All posts by Keith Thompson

Exactly

Career, Life

There is a commercial where a grandfather is going to take his granddaughter for a ride in his old classic Bronco. The granddaughter looks inside and says, “grandpa, there is no touchscreen, navigation, Bluetooth or satellite radio.” He says “exactly.” What the grandpa means is when you drive an old classic, you unplug and are not distracted by all the technology we have in today’s newer cars. Not long ago I was on a trip and stopped for a cup of Starbucks. When I got back on the road I had phone call and an email I needed to answer.  Before I realized it, I was holding the steering wheel with my knee, talking on the phone via Bluetooth, answering an email and,,,,,,, drinking the Starbucks!! I had to laugh at myself just a little because I thought, somebody needs to be driving! Ha

I was thinking about this the other day and went back through my memory of hotels I have sold in the past and realized that before cell phones, email, texts, tweets, Instagram and Facebook, I sold as many hotels then, as now.  Back in the early days when I got in the car, I listened to radio and looked out the windows. No phone, no emails, nothing except being in that moment. What a novel idea. KT

Old gospel Hymns

Family, Life

This morning as I was driving to work, and I somehow hit a button that started playing songs that I had downloaded on my phone. My favorite music is from the late 60’s to early 70’s like Three Dog Night, Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR), Doobie Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd etc. I also have some old gospel hymns that I have downloaded over the years. This morning, I guess that was what I was intended to hear.

The song that came on this morning was a gospel song that the Cathedral Quartet had recorded back in late 80’s called, Step into The Water.  Over the years, there are many new Christian groups and newer Christian songs, but for me, it’s the old gospel hymns that touch my heart. Years ago, I started reading the history of some of the old Baptist hymns and found that many times the songs were written in difficult times and many were written due the author’s need to hear the gospel through song. One such song is “It is well with my soul.” It was written in 1873 after the author had just lost his whole family when the ship they were on sank. There is something humbling and endearing when after 146 years you hear a song that was penned by a man struggling to make sense of the greatest lose a human can endure.

It is the old hymns that reach a part of me that recognizes there is a God and he does exist.

One of most impressionable moments in my memory was when my daughters were little, and we had been invited to attend a several day event at Ridgecrest in the Black Hill mountains of North Carolina. The first night we went to service, there was probably two thousand people in attendance. The song leader stood up and led the congregation in an acapella version of the old gospel hymn, Amazing Grace. There have not been many times in my life that I felt the presence of God stronger than at that moment. KT

Offensive abbreviations

Life

There is a gentleman I knew in our business that passed away several weeks ago. He had a large family and was well thought of and will be missed. I was reading through the online comments to his obituary and saw something several times that made me cringe. People had written the term “RIP” as if they were giving a blessing for him. I may be the only person that finds that offensive, but I do. I understand it means, rest in peace, but the idea of paraphrasing it to read RIP just seems sacrilegious to me. It is like referring to Christmas as X-mas. I believe if you are going to speak words over the deceased, at least have the decency to spell it out and not use abbreviations.

I feel certain the people meant well but a part of me wonders what that wife and those children felt when they read that abbreviation. When I think about these type things I always ask myself, what I would like people to say about me when I am gone. I would like for someone to say rest in peace friend while taking the few extra seconds to write out the whole phrase. KT

Young and old investors

Career

Several weeks I returned from one of the largest hotel investors conferences of the year. It is held the last week of every January in Los Angeles and generally has around 4,000 hotel professionals in attendance.

 

I saw a bunch of people I have worked with in the past and realized we all look older than we probably think we do. Ha. There were older folks (like me,) some middle age investors but this year there was a plethora of guys in their mid to late 20’s. I enjoy watching people anywhere I go, but none was as enjoyable as watching these young investors. They made me chuckle. They all looked the same. Tight suit with pants that come up around the ankle, gelled hair, fake tan, white teeth and the walk and facial expression of someone who is constipated. I guess they thought it made them look serious.

 

We met with some of these young bucks and all of them had big titles and bid ideas. While I was not trying to make anyone uncomfortable, I did need to drill down to the core issue. So, I would ask them if they currently had the money? I learned many years ago that in our line of work, if a buyer won’t show you the money, they don’t have the money. Pretty simple, right? Additionally, properly funded investors never have an issue with providing proof of funds. When I ask that question, they would squirm and try to get comfortable before answering that question. You have probably heard the term, smoke and mirrors? That is what most of it was. Just a bunch of talking but very little actionable ability.

 

Then I met this one young chap who started the conversation saying that he couldn’t purchase a hotel now but hoped to be in position to within the next year. I loved that guy for his honesty and would welcome helping him in any way I could.

 

There are two schools of thought, (1) fake it till you make it, and (2) always be real. I find that people respond to real honesty much quicker than to fake bluster. So, the message I suppose is to be real, be honest and be who you are. These personal qualities will take you far in this life. KT

Mountains and valleys

Career, Life

When I think of the mountains and valleys in our lives, I believe you cannot go from mountain top to mountain top without going through a valley every now and then.

I think when you are on the mountain top, how you act somehow determines the length of the valley ahead of you. If you act arrogant, elitist, and like you are better than your fellow man, I think the valley may be a little longer walk than if you had acted with humility. You can go from everything to nothing quick and the last recession proved that point very well. The ones who survived were the conservative ones who didn’t over leverage their business and stayed within their means. The ones who lost everything were the highly leveraged ones who never thought a downturn could ever happen.

Humility is a very real and very present choice in all our lives. You will not always be on top, and the deciding factor is usually how you handle yourself when you are. KT