All posts by Keith Thompson

Imagination

Life

The way you image yourself drives many of the decisions we make in life.

Ever looked at a suit or dress online and thought, wow, that would make me feel good about myself if I had that? Look at cigarette ads back in the 60’s and 70’s that always pictured some good-looking couple in their sports car or in a sailboat or dining at fancy restaurant. You never saw a smoking add with a chubby, out of -shape guy puffing on a Marlboro sitting in his lawn chair. No, it was always some rugged, good looking cowboy riding a horse. The idea was to make people chase that image and think if they started smoking, they would look that young, be that good looking and be that manly or that beautiful.

In our own minds it is that way also. I have owned three Jeep Grand Wagoneer’s and every time I sold one, I swore I would never buy another one. Yet, I have had three and all three times they were a mechanical nightmare and drove like a big lawnmower. I had this self-image of how great I would look and feel driving an old classic Wagoneer. Well, the truth is when I got it and drove it, I didn’t feel the way I thought it would. Ha

It’s like that in life, we get these glimpses of what this or that would look and feel like and then we began to imagine ourselves in that situation and our desires began to move toward that.

I had this guy one time I worked with that was always looking for another job while he was working his current job. The problem with doing that is he began to imagine himself in that other new job with the prestige he thought it would bring him. You guessed it, he left the company and went after his imagined dream and you guessed it again, it didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to.

How many marriages are torn apart because of this very thing? When you let your heart dwell on something long enough and consistent enough it can cause you to make all sorts of changes in your life.  The wisdom would be to make sure you are careful to separate imaginary versus reality.

Being old, ugly, uneducated with a speech impediment has always kept me from imagining some big job and some big title. Maybe these limitations were a gift in disguise, because I am just grateful for where I am. KT

Accepting blame

Career, Life

For Father’s Day this year, my youngest daughter wrote a list of things she has heard me say or that she has learned from me. When I read the list, I must have gotten some dust in my eyes because I had to wipe a tear away. One of the things she wrote was “always accept blame when it is your fault.”

Years before I started in the hotel business, I was in the restaurant business and ran several Wendy’s for an investment group. I remember one time that we had had a terrible month and sales were down and expenses were up, and all the partners wanted to meet with me. The purpose of the meeting was probably to give me a whipping over the bad month and probably threaten to fire me over it.

Some people love to pass the blame to other people or other influences when something goes wrong. So, I walked into that meeting and all the partners looked like they were ready to take me out and flog me in the street. I remember I ask to talk first in the meeting, and they agreed. I began by taking all the blame because behind all the reasons, it really was my fault. My lack of leadership that month was the reason. So, I accepted all the blame and them moved on to how I was going to correct the problem.

I watched as the steam faded out of the partner’s faces and replaced with acceptance of the solutions. I have zero doubt that had I went in that room and named all the things and other people to blame that I would have found myself out of a job that afternoon. My acceptance of the blame wasn’t superficial. It really was my fault and I guess they recognized the honesty with which I accepted it.

The bible says in Proverbs 15:1, “a soft-spoken word turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” That is a pretty good verse to live by when something goes wrong and everyone is looking for who to blame. KT

New COVID inspired words

Life
  1. Coronaspeck – an expression for the weight gained in lockdown.
  2. Dracula Cough and Sneeze – cough and sneeze like Dracula basically means make like Dracula raising his cape to cover his face and sneeze in your elbow.
  3. Covidiota – person who isn’t following lockdown rules. In English, you’d say covidiot.
  4. Zumped – the new COVID-inspired phrase for breaking up with someone over video
  5. On-nomi – friends drinking together online.”
  6. Quarantini – he English word for what you’re drinking while you’re sitting at home.
  7. Zoom Bombing – the people you didn’t want to see in your digital get-meeting.
  8. Spendemic – refers to the increase in online shopping during the pandemic.
  9. Coronials – an increase in birth rate since more time spent in the home could lead to a new version of millennials
  10. Quaranbaking – the therapeutic act of baking during lockdown
  11. Hamsterkauf – if you see people (like a hamster) who stock up hoarding bottles of water, toilet paper etc. you’ve come across a hamsterkauf.

Step into your calling

Career

At some point we all have the opportunity to step into our calling. For some, this happens at an early age in our teen years and for some it may be decades later, but it happens to all of us eventually. I was asked recently, how do you know when it happens? The only answer I have is, you just know.

For me, it happened when I was 32 years old. I had left home when I was 17 years old and supported myself and married my high school sweetheart and had two beautiful daughters before it happened to me. I will never forget that moment. It was when I sold my second hotel, not my first, but my second. It was with the second one that I realized the first one wasn’t a fluke and I may actually have some talent for this line of business. After the second one closed, I remember hearing that still, small, quiet voice in my spirit that said, this is it. Today is the day. I cannot explain it, but I just knew this is what I was supposed to do. It was my calling and was what all the other things in my life before then had prepared me for.

Unfortunately, there are some people that never step into their calling because of fear. I remember my father in-law saying something to me years before he died that has remained in my heart. He told me to find work I enjoyed doing and go do that. He said when you enjoy it, you wake up every morning excited to go to work. They don’t teach that in business school but the wisdom in those words is applicable and sound.

Even though the 2020 year has been one for the record books, the joy of coming to work is still just as exciting as it was 30 years ago. Many of the dearest friends and relationships I have today are because of my work and finding my calling all those years ago. Find something that interests you and that you enjoy, and you may just find your calling. KT

Luck

Career, Life

There is no such thing as luck, but if there was, it is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. it is amazing that the harder you work at something, the better you get at it. We all know people that talk about luck like it were a real thing but in truth, there is no such thing.

Think of your life in terms of two graph lines. Ability and opportunity. In an average person’s life, I am told those two graph lines cross 4-6 times in a person’s life. What it means is that several times in a person’s life, the ability you have lines up with an opportunity to use that ability. The issue is what the person does when his/her two graph lines cross. Do they take the opportunity or not? Fear, inferiority and insecurity probably account for most of the missed opportunities in life.

Take my business for example. We have people that handle the face to face well but not the phone. We have great writers with incredible analytical skill but no personality.  Then we have people that do fantastic on the phone but then bomb when they get face to face. Then you have people like me that don’t do any of it well but just too dense to know better. I cannot tell you the number of people I have met that have such a great presence about them when they speak but because of fear, they never allow themselves to become what they were meant to be. For these people, the years get by and the opportunities to use their abilities become less and less and their life becomes one of regret that they missed the opportunities in their life. They are ones that grow old with the music still in them.

I have often said that the most important ability is availability. The people that do great things are the ones who don’t care what other people think about them and have the courage to try. I stutter so if I had let other people’s opinion of me determine my life, I would have a job today that didn’t require me to talk to anyone. I have a client and dear friend, (SM for short,) who said the first time he talked to me on the phone, he couldn’t understand most of what I said (makes me laugh thinking about it) but he said he picked out three words he understood and answered based on those words. SM and I became like brothers and have been dear friends for 25 years and we have transacted many many times together on hotels. It all started with that first phone call that I was not afraid to make.

There is no luck involved in life. There is preparation and willingness to try and the more you try it is amazing how much you accomplish. In life there is rarely a euphoric life altering moment that defines your future. Most of time the opportunities come when you just lace up your boots and put one foot in front of the other and just don’t stop. KT