In business, life, finances, relationships and many other life situations, there is probably not a more important word or more important goal than consistency. Consistency means among other things, evenness, stability, regularity, orderliness, steadfastness.

In money, business, life and health it’s the consistency of what you do that means more than the occasional effort. See, it like exercise in any form. Staying with the program is the only way to see the results. You could be a long-distance runner but if you stopped for month, when you start back it takes some time to get back to the same level as before.

I had this friend of mine who decided when he was 50 years old, he wanted to run a marathon. He did one and thought maybe I will do another. Then he ran two, three etc. and kept going until he had run almost 80 marathons while in his 50’s. He found out what I am talking about in that once you get to a level and remain consistent, it is much easier to keep going that to start and stop.

We have one of our brokers at the firm that makes five cold calls every day, every week and every month. Other brokers ask him how he gets so much business. Well, the answer is it certainly is not (trust me) because of his looks, intellect or education. He is a pretty homely looking guy, but it is his consistency of making calls that results in his business. It is that same way with your spouse, your child, your saving account etc. If you tell your wife you love her only one time a year, you will probably soon be in an apartment all alone eating potato chips on the couch in your underwear. In much of life, it is the consistency that means more than just a little effort here and there. KT

When you start a new project, the question becomes, do I start building from the inside first or the outside first. Do I start with how it looks or how it functions?

I will give you several examples to ponder. Let’s say you want to get in better physical shape and drop a few pounds. You probably shouldn’t buy new cloths (outside look) until you get in shape (inside look) first. If you are fixing up a house, you probably should start on the inside changes first and paint the outside last. If you are an automobile designer, they always start with what the outside will look like first and then create the inside interior, engine etc. after they have established the outside design. If you are an architect designing a new building, you always start with the exterior renderings first and then layout the interior. If you are a clothes designer, you start with what the dress will look like before you start picking out the type of thread you will use.

So, my point is that in some situations you start on the inside first and other situations you start on the outside first. If it is a new vison, idea, design of some type, the starting point is usually the final look (outside) you are going for. Whatever you are planning, it is important to know where to start. If you are fixing something that already exists, (like a house) you probably will start on the inside first and paint the outside last. So, the difference is if you are fixing or changing something that already exists or if you are creating something from scratch. The smart play in whatever you are doing is to know where to start. KT

One of our main competitors beat us in 2019 in terms of dollar volume and number of hotels sold. They are also younger and better looking than we are. Ha

What do you do? Pout, cry, lay down in the floor or do you brush yourself off and get after it again. I choose door number four. There has never been an athlete or sports team that doesn’t know what it is like to lose. The key is what you do after it.

Fred Smith, ever heard of him? Probably not. He founded FedEx and when he was in college, he wrote a term paper on the idea of Federal Express and his professor told him the idea was not feasible and would fail. Walt Disney was once fired as a cartoonist because his boss said he lacked imagination. Steve Jobs was fired from his own company (Apple) in 1985 and founded a new firm called NeXT that ultimately merged with Apple and he became the chairman, again. Jeff Bezos once started a phone company called Amazon Fire and after it failed to take off, they cut the price of the phone to 99 cents and still failed.

Elon Musk was at the point of Bankruptcy when he started Tesla and they couldn’t sell the cars. After many failures, Colonel Sanders licensed the first restaurant to use his recipe when he was 62 years old. Abraham Lincoln failed in business twice and lost eight elections before becoming the President of the United States. Last one, Winston Churchill. The Germans ran nightly (yes, every night) bombing raids over London from September 1940 until May 1941. Talk about losing over and over and over! His “never Give Up” a speech will be remembered as one of the greatest of all time.

These type stories could go on for pages, but the central point is that in every story, there was a period of failure that helped define the person and their future. What if the names listed above just quit because they had failed? Just using Abraham Lincoln as the example, if he had not kept going after failure, the Unites States would probably look very different today.

Momentum is funny thing. You can’t plan for it or predict it. It just sneaks up on you and if you don’t make the most of it, you will lose it. Personally, life and business are similar in that there are ups and downs, mistakes, set backs and many opportunities to give up and quit. The key is to keep moving forward and never give up. KT

Being in the hotel business, I have always been fascinated by old hotel keys. In the lobby of our office, there is a hotel key cabinet from the 1800s and it is full of vintage and or historic hotel keys. There are many keys (as best I can tell) that date back to the late 1800s and additionally, there are many mid-century examples from the ’50s and ’60s. In the collection are three keys from the historic Rice Hotel in Houston Texas where John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline (Jackie) Kennedy stayed the night before he was assassinated in Dallas the next day.

I also have a lot of early vintage Holiday Inn keys because I have always been fascinated by Holiday Inns because of how it was founded (the timing and reason) and who founded it. Kemmons Wilson was a small home builder in Memphis Tennessee with no formal education who came up with the idea for Holiday Inns on a family trip to DC. He went on to build the company into one of the greatest success stories of the 20^th century. Also, I love Holiday Inns because for 29 years I have handled most of the hotel transaction work for the Wilson family (Kemmons Wilson’s sons and grandsons) and I just love the history and the story of their family. One time I was leaving a Holiday Inn and the towels were so thick I could hardly close the suitcase.

Many of the keys I have are from other countries and probably just about every franchise hotel brand over the last 100 years. The most comical key I have is from the Hotel Americas. The key ring weighs about two pounds and it is the size of an appetizer plate. I guess in the ’40s they had a real problem with guests stealing the keys.

So, the old adage about if these walls could talk . . . well if the old hotel keys could tell their secrets, wouldn’t they have some stories? KT

PS – the thing about the Holiday Inn towels in the suitcase was a joke. Just wanted you to think about it a little. ha