All posts by Keith Thompson

How quickly your life can change

Life

Have you ever almost had an accident that afterwards you stopped and realized how close you came to everything changing in your life and your family’s life? You stand still and know that it was God’s grace that covered you in that moment. He also covered and spared your children and your spouse from the heartache that would have changed their lives.

We have all probably had a moment or two like this. Maybe it is time for you to stop and say thank you to God for being there in that moment.

Two stories about me. I was working out yesterday and had to stop to just say a word of thanksgiving for God insulating and protecting me a couple of months ago in that same room. I have this Bowflex machine I bought 15 years ago; it’s the machine where you do the leg lifts and it has these cushioned bars that you use. So, imagine two cushions held together on a steel bar with a hard steel knob right in the middle. I would turn around backwards and do reverse pushups on these cushions. A year or so ago, I was doing this very thing, and I had a spike in my spirit that told me to be careful when doing this because if I slipped, I would fall back directly on my spine. Note this point–God told me to stop doing that and gave me a vision of what could happen.

Well, a few months ago I was doing this very thing and as you might guess, I slipped and hit on that hard steel knob with my full weight directly on my spine. It scared the daylights out of me and tore a big spot on my back the size of a banana. Here is my point, God insulated me at that moment, and it didn’t hurt my spine, which could have been devastating. Yesterday when I was working out, I stopped, sat down, and said a prayer of thanks and almost teared up over what could have happened.

Second story.  I was walking in London, and I was in a hurry. As you know, they drive on the opposite side of the road. I was crossing a road and looked left (like in the US) and came within a few inches of stepping in front of a bus and losing my life. When I stepped back from that bus, I stopped and realized what almost happened. I won’t say I needed a shower, but I was pretty close to it.

Why am I telling you this today? I am saying that we all should look back over our lives and stop to say a word of fervent thanksgiving to God for taking care of us over the years and for protecting our families from losing us. Sometimes, true deepest joy comes from knowing how blessed you really are. KT

Never lead from your chair

Career

Sam Walton was the founder of Walmart, and he had many quotes over his years of leadership. One that really impressed me is “never lead from your chair.”

I believe this could be one of the greatest business success secrets of all time. It has been seen in many people from Henry Ford to Ronald Reagan to Bill Marriott.

It simply means to get up and get involved in your business; meet and speak with your people, and let them know that they are important to what you are doing and to what your company is doing. If you are in sales like me, it means making sales calls with your people and leading by example. It also means doing in front of people what you expect them to do. Leading by example is one of the most powerful leadership qualities a person can have.

We have all seen situations where a business manager or group leader will just make decisions from his chair and expect everyone to carry out his orders. Obviously, there are times when a leader does send emails and make decisions from his/her office, but what I am talking about is a metaphor of leading a group while being involved as compared to just giving orders and hope they are followed.

In our world of websites, emails, texts, it is so easy to assume that an email or a text will get the job done. Sometimes it does facilitate business, but it rarely establishes business. Over the last couple of weeks, we have had several hotel deals that needed a verbal introduction rather than an email introduction. There were five of these such calls that I made over the last several weeks. I can tell you that every one of the calls were well received and appreciated by the clients far more than if I had emailed them. People get reams of emails of which many they do not respond to, but a personal call is in my opinion “business 101.”

I think if managers, directors, and employers would go talk to their folks, hear their opinions, and ideas, many of the decisions that are made would be different. Sometimes you have to walk into the forest to actually see the trees, even though you already know what they look like.

Therefore, Sam Walton’s idea of leading a company is very on point today as well as it was in his time. His company outlasted many volume discount retailers, such as GEX, Dixiemart, Kmart, Memco, American Wholesale Club, Edwards, PriceRite, etc. It was probably because he would actually go to the stores, talk to the people, and lead from that position, rather than sit in his office and make decisions. It is also noteworthy to tell you that Sam Walton drove his same old truck to the same diner to eat breakfast with his same old friends, and this was even after he was a billionaire. His philosophy was to keep it simple, keep it real, and lead by example. KT

Help and Hope

Family, Life

Hope often follows help. Let me say that again, hope often follows help. When you give help to a hopeless person, their hope often is bolstered. Hope could be the powerful and most needed emotion a person could have. Without hope for the future, many people have trouble finding their way back.

When you see someone in need, you could possibly be looking at a situation that could change their life if that person had a little help. I often will help people on the road without judging because they clearly need something; if I can play a small role in helping restore their hope, then it is the right thing to do.

Hope is a very fickle emotion that needs to be stirred like many other good emotions. If left alone, hope can deteriorate like other aspects of life. It needs to be attended to and stirred up on a continual basis. Many changes in life can be very difficult to overcome, but I believe the loss of hope is the worst.

