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

Jack Ward passed away this week after a long illness and he was one of my most dear mentors in business and in life. He was one of the founding partners of HodgesWardElliott, an Atlanta based hotel brokerage firm that gave me the opportunity 30 years ago to sell hotels.

There are not enough words to really express the impact Jack had on my life. He took a very inexperienced young man and wrapped his arm around me and taught me the business. At the height of my personal financial crisis (restaurants) in the early 90’s, Jack personally loaned me the money to keep the business afloat long enough to get out.

He was the glue that held the company together and his door was always open for any of us brokers to get his council. I remember his desk was always full of projects, but when I stopped by to talk to him, he would always look up from his desk and give me as much time as I needed. What a leader and what a man that put the needs of his people above his own personal needs.

I will remember Jack for the rest of my life and will always strive to emulate the example he set. KT

There are two kinds of people. Probably more,,,,, but I only want to talk about these two. There are people that are driven and entrepreneurial and then there are the people I call, 9-to-5’ers. They are both good type people you enjoy being around and for the most part, are trustworthy and reliable.

The driven person is one who thinks for him or herself and doesn’t have to ask about every detail along the way. They are driven and think out of the box and work when it may not be expected and probably won’t be noticed. They don’t seek the recognition. They are people that don’t need constant confirmation from co-workers and leaders. They just go do the job the very best they can and don’t keep a record of how long it takes. They are simply the same type people all our grand-parents and great-grand parents were. Mine were all farmers and they didn’t go to the house at 5 o’clock. They worked many times 12-14 hours a day. They didn’t even own a watch except maybe the one they carried in their pocket on Sunday.

Now let’s talk about the 9-to-5’ers. I am talking about employees, not business owners. They don’t do one single thing that they are not paid for. They never work beyond the 5 o’clock quitting time. You tell them do something and they are happy to do it provided it does not require them to think out of the box and God forbid, do a little more than was asked of them. 9-to-5’ers are generally good reliable people but if you employ one of them you better make sure you understand what you are getting. You will get what you asked for but nothing more. A 9-to-5’er will be neck deep in a project that may take only another hour to complete but at 5 o’clock sharp, they stop work.

In this Post-COVID marketplace we see today, you quickly find out the kind of people you want to surround yourself with. It doesn’t take a PhD in business to understand that if you had to lay someone off, the first ones out the door are the 9-to-5’ers. KT