All posts by Keith Thompson

Stepping into history

Family, Life

On Father’s Day, Elaine gave me, among other things, two sports movies. Like all guys, I like to watch sports, movies about sports, and muscle car auctions. Ha.

The movies were called “The Express,” which is about a college football player named Ernie Davis, and “42,” which is about Jackie Robinson. There was a term associated with these two movies that got me thinking. “Stepping into history.”

Jackie Robinson was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and was the first black baseball player to play in professional baseball. Ernie Davis was given a scholarship to play for Syracuse University in 1958, and led Syracuse to the national championship in 1960. Ernie Davis was also the first black athlete to win the Heisman Trophy. Both of these young men stepped into history in their own way and in their own sport. History is full of people of all races that decided to do something that has never been done and to step into history.

I got to thinking about this term, stepping into history, and what it actually means. I have come away with several thoughts on the subject.

To your children at home, you are the hero and the history maker. They will remember how you loved them and went to the ballet recitals, dance classes, baseball games, and football games. They will remember the support you gave them growing up. Very few people will ever be a Jackie Robinson or Ernie Davis, but in our world we are leading our families into history, and we all want that history to be fondly remembered.

I was watching the US Open yesterday that was being played in Pinehurst, NC, and the guy that came in second was Eric Compton. Eric is a 34-year-old man who has had two heart transplants. Can you imagine? Well, yesterday he stepped into history. When I think of Pinehurst #2, I think of Payne Stewart, who won the US Open on Father’s Day 1999 and then in October of that same year, kissed his wife and kids goodbye and got on a plane that never got to where it was going. Payne Stewart stepped into history when he won the US Open, but he also stepped into history that October.

My point is that you don’t have to do great things and things that change the world, rather you just have to change your own world and be the example for your family to follow. Always, always hug and kiss your children, regardless of how old they are because you are making history and memories that will last a lifetime. You will never know what unconditional love will do for a child. It will help them and their children step into history and have that history be full of great memories. Every day you live and breathe, you are making a memory that will stand the test of time. Why not choose to be the best history teacher you can possibly be. KT

Settled

Life

When you think of the word “settled,” it can be interpreted several ways. It can mean to conform, be complacent, and just settle for where you are in life. It can also mean to have a settled spirit as well as be calm and at peace with where you are going.

I am speaking of the second one. Anxiety destroys calmness and peace. Being settled is part of that thought process. It is like the peace that comes over you by knowing you are where you are supposed to be and doing what you are supposed to do. I am not sure we ever reach the finish line and say, “ok, I have made it and I am complete.” Rather, I believe as long as we are alive there are reasons and purposes for our lives.

Father’s Day was yesterday, and it was a fantastic time to be with my girls, their husbands and my precious little granddaughters. We were at church yesterday, and I was thinking about time and how fast it seems to be going. I saw a father with two little daughters in grade school and middle school, and it seems like that was me just last year. Yet, the last 15 years have escaped me and now my little girls are grown women with their own families.

I think much of life’s joy is about embracing what life stage you are in and having objectives, hopes, and plans about your future.  I think the objective is to be moving forward, regardless of the life stage you are in. Not forward via anxiety, but forward via having your heart settled that you are going where God wants you to be going. KT

Who you are meant to be

Life

If you want to have a real self-assessment, ask yourself the question, “who am I meant to be and am I on track to be that person?”

Many people live their entire lives without ever knowing the real “who” they were meant to be. It is like standing on a street and looking at a house; we want to paint the shutters, trim the yard, fix the mailbox, and basically making the house look good for others to see. What we fail to do is fix the foundation that is cracking. It looks good, but it is a surface image only.

I’m not saying I have this figured out entirely for my own life, but I do take this inventory from time to time. What I can tell you is that knowing you are doing what you are supposed to be doing is actually a very freeing experience. The paint and shutters may still look bad, but in your heart you know that fixing the foundation will eventually allow you to make the outside appearance line up with the inside.

It is much like the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is surface and joy is deep. Happiness will only last so long and then the real you shines through. With happiness, you don’t have joy, but when you have joy, you almost always have happiness.

Ask God to give you a vision of who you are supposed to be. Everyone is not meant to be the President of the US or the founder of a company like Facebook. Many times, just being who you are supposed to be brings a peace and inner joy that is immeasurable.

If we took a survey of the top 10 things people really want, we would find that joy, peace and contentment are often on the top of the list. The worldly possessions don’t seem to be very important when you are at the 5-yard line of life. What is important is the relationship you have with God and your family.

