In my last blog I talked about David slaying the giant. I want to highlight one more very important factor to that story that often gets overlooked. It is what David did when faced with a giant of a problem that gives us some great insight and hope on how to handle it.

When David was ready to fight and go down to meet the giant in battle, what he did was simply amazing and astounding and inspiring. He looked at his enemy who was far far far superior in every respect to him but instead of walking slow, hiding, ducking, sneaking up to him, he started to run directly toward him. I don’t mean jog up to him, I mean a full-on frontal sprint directly in his face.

The bible doesn’t specify what happens next but, in my imagination, I see the giant stepping back in amazement feeling the beginnings of something he has never felt. Fear. He had never seen an enemy charge at him because they all ran from him. Here is this 15-year old boy charging straight at him. Again, this is my imagination, but the momentum of him running with his sling was probably the reason that the rock had such a velocity that it killed the giant on impact.

The point is, in life when you are facing a situation that looks like a giant issue and possibly insurmountable, hiding from it or ignoring it may not be the best solution. Sometimes it is better to run straight at the problem instead of just hoping it goes away on its own. KT

We have all most likely heard the biblical story of David in the old testament where he slayed the giant. I want to highlight a part of that story that we never talk about. The other solders.

In the story, the armies of Israel were getting ready for battle with the Philistine army and the Philistines had this giant named Goliath who would come out daily to taunt the Israelites saying “choose a man and have him come fight me, If he is able to kill me, we will become your subjects and serve you but if I kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.” All the mighty men of the Israelite army were afraid. In comes 15-year old David bringing the soldiers lunch and hears what Goliath says. He tells the solders “I will go fight him.”  The solders rolled their eyes and told the little boy to go on back home where he belongs.

You will have to read the full story, but ultimately the other soldiers had to stand and watch while a boy fought their battle because they were too afraid to do it themselves. This is the point I want to speak about. The solders knew that if David lost, they would be enslaved to the Philistines, yet not one of them stepped forward and offered to go fight the giant. They were more willing to be slaves than to die fighting for their lives.

The point is, there will always be people in your life telling you (front the sidelines) how to do it but unwilling to do it themselves. See, if they are on the sidelines of life, they have all kinds of advice and wisdom, but they are too afraid to ever step into the battle themselves.

So, when you are facing a giant in your life like, debt, marriage, health, self-confidence, self-esteem, job, relationships, etc. be careful not to listen to the other solders (other people) on the sideline telling you how to do it. Listen to your heart like David did and run toward the problem not away from it. KT

When I refer to the term, good guys, I mean both men and women. In the politically charged environment we have today, one needs to be careful how they say things. I want to talk about two classes of people in business. Good guys and dirtbags. Ha

In my line of work, I have met some of the finest people I know, and I have also met some of the biggest dirtbags. It always cracks me up when I meet people that would rather tell a lie than tell the truth. In fact, I have met people that would tell a lie when the truth was easier. They just cannot help themselves.

I have always had a pretty good meter when it comes to reading people and more times than not, I usually know in the first three minutes if this is an individual I can trust or not. My experience is that people usually don’t change and if they are dishonest at first, they will most likely be dishonest all the way through. When I am speaking with a hotel owner, I usually let the first exaggeration/lie pass but when it happens the second time, there is usually a warning bell that rings in my heart.

Funny story, this guy called and wanted us to sell his hotel in a market where we were selling other hotels and I said, sure, happy to help. He told me he had a 3-year franchised hotel and it was doing x in revenue etc. etc. I asked him for the property address, so I could l look up the aerial for the hotel. Once I pulled up the aerial, I could see that, while it had been updated, the property was a 30-year wood frame constructed hotel. I asked the owner about this discrepancy and he proceeded to tell me, “well it was renovated three years ago.” I said ok and moved on. The next thing was that his financial reporting did not match his tax return, and he proceeded to tell me that he had a group account the previous year that he didn’t report in his income. In our business that is big fat no-no, so I told this fine young man to call someone else to help him. The first lie was maybe an oversight, but the second was intentional and he and I parted ways.

One example where I missed the early signs of dirtbag-ness was when I had a family member that married someone a few years ago. That someone and their son turned out to be the two biggest dirtbags I have ever met. They basically and completely fleeced my family member and while they may be laughing and thinking how smart they are, God tell us, he sees all and knows all and will reward based on the intentions of the heart.

So, in summary, I don’t care what your background is, what you look like or where you came from. With all people (using a Clint Eastwood movie theme), there are the good, the bad and the ugly and it is incumbent on us to discern quickly, which one we are dealing with. The difference between being a good guy and a dirtbag is always a choice. KT

I referenced Alan Turning several years ago in a blog about how he led the team that broke the code to the Germany Enigma machine that changed the outcome of World War II. I have thought a lot about this over the last week and wanted to add some thoughts to the subject.

When Alan Turing was recruiting a lady to serve on his team, she asked why me? His response was one of the greatest answers in history. He said, “Sometimes it is the very people no one can imagine anything of that do the very things no one can imagine.”

You see, during World War II, the idea of a woman serving in the intelligence field was unheard of. It was all men. Alan Turing however didn’t care what race, what sex or what skin color. He knew that the future of the civilized word hung in the balance and he hired whoever he believed could help the cause. She was very instrumental in breaking the German code that changed the course of history. It might be a stretch on my part, but very possibly, if he had not hired this lady, the world as we know it today, most likely would look very different.

If you really took the time to look at history from the disciples to modern day success stories, what you will find is that in many cases the very people that have all the capabilities, looks, brains, dress, education, and personality are not the ones who do great things. It is usually the ones no one expects anything from that go on to change the world. I think of the unpopular kids, and in many cases the ones that barely made it through high school, that went on to invent Microsoft, Apple, Chick-fil-A, Coke, IBM etc. I even think about Charles Henry Dow who invented the Dow Jones Industrial average and the Wall Street Journal who had no formal education and left home when he was 16 years old.

It’s usually the very people no one imagines anything of that do the very things no one can imagine. Just because you may not have all the opportunities or abilities others may have, don’t think God cannot do a great work through you. KT