All posts by Keith Thompson

Couple married for 50 years that have never seen each other

October 31, 2014LifeKeith Thompson

I read one of the most inspirational stories this week. It was in the USA Today. A couple just celebrated their 50^th wedding anniversary, and they have never seen each other. They are both blind. They met through a sight impaired school when they were young. They have been married 50 years, and they have 5 children and 17 grandchildren. They have lived a wonderful life together.

You might want to read that again.

They figured out life, work, and family while being blind in a seeing world. All of their children and grandchildren have good sight, but the husband and wife remain blind.

Think about all the millions of things you do in life to raise a family, teach them, provide for them, read to them, take them to school, council them, love them, lead them, and protect them.

Now, think about your life and ask yourself if you are using your gifts and doing what you should be doing. Are you choosing to live life full of joy? That couple has never seen the fall color in the leaves, faces of their babies, or each other’s smile, yet they made a decision to live life full of joy and to live it to its fullest.

Choose life and choose joy. That is all I need to say here. KT

In business, don’t overthink it

October 31, 2014CareerKeith Thompson

In business, it is easy to overthink it. Many businesses grow stagnant for the simple reason that the people involved start to overthink strategies and decisions. I was in a meeting earlier this week, and it was something of a strategy session for 2015; it involved everything from logos to sales pitches.

I have a fundamental believe in business that clients hire who they like and trust. Even if you know the client, it is always beneficial to get face-to-face again. Sure, email and conference calls are great, but when you go to the expense of time and money to meet, I find that the real opportunities come out in that setting. In business, there is something special about being face-to-face and reading the eyes, facial expressions, and meaning behind the words spoken. In emails or conference calls, you miss all of that.

In the movie, “We Are Marshall,” about Marshall University, the college football team was flying back from a road game in 1970 when the plane crashed and almost everyone on board died. In the movie, produced in 2006, Matthew McConaughey starred as the new head coach of Marshall University. It began with the last three players that were not on that plane. NCAA rules at the time stated that a college could not play freshman; Mathew McConaughey asked the University President to go to the NCAA committee to ask for a waiver so Marshall University could recruit and play freshmen players. Playing freshmen was the only choice they had if they were going to save the football program at Marshall.

The University President sent three letters to the NCAA and was denied all three times. There is a scene in the movie where the University President and Matthew were standing in the gym holding the third rejection letter from the NCAA. Matthew looks at the University President and says something very, very important. He asked the president if he was married. The University President said yes. He asked him if he proposed to his wife in a letter. The University President said no. He then asked if his wife accepted his marriage proposal over the phone. The University President said no again. The University President realized that Matthew was asking him to physically go see the NCAA and not just write a letter. Long story short, the University President drives to Indianapolis to physically meet with the NCAA board and gets approval to play freshmen ball players and basically saved the Marshall University football program.

My point is to never overlook or overthink the power of meeting face-to-face. In business, it is so easy to complicate strategies and to think that texts, emails, websites and conference calls will grow the business. They will help, but they will never replace making an appointment and shaking someone hand who knows you took the time and the money to come see them.

All business growth plans should include a face-to-face strategy. One of the main ideas that came out of our meeting earlier in the week was to plan to go see the top 100 hotel companies in the first 60 days of 2015. Lofty goal and maybe not practical, but even if we met with only 50, our business would be rewarded greatly in the 2015 year.

So in business, the point I am making is not to overthink what you should do, rather keep it very, very simple and just go do what your competition won’t do. KT

Turns in the road

October 29, 2014LifeKeith Thompson

I have a friend of mine who was going to buy a car for his son, and they found the perfect car six hours away. They spoke with the seller who owned the car and were emailed pictures of the car; it looked perfect for the son. They got the cash together and left early on a Sunday morning to drive six hours. They pulled up to the address and rather than a person’s private home, it was a used car lot. The car had a busted window, rust, and was basically a dog of a car. They had been lied to. My friend looked at the guy that had lied about the car and almost hit him because they had just driven six hours. He didn’t hit the man; rather, minutes later they just left and headed back home.

After their anger subsided, the father told the son to get on his phone and see if there were any other cars between where they were and Atlanta. He found a car on Craig’s List in South Georgia, called, and the seller met them at the interstate with the car. While the car needed washing, it was perfect. They bought the car on site, and they bought the car for five thousand dollars below market value. The car was perfect in every way for my friend’s son.

