All posts by Keith Thompson

Sounds and smells

Family

Smell is one the greatest memory functions we have. We have all experienced a smell from years gone by and the lightning speed with which your mind recalls that event and moment from your memory. Quite amazing really. Think of it as a search engine that God created that pulls data faster than any man-made computers.

Sound is also a memory function but not nearly as strong as smell.

Across from our office building there is a new office building under construction. This morning as I walked in, one of the pieces of equipment made an identical sound (pop pop pop) like an old John Deere tractor. I stopped where I was and turned to look in the direction the sound was coming from and was instantly taken back to my childhood to our grandparent’s farm on my father’s side. This farm was outside of Campbell MO where all the Thompson side of my family were from. My grandfather farmed his own land and had two old John Deere tractors. Anyone who ever heard one of these old tractors run, knows it had a unique sound unlike any other tractor. It basically made a deep popping sound that varied with speed.

This morning (in my memory) I was 6 years old walking with my grandfather while he talked to me and let me sit on the tractor, fed the livestock, how we walked around the home place and he taught me about animals, family, love and life. The one thing I remember most about him besides his love, was he was never in a hurry and always had time for me. He and my grandmother are buried in a graveyard on J-Highway between Campbell and Mauldin Missouri. In that same graveyard are my great grandparents and my great-great grandparents and all the children, cousins and Thompson family.

Memories are a funny thing to children and trust me, they will remember who you were. Most of all, they will remember if you loved them. KT

Getting to the question

Career, Life

In sales, one of the most difficult things for sales people to do is get to the question.

If you are a pastor, insurance salesman, under-writer, corporate executive, home builder or you work at Walmart, there is question that must be asked. The question is “how can I help you?” which really means “do you want to buy it?”

We sell hotels and every transaction happens because after all the presentations are done, someone asked “how can I help you?”

When I think of this, I think of when I was playing football in High School. We were playing Griffin High school at their home stadium and the stands were full and people were cheering. They had this little tailback named Frunie Mathews and he was hands down, the fastest running back we had played against. 19 seconds before the half, we punted to Griffin and Frunie got the ball. He didn’t score but we couldn’t catch him either. He just ran and juked all over the field and refused to be brought down. The 19 seconds on the clock ran out and he was still running (as I remember) for what seemed like a good minute or two. He finally slipped down and was so tried he just stayed down. He didn’t score but it was not because of our tremendous defense. He just got tired and fell.

I think of this story in terms of selling and many people in all walks of life can get lost talking about an issue and never bring it to a point. There is always a point you need to make and if you don’t ever get there, it is like the clock just runs out and no one wins.

I had this salesman some years ago and he was one of the best educated, professional and articulate salesman I had ever met. The problem was he could never get to the question. Sure, he impressed everyone with his knowledge but he never made the sale. At some point in every sales pitch you must ask the buyer if they want to buy it. If you are a pastor, trust me, you are a salesman whether you think you are or not and the reality is, we are all salespeople regardless of what it is we do. We are selling ourselves, our opinions, our thoughts and our influence.

So, the next time you are making a sales pitch or leading a group or doing a presentation, remember Frunie Mathews and be sure to get to the point and ask the question. KT

You can’t stop life’s clock, but you can rewind it

Life

Regardless of our age, we all seem to notice how fast the years get by. In my life, the last 10-12 years have slipped by so quickly it is a little scary.

The clock of life moves forward and there is no way to slow it down or make it pause. Every minute of every day is less time you have to be who you were meant to be. Even though we can’t stop the clock of life and it may sound funny, but we can rewind it for the next phase of our life. The term rewind means to renew the strength and get ready for the next time period

That is what we need to be doing in our life. Renewing our strength and getting ready for the next time period. I have seen many people remain stuck in the past while refusing to embrace the future. They play defense instead of offense. Life is much more fun on offense because you get to set the plays and the strategy. I have a friend of mine who lost his whole hotel company with about 40 hotels. Lost it all. I watched him rewind his clock and come back from that financial failure with a better company than the one he lost. Sure it takes mental fortitude and will power, but that is the difference between defense and offense.

Look at your life today. Are you just reacting to circumstances or are you moving forward with a plan. Everyone has the choice to let life’s clock just wind down or to reset your mind to the next phase of life. I like the idea of embracing age and the life cycles because it is really the only choice I have. I cannot go back and relive my 30’s or 40’s or even my 50’s. I am where I am and I cannot not change that. The only choice I have is to change my outlook.

Change your outlook because it makes life so much more fun. KT

Life’s greatest luxury

Life

The greatest luxury in life, is time.

I wished I was smart enough to have come up with this statement but I am not. Nonetheless, I have heard it many times and for the past 7 years I have carried this quote in my business briefcase in a place that I look at it every day.