Hope is very evident when you see someone and look in their eyes. You can often see into the soul by the eyes, and you can see pain, defeat, fear as well as you can see joy, love, kindness and also hope. When you see people, be aware that when you shake hands or greet someone that you are there for a reason. More times than not the other person is ok and doing all right, but there are times when a little extra attention is needed to maybe help that person.

As I look at Christmas and at this holiday season, it is really centered around hope because the birth of Jesus was in fact the hope of righteousness and the hope of salvation that came in the form of a man. At this time of year, hug your children, grandchildren, spouse, parents, and any other close family members; make sure they know how you feel about them. Make sure they know that you would do anything to see them live well and be in joy and health. Love is a decision, and it is also an easy thing to give and to share. With many people, it could be the very thing they need to get through this day or this week or life in general.

Help and hope often go together, and hope is the light of life that everyone needs. KT

New calender

Life

I just received my 2015 business calendar. I have used the same calendar system for 24 years, and I keep every one of them in case someone ever asks what I was working on July 10, 1999. I may have a pretty good chance of answering the question. Ha.

Another thought occurred to me as I opened the 2015 calendar. What did I do with the 2014 year God gave me? For me, that was daunting question, and I know I did not do enough with what God gave me. I think we find ourselves going through the motions, and we look up and the year has gotten away from us. I also think if we let it, we can go through a lot of calendars and a lot of years and look up and wonder what we really did with the time we had.

Humbling thought, right?

So, as I lay out my 2015 calendar, I am going to do some things differently. I am going to be more aware of time and the value of time and be more involved in the moments of life. I am sure I will not do a perfect job at this and will miss some moments, but I am going to try. The older you get, the faster it seems the years go by.

If you are reading this blog, that means there is still time to adjust and change. One of my little granddaughters came into the office today; she is nearly two years old. I was in the middle of doing something that I am sure was important (ha), but I look around and there she came just walking into my office calling my name coming over to see me. Trust me when I tell you that everything I was working on came to a stop, and she took center stage of that moment. I can always work on some hotel deal or call some client later because at that moment, I needed to love on her and be right where I was. I want to be remembered as a grandfather that always took the time and was always there.

About made myself cry. Anyway, I suggest that we all really look at 2015 and decide in advance who and what we want to be and then start the process of doing just that. KT

Greatest failures

Career, Family, Life

I don’t know what you are trying to do or thinking about doing in your life, but I came across some pretty interesting facts that I would like to share with you. Many times, people will try something, but if they get rejected or fail one time, they quit trying and just believe/assume it was not meant to be.

If the following people quit after one try, I dare to think where we would all be.

Henry Ford – went bankrupt twice within four years trying to start a car company. Interesting point is that the same investors in Ford Motor Company were the same investors that lost money in the first two companies.

Albert Einstein – His parents thought he was retarded, and a teacher told him he would never amount to anything. He did not speak until he was four years old and did not read until he was seven.

Walt Disney – Went bankrupt in 1921, and he literally ate dog food to survive. He went bankrupt a couple more times before inventing Mickey Mouse and finally creating a company that was successful. Newspapers said he “had no good ideas for film productions”

Michael Jordan – Missed more than 9,000 shots and lost 26 games where he was entrusted to take the final shot

Beethoven – His teacher once said of him that he was hopeless as a composer. He lost his hearing and still went on to become one of the greatest composers of all time

J.K. Rowling – She wrote the Harry Potter series. Her manuscript for harry Potter was turned down 12 times, and she was depressed, penniless, divorced. When she wrote Harry Potter while she was on welfare.

Steve Jobs – His biggest failure was the Apple Newton in 1993. They didn’t think he could invent anything that the broad market wanted. The Newton was the basic idea for the Blackberry, and the owners of Blackberry literally owned the global smart phone market and thought they were invincible. Well, Steve Jobs invented the iPhone in 2007 and all but closed down Blackberry.

Stephen King – His first book “Carrie” was rejected 30 times, and he almost quit. It was his wife who took the manuscript out of the trash and told him to keep trying.

Oprah – she was fired from her first television reporting job because she was deemed “not suitable for television”

Steven Spielberg – He dropped out of Junior High School. He was persuaded to go back to school, and they placed him in a learning disabled class. He only lasted a month before quitting school all together.

Abraham Lincoln – he had 12 losses in various areas, job and elected positions before he won the election for the President for the United States.

Bill Gates – Invented a thing called a Traf-o-data that failed because no one thought he could invent anything that the market would buy. He went on to create Microsoft and changed the computer world.

Fred Astaire – Was turned down for his first audition, and they said “he can’t act, he can’t sing, he is slightly bald, he is not handsome, but can dance a little”

Babe Ruth – When he retired in 1935, he held the record for the most home runs and also for the most strikeouts. The Boston Red Sox traded him to the New York Yankees because they said he was just a fat pitcher. He went on to lead the Yankees to seven World Series Championships.

So, think about these things the next time you try something, do something, say something, and get told you can’t do it. KT