All posts by Keith Thompson

Green River

Family, Life

When I was 15 years old my neighbor let me borrow his CCR (Creedence Clearwater Revival) album and the title song was Green River. I put that album on the turntable (there is an old school term for you) and cranked up Green River and I absolutely fell in love with that song. I had heard all the other rock bands but had never heard CCR. Well that day, I became a fan and have never stopped.

We have lake house with a ski boat in the dock that has a kicking stereo that is quite impressive.  Since I bought that boat 15 years ago there has only been one CD we listen to. Creedence Clearwater Revival and the title song that plays first, is Green River. It never loses its touch to take me right back when I was 15 hearing it for the 1st time. There is nothing more exhilarating than being on the lake and honking down on that V8 engine and cranking up some CCR. KT

The Great Realization

Career, Family, Life

I heard a guy yesterday refer to this pandemic as the great realization instead of the great recession. I started thinking about what good (because there is plenty of bad) we may have learned during the COVID situation and I would like to share some of those thoughts with you.

Speaking for myself, before COVID, I was consumed with email, text, calls, advertising, marketing, management of staff and all means of communication. I would come in the office every day and promise myself I would not spend all day answering and responding to email. For me it had become obsessive to keep my inbox cleared out. I made myself a promise a few years ago to only answer emails during certain times of the day and therefore allowing me to focus on things in front of me. Well, that was a great idea but very hard to manage. Many times, I would open my email in the morning and look up two hours later and realize I have not taken time to think, focus, plan, strategize, and lead the company.

Many people (like me) just went to work and did the same things over and over and week to week and took very little time to see the world around us.

Well, COVID changed all that. Now I have more time on my hands than I believe I have ever had. Emails, texts, calls, social media etc. have all slowed down. The first week of social distancing was kind of a novelty but by week three we all knew something had changed, possibly long term. People were settling into being with their children, playing in the yard without a cell phone, taking picnics, planting gardens, going for walks, loving on their dogs, reading, telling their children stories and planning their day around simple old school living.

It is almost like people hit a reset button in their life. They began to enjoy simple pleasures and simple things again. With technology our lives had become consumed with connectivity and instant responses. In the old days people would call your house on a rotary phone and if you didn’t answer they would call back the next day. People would take drives in the country, read a good book, sit on the porch after dinner and talk to each other. Before COVID, it seemed everyone had a cell phone with social media and instant internet and entire families would sit around with their sole attention on a phone.

Many heartbreaking things have happened due to COVID, but just maybe there has been a realization that has emerged where people are doing more simple things and enjoying simple pleasures and being involved with family and seeing the world differently around them. KT

Picking up the pieces and looking to the future

Career, Life

I am writing this blog on the first week in May 2020 after eight weeks of lockdown due to the COVID-19 virus.

I was coming into the office (alone again) this morning and I paused as I looked at the pictures, plaques, awards, articles and mementoes of our business. The job today is to begin picking up the pieces of a devastated hotel real estate economy and finding the path forward. I am often inspired by underdogs in life, business and sports because see, they inspire us and help us believe we can also become what we were meant to be.

One of the greatest underdog sports stories in history is about a horse named Secretariat. I have written about this subject on two previous occasions, but today as I walked in the office I stood in front of the autographed picture of Ronny Turcotte as he crossed the finish line in the Belmont Stakes to win the triple crown in 1973. It was like the picture was saying, sometime the least likely to succeed are the very ones that do so.

An underdog story is only as good as its ability to help those who read it be able to see where their life could be improved and that just maybe, they have some unrealized qualities in their own life. It is not about being the best in the world at anything. It is about being the best you can be in the world.

I love this story because it is about a woman whose mother had passed away and her father had dementia and she was saddled (pun intended) with a small, failing, horse breeding farm in Virginia that was losing money. She had opportunities to sell the farm but decided to hold on to it because she believed in her ability to turn it around. Everyone around her said she should sell, pay the taxes and get on with being a normal housewife. Back then a housewife was expected to take care of the children and the house while her husband made the money. She said, no. I want to see where this opportunity will take us. She did just that.

It is a story about an owner with no qualifications, no pedigree and no experience. A woman in the man’s world of horse racing. The story included a disgraced trainer, a jockey that had never won a big race and an un-tried horse. The breeding farm was in Virginia (not Kentucky) and it was small and falling apart and very ordinary. By all accounts, it was a failure as a farm. From the beginning they were all shunned from the horse racing establishment and told to go back to Virginia and stay out of the way. That is why I love this story.

If you haven’t watched the movie Secretariat, you should rent it and watch it. It is simply an inspiring movie about not listening to what others say about how far you will go in life and your potential. We all have those types of people (and even family members) in our life that speak words of discouragement to you. The movie is about reaching your God given potential and shutting out what others think about you.

The story of this horse, its owner, its trainer and its jockey are like many of us. We’ve been told we will never make it because we don’t have the right education, talent, looks or background to go very far in life. Yet somehow, God has a different plan if we will listen to him. KT

Edelweiss

Family

Edelweiss is a song made popular by the movie, The Sound of Music in 1965. It was created as a show tune by Rogers and Hammerstein in 1959 and was the last song ever written by Oscar Hammerstein before his death in 1960.

This song brings up one of the funnier memories I have. See, it is the perfect lullaby song to sing to young children as you try to get them to sleep. Its harmonious melody and rhythmic sound are very calming and soothing.

So, the funny story is that when my girls were very young, I would sing this song to them before bedtime. I didn’t know the real words, so I just made up some to go along with the tune. As the girls got a little older, I kept singing the same words I had made up because they were familiar to them. To my girls, that was just the correct way to sing the song. Ha

Fast forward to my oldest daughter’s wedding and we had the band play the real version of the song at the reception. When I think about it, I still can’t help but laugh because my girls heard (for the 1st time) the real words and thought the band had made a mistake. One of them ask me at the reception why the band didn’t know the right words? They were serious too. Ha. I had to tell them I made up the words when they were little.

Well, Elaine and I were at my youngest daughter’s house a week or so ago and I was holding our newest little granddaughter and I started to sing the song to her. It made me snicker a little because the words I sang were the same words I sang to my girls when they were little. Well . . . maybe my newest granddaughter will not hear the right words until her wedding too?? KT

Love you papa

Family

It’s easy to get a little overwhelmed working through this COVID-19 situation. Yesterday, I was feeling a little put out by all the changes to our business and personal lives. We are in week seven of work-from-home, so I was a bit anxious about what the balance of 2020 looks like.

Yesterday, I went home for lunch and while I was gone, my two oldest granddaughters had stopped by the offices. With the help of a label maker, my middle granddaughter (Darby) made a stick-on label that simply said, “love you papa” and stuck it to my keyboard. I sat down at my desk after lunch and saw that little sticker and it made me stop in my tracks. All the tension and anxiety surrounding our business and lives just melted away. It choked me up a little when I realized that the most important gifts in my life are my family and they are all ok. Its amazing how a little gesture like a stick-on label can become so valuable. It will remain in that place on my keyboard until it wears off, but the memory of it never will. KT