Here is the point– had they not gone to see the other car, which turned out to be terrible, they would not have seen the car they actually bought. The friend of mine told me it was just a God thing and you know what, I believe him.

If I look hard at my own life regarding jobs, investments, and career, I can see with clarity God’s hand in various moves I have made. Many times, like my friend with the car, I was frustrated and didn’t understand why things had happened. It is only when you look back over the scope of your life that many times you can see God’s hand in all the moves and decisions, even though you couldn’t see it at the time.

Just because a door has closed that you thought should and would be opened, it doesn’t mean God isn’t at work to move you into the position he wants you to be. So, the advice of the Bible is always real and always timely and that word says “be still and know that I am God.” KT

Big decisions

October 28, 2014LifeKeith Thompson

When we think of big decisions versus small decisions in our lives, we think God acts differently when a big decision is at hand. We somehow think he sits up straighter, focuses more, and really pays attention to what we are saying and asking. This perception is simply untrue. God wants us to seek him in the small decisions just like the big ones. Another example is sin. God looks at sin as sin, meaning that he looks at lying the same as adultery. We, however, obviously think one is much worse than the other, but God only sees sin as sin.

When we go to God with a big decision or a sin, we somehow think he is surprised when we bring it up as though he didn’t already know. Think with me for a minute and imagine yourself praying over a situation and God raises his eyebrows, taking a big breath, and says, “wow, I didn’t know that.” Sounds silly, right? Well, that is how we sometimes act when we pray; we don’t think God knows every detail and every intention of the heart. You cannot hide the intentions of the heart from God. God knows if you are asking for something because you just want it versus a situation when you really need something. See many times we try to “sell” God on our ideas and what we want instead of really wanting what is best for us.

My advice when praying over a big decision is to simply say, “God, if this is in your will for my life, please open the door, but if this is not in your will, then please shut the door.” This prayer, at times, is very tough to pray because regardless of what we say, we want the control over the decision. True?

Praying for God to lead you is like driving a car around a mountain. You know you are on the right road, but you cannot see around the curve. In the most simplistic of terms, you need to be ok with what is around the curve and completely trust God that what he has planned for you around the curve is the best thing for you long term. We think in terms of days and weeks, and God thinks in terms of years. He is the only one that knows what a decision today will result in 10 years from now.

Some people mistake this faith approach as it being ok to not try your hardest at anything. Wrong. God sees the heart and the intention of the heart, and he says in his Word that if you put him first, he will give you the desires of your heart. I believe the desires of the heart are defined as what you are working toward and trying to accomplish as compared to what you are just wishing for. There is a big difference between what we really want and what we wish for.

My advice is to ask God to lead your life and then go try as hard as you can to get in line with what his desires are for you. He has a perfect plan for each of our lives, but he will only lead you if you are willing to follow. KT

Stay in your lane

October 25, 2014Career, LifeKeith Thompson

You have probably seen folks on the interstate that move from lane to lane, slow down, go fast, hit the gas, and then the brakes; they basically make themselves a nuisance on the highway.

A lot of people are like that in life. They move from place to place, job to job, commitment to commitment, relationship to relationship, while trying to find their place in life. The Bible says that at times a wise man changes his mind. We have all made changes in our lives because we wanted to better ourselves and that is usually a wise thing to do. What the Bible does not say was that a wise man changes his mind all the time.

Sometimes, not all the time, a person would be better rewarded if they stayed in current job rather than changing for a few extra dollars. I have a family member that works for a global payroll company; she is very senior within the company and she has a good retirement, benefits, etc. I also have another friend that owned a national business that specialized in the exact same area that the family member also specializes in. Some years ago, there was some talk about trying to get the family member a job with that other company. She made the right decision to stay the course where she was and to make a career with her current employer. It was the right decision because the friend of mine that had the company is no longer in business. She would have moved to the new company and then been out of a job.

We all make moves and improvements in our career, homes, relationships, friendships, etc. The only person that can know the right answer for you is you. The only way you can know the right answer when the time comes is to seek counsel from a close friend and ask God to give you the wisdom you need to make that decision.

James 1:5 is one of my favorite passages of scripture because it says, “if you lack wisdom, ask me and I will give it to you and will not withhold it from you.” Many times, if we would have stood still and asked God what he wanted us to do, lane changes would have been avoided.

Am I saying that once you get on the interstate you should never change lanes? Absolutely not. What I am saying is before you make a big lane change in life, just stop, be still, and ask God first. KT