Is it true? Let’s test it out. If you are young, healthy and rich you may think the next car or the next vacation is the definition of luxury. If are old enough to get past the superficial definition of luxury, you realize that time is simply the most sought after luxury this world offers. If you have had a health scare or a bad diagnosis or lost hope in your life, you know that time is the greatest luxury this life has to offer or when you are looking at your grandchildren and you realize that most likely, you may have less time in front of you than you do behind you, time becomes the most important thing. Lastly, if you are on the one yard line of life looking into entirety, trust me, you are not thinking about the next luxury car you are going to buy or what your stock portfolio is worth. You are only thinking about time.

The other day I was leaving for work and as usual I was thinking about all I had to do and as I backed out of the garage I had the news channel on. It happened in a wink of an eye and I looked out at the world around me and felt God nudge me to turn off the radio and be in that moment. I turned everything off and said, ok God, show me. I drove very slowly through our neighborhood and looked at the grass, trees, birds, and flowers and realized the beauty and the peace of that moment. I paused before I got into traffic and said a quiet thank you to God for reminding me that the moments around us is where the beauty of life is.

It is like when your daughter or son comes to you for advice knowing full well, you would move mountains for them if needed or the total focus on your granddaughter’s eyes and words as she is telling you about her day and she says, I love you papa. That my friends, is the essence of the most important and most powerful luxury this life has to offer.

So, take a moment today to look around you and to look at your loved ones and whisper a prayer of thanks to God for letting you be in that moment and to see that level of pure luxury. KT

I can do this

Uncategorized

Up through the 9th grade, I was basically a skinny kid that wore glasses and stuttered. I was the kid that always hung back on the sidelines of life and I was clearly not popular and I was never “one” of the guys. I always shied away from the casual conversation and hated to be called on to read out loud.

Elaine and I were eating breakfast at a restaurant this weekend and there was a little league baseball team on the way to a game. I knew they were on the way to the game because their uniforms were clean. Ha. I would say that the boys looked about 12 -13 years old. While I was eating and watching those boys, all the memories of that time in my life came flooding back. I remembered being cut from the little league baseball team in the 4th grade and walking off the field while all the boys who made the team, were happy and lining up to play ball. I could take the next 3 paragraphs and tell you up to that point in my life the teams I made, didn’t make and the benches I rode the whole season while watching the talented kids excel on the field. I could do that but it is not the main point of this blog. The main focus is what the turning point was for me and recognizing the need in each of us to feel like we are part of something. The need to belong is buried deep within each of us and in my opinion it doesn’t change with age.

For me it was high school varsity football. For you it may me some other sport, chorus, making good grades, an association, a club, church group or any other such areas when you realize for the first time. I can do this. It is the realization that, “I can do this,” that I believe is the element that kids and even adults most need to experience. I call it the “I can do this moment.” In my sophomore year of high school, I had a good friend Ray Leake that was on the football team and he talked me into to trying out. In the spring varsity game I made an interception and that one play changed my life as a young person. I got on the bus after that game and knew I had found something I could do. I wasn’t a 4.5 second 40 yard sprinter but I did like to hit people and that little talent landed me in the middle linebacker position. I have wished many times that I had my old football helmet because it didn’t have any paint left on the front. That period of time was before anyone worried about head injuries to kids and in fact the coaches taught us to tackle leading with our face mask. Ha, hence the reason I didn’t have any paint left on the front of my helmet. I went on to become the captain of the football team and the senior class president of Morrow high school but it all started when I found that place or that thing I could do and felt like I was a part of. For young people and adults alike, we all need that moment when we began to believe in ourselves.

For many people this happens in college or late 20’s or late 30’s before you find your place. For the founder of Chick-fil-A, he was in his in late 40’s. For Colonel Sanders of KFC, he was in his 60’s. For Abraham Lincoln it was after he lost 9 elections before he realized, I can be the president of the United States.

I believe in life each person there are two graph lines, ability and opportunity. Those two graph lines cross several times in a person’s life and with each time, I believe it is an “I can do this” moment. In 1990 in hotel brokerage it happened for me again when I sold my second hotel. When I closed that deal, I felt just like I did when I caught that interception in the spring football game and I knew that this was something I could do. The first time the graph lines crossed for me was when I was 16 years old and the second time I was 32 years old.

What is the point to this blog? The point is to be on watch for those rare moments in our lives when we realize “I can do this.” In real life it is less about our personalities, looks and talents and more about experiencing an “I can do this moment.” I hope you have had many of these moments in your life but if you haven’t, that should be your prayer, that God puts you in position to see and realize that you can do something and do it well. KT