we met at a pancake house for breakfast. All three of us looked like a frog in a hailstorm with big, scared eyes. Ha. Well, that company was ThompsonCalhounFair, and it did really very well and proved over time to be a good decision.

The next big one was when we sold ThompsonCalhounFair to a public company in June of 2005. The third big one was when I left the public company in May of 2007 to start over again. When I left the public company in 2007, it was because I literally knew I was going to die a premature death if I didn’t get away from the stress of that environment. See I thought I was ready for that type of environment, but I clearly was not. I wasn’t smart enough, had no formal education, and I stuttered…those things did not go over well in a public company environment. Plus, I had my own ideas on how to run a brokerage firm and my focus was clearly on sales and profit and their focus was sales at the expense of profit. It was a pressure cooker from about the 3^rd week after we sold our company.

When I left the public company in May 2007, I was going to go home, semi retire, and sell a few hotels a year for friends and that was it. One thing led to another, we started Hotel AG, and today here I am.

Why am I telling you all of this? One of the greatest revelations I ever received from God was in May 2007 when I left the public company to start over. It may sound silly to you, but to me it was a precious peace I received from that revelation. I had this image of me in a car on a road going around a mountain curve, and I couldn’t see but a short distance in front. God told me that day that this image was of him and me. As long as I was on the right road, it simply didn’t matter that I couldn’t see all the turns and what was up ahead. That day, I fell to my knees and found peace in knowing that all I had to do was be sure I was on the right road and leave what was around the curve to God.

As men, want to see a 10 year layout of the road in front of us so we see all the turns, all the uphills and all the downhills. Thank goodness God doesn’t let us see what’s ahead.

It’s the difference in being at rest and peace with your present location in the journey, rather trying to figure out all the turns to the destination. All you have to know is that God knows. Let me say that again. All you have to know is that God knows.

I have two of the most beautiful daughters any man has ever been blessed with and make no mistake, when they come to me and ask for my help, wisdom or guidance, you better believe I will give the very, very best I have. Listen to me here, that is exactly the way God looks at us as his children when we go to him for wisdom, help or guidance. He will give us his best.

The Bible says that we should make our paths straight and work to make the decisions we make the correct ones.

See, there were many times I felt like the decision I made was the wrong one, but God knew 14 years ago where I would be today. I could only see the present, but he could see around the mountain. KT