Some of the most confident and joy-filled people I have ever been around were not wealthy or heads of companies, but were simply who they were meant to be. The Bible says that where envy and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. Satan uses envy and strife to keep us from being who we were meant to be.

The message for the day is to start being and seeing who you are meant to be. KT

Be a finisher and not just a starter

Career

There are idea people, and then there are people who finish things. Idea people generally go from thing to thing and complete very little over the course of their life. The people who start something and finish it–now that is something to take notice of.

I had this friend some years ago who lived in North Carolina, and they had a very nice home. He decided he would build a raised deck and covered barbecue area by hand. He was all lathered up and got the lumber, drew the plans exactly like he wanted it to look, had the vision of what it would look like, and set the day he would start construction. He stayed with it until the deck was about 75% finished; the roof was just framed out and the brick fire pit was about half-finished. He lost interest and didn’t complete the project. When they sold the house some years later, the partially finished barbecue area was still back there rotting in the weather looking like a big wart in the backyard.

As you know, I sell hotels and as you can imagine, I have seen a few. I have met many general managers and heads of maintenance. Without exception, I can walk into a maintenance man’s shop or a general manager’s office and tell you how well-maintained or well-managed the hotel is. It’s amazingly simple to look at the maintenance shop or the general manager’s office and tell you with a high degree of certainty how the hotel is running. Now, you show me a maintenance man that is organized and a general manager who is organized, and I will show you a well-maintained and well-managed hotel. I will also show you a hotel staff who enjoys where they work.

Elaine and I were riding through the country the other day and went past a home that looked like there were more possessions in the yard than in the house. It’s not a perfect science and nothing is ever always correct, but I would guess that the people that live in that house are financially overwhelmed, exhausted with life, argue a lot and probably live an unsatisfying life.

Why am I telling you this today? I find that my life gets a little easier to handle when I get my life and the areas around me in order. There is nothing as sweet as standing back looking at something you completed.

It is told that when Albert Einstein finished the paper on relativity and the details of the invention that he went to put a paper clip on the top and noticed that the paper clip was bent and not in the shape it was suppose to be. He took 45 minutes to straighten and bend the paper clip to the proper shape.

During the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, it is told that any citizen could come meet with him at the White House if they were prepared to wait in line. One such meeting took place and the person was led into Lincoln’s office. It is reported that Lincoln did not look up and did not acknowledge the person was even in the room until he had completed the task on his desk, signed the documents, rolled them up, and replaced the rubber band. Only then did he look at the person and say, “how can I help you?” Abraham Lincoln was a finisher of tasks

Do you think Nancy Reagan had to tell Ronnie to complete things? Did Laura Bush have to tell George to be a finisher, did Melinda Gates need to tell Bill not do things halfway, and was Eleanor Roosevelt in the habit telling FDR to get something finished? Again, very few things are exact, but in my humble opinion, every person that was and is a real game changer were finishers and completers of tasks and ideas. They didn’t hand it off to someone else and expect them to finish, no they were there until it was finished.

So, as I look at all the abilities of people, to me the most important is the ability to see it, stay with it and be a finisher. Ideas are great, but it’s really a beautiful thing to see a person who has ideas AND the ability to see it through. KT

Ronald Reagan

Life

Very few times in history do you have the opportunity to witness a leader that is spectacular. For me, that was the first time I heard Ronald Reagan speak.

In 1980, we had just built a new house and interest rates were at 18%. Can you imagine? We got the loan on our house at 12.75% right before it shot up to 18% and I thought I was the smartest guy around. Most people cannot even envision those kinds of interest rates, but our economy was in steep dive in 1980. Ronald Reagan steps on the world stage and says he is going to change the way Americans think about freedom and economics. I was so captured by his straightforward leadership, and he seemed larger than life. He was the man for that time in America history like Lincoln was for the Civil War period and FDR was for the late 1940s

Reagan was, simply put, an amazing leader and an amazing President. He literally changed the course of history both nationally and globally.

Six years after he left office, Reagan he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The following is an excerpt from what I believe was his final press conference.

‘Sunset of my life’

In a letter to the nation nearly six years after leaving office, Reagan announced that he was “one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease.” Reagan closed the note on a characteristically optimistic quote.

“I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead.”

There are imitators of leaders and then there are real leaders. Reagan was the real deal. KT