All posts by Keith Thompson

Old technology

Career

There is an amazing piece of technology that we often overlook. It is called the telephone. You may have heard of it and you may have even used it before. It allows you to hear another person speaking while they are miles and maybe even a continent away. It’s amazing really.

At our company, we sell hotels and my title is a salesman. Yesterday, I just pulled our database up and went to one market, Charlotte North Carolina and decided to spend the next hour making cold calls. I started calling people that do not know me and have probably never heard of me. Once again, I was amazed at how simple and meaningful a phone call is. In a world where we are told to text or email or better yet, go to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. as the means to contact people, the little invention from 1875 stills works today. I spoke to people that I didn’t know and they told me about their company, their plans, their goals and how we may be able to help them. I would have never received that level of feedback on an email or through a website. Things like that only happen in person or a personal phone call. This ought to be taught in today’s business schools. Ha. We could call it, “Business 101.”

In 1875 Alexander Graham Bell told Watson, “here, stretch out this cable and let’s see if this thing works.” It did. Alexander Bell being a smart man, kept it quite until he received the patent for the phone eight months later. The first bi-directional call was made on March 10, 1876 and changed the world.

Ok, so the point is, a phone call is still better than all the new technology we have today. It makes you think in real time and the party on the other end hears and understands many things that go way beyond just the words spoken. Try it, it still works. Ha. KT

One 24-hour day

Life

Wouldn’t it be great to have just one 24 day without political sides, race conversation, resentment, hatred and the press demanding that everyone believe like they do? Just one 24-hour period where we choose to look at the best in others and just be brothers and sisters together. Just one day where look through the Lens of God the way he looks at us.

Many people don’t realize or maybe they just don’t understand that God looks at us all equal and through the lens of love and forgiveness. He doesn’t see race, creed, background, job, school, physical looks, the car you drive or how important we think we are etc. This list could go on for many pages of the things society looks at versus the things he never sees. He simply looks at your heart and wants you to know him. He will forgive your history and speak nothing of your past. In fact, he will let you start over as many times as you need. He is the father that is standing in the field watching and waiting for his child to come home.

What would it be like for the news media to report for 24 hours on what is right instead of what is wrong with America? I for one would love a good story about a mom and dad who are faithful to each other and go about life in an honest simple way and grow old together and celebrate their family well into the later years of life. That is who the heroes should be. People who just do what is right and leave life with their families and friends being better off for having known them. Living a life that can be passed down through generations with joy, honesty and respect. That’s what I’m talking about. KT

Updating your iPhone

Life

I did one of the silliest things I have ever done a couple of days ago, I updated my iPhone before I had to. My philosophy is simple. If it works now, don’t change it. Well, the other day I was trying to upload some ding dong app that I may use twice a month and it wouldn’t let me add the app until I undated to the next 10.3 version. I said “roger that,” and started the update. Dumb.

Well after it updated, nothing except email looked the same. We have 21k contact files in our Outlook and before the update, you could search Outlook and the results were almost instant. Now, I may as well have lost all 21k files because some little engineer somewhere decided that with the update, we no longer needed the contact files. I have called Apple and they have engineers trying to figure out the problem and according to them, I am the only person in the known universe that is experiencing this problem. I went on to tell them that three people in my own office have the same problem. They don’t care and I personally believe they just want you to do the updates so the functions will cease to work and you will be forced to go buy a new Apple 8 iPhone for $999. Somebody tell me I’m wrong…. I didn’t think so.

I envision getting my hands on the little engineer’s neck that came up with this update but I would probably have to go to Indonesia and find some 14-year-old in a hut somewhere. That brings me to another sore spot. Why is it that every time Microsoft, Apple or whoever comes out with a new version that supposedly works better, it never does? In fact, after you update, you need a manual to learn the new format. It would be like getting your car tuned up and as you go to leave, you now must turn left to go right and put the car in reverse to go forward. Ha. Why can’t an improvement or update be simply that, where it looks the same and operates the same but just faster and better.

So, the point is, I gave up a function that I use 40 times a day for a ding dong function I may use twice a month. Not everything in life must be updated because many times, it works better just like it is. Go figure. KT

Greed

Career

I have seen some of the smartest business people make the most stupid decisions when it comes to money and their burning need to get just a little bit more. If I made a list of the top ten biggest hotel doozies I have seen, it would be tough to choose the best ones because there are so many. Maybe I will write a book someday. Ha

What most of them have in common are the spoken words “if it is worth that much now, just think what it could be worth in the future.” I am sure it doesn’t happen every time, but more times than not, when someone says that phrase, it turns out to be a bad decision.

Jack Ward was my mentor early in brokerage and is one of the finest men I have ever known. There was never a time he was too busy to talk to me. He would push the papers on his desk to the side and really focus on what I was asking him. Men like that make a lasting impression on people and the act of listening, is one of the most enduring traits a person can have. Jack said something one day that I have never forgotten. He said, “many times the best time to sell is when it is the hardest.” Meaning you may not get the highest price you wanted but the timing is right.

In sales, I have this simply philosophy I go by which coincides with how simple a guy I am. Be a seller when there are buyers. See, I told you it was simple. It means to be a serious seller when a buyer can accomplish two things. He can get a loan and he can see some upside. Every investment decision seems to hinge on those two things. When the seller waits until every drop of value is received, many times there are no takers or he waits too long and misses his chance.

Jack’s advice all those years ago, if followed, could go a long way to helping some people make better decisions. KT

Making your calling and election sure

Career, Life

Sometimes when you make a decision and it looks like it is not going as well as you envisioned, you need to hit the pause button and think it through before you turn back and make another decision.

In 2nd Peter 1:10 there is a passage of scripture that includes the following section. King James Version – “Brethren, be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. “Does that mean you can’t make mistakes and can’t change your mind? No. We are human and we make mistakes and God understands that and more importantly, he forgives us. His objective is to get us where he wants us to end up. It’s like a GPS if you miss a turn. It will recalculate to still get you to the same destination.

Sometimes though you just know in your heart that you need to make the best of a decision you have made. I believe that is what the bible verse is speaking about. In other words, you need to stay with the decision and make your election/decision sure. Sometimes even a marriage is toxic and unhealthy. My own parents divorced when me and my sister were young. It was the right decision for us kids as well as for my parents. God picked up the pieces and gave both my parents a new perspective and life that translated through to us kids in the form of a good childhood without family strife. Sure, it was a tough decision but it was the right one.

When I left a large public company to start my own brokerage firm, it was probably the most uncomfortable time in my professional career. Up to that point, I had always had other people alongside me to help in the business. The day I left, I packed up my personal stuff to start something new and my prayer on the way home was very simple. “show me your will and let your favor and anointing cover me and go before me in this decision and I will always give you the credit for it.” I can say without question that I have always given God the credit for our business because the truth is, on my own, I am just not smart enough. I guess you could say that once I made that decision, it was one of those choices that I knew in my heart that I would have to see it through to the end.

So, not ever decision you make means you must give your life, peace, joy and future to it. Even the bible says that sometimes a wise man changes his mind. That said, there are also decisions that we just know in our hearts that we need to stay with and see it through and in effect, make our election and decision sure. KT