Category Archives: Life

The horse named Secretariat

Career, Family, Life

Last weekend I was watching the Kentucky Derby and remembered going to the Derby a few years back. What an event. The Derby will draw almost 200k people rain or shine and is one of the top sporting events in America.

In 1973, history was made by a horse named Secretariat and many of his records of the three races that make up the triple crown, still holds today. His margin of win at the Belmont stakes has never been even close to duplicated.

The thing about this story that impresses me is that the horse, its owner, its trainer and its jockey were never supposed to win. They didn’t come from the right background, the right location and had no history of winning and they were shunned from the establishment and told they didn’t have what it takes. 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.

In our office at Avison Young, I have an original picture of Secretariat taken at the finish line of the Belmont Stakes in 1973 signed by the jockey, Ron Turcotte. The picture shows the 31 length (length of a horse) winning margin at the Belmont Stakes, the race that won Secretariat the Triple Crown in 1973. That same year, Secretariat won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes and the Belmont Stakes and all three records still stand today. Secretariat was named the 35th best athlete of the 20th century, and I believe the only animal to ever be so named. He was simply the best race horse of all time.

Why am I writing about a horse? See, the horse was owned by Penny Chenery who had no experience in horse racing and was a woman and very much unwelcomed by the establishment. The trainer, Lucien Laurin, had never trained a horse that won any triple crown events, and he was considered by many, a loser. The jockey, Ron Turcotte, was unproven as a competitor and shunned by the racing establishment. Secretariat was never supposed to be fast and or be able to run long distances because of his bloodline; in short, because of who his parents were. There was no reason to expect any success from this team because they didn’t come from the right class of folks, grow up in the right places, and come from the right family. Sound familiar?

If you look at the greatest inventors, the greatest leaders, and the greatest wealth creators, they mostly come from backgrounds and environments that should have limited their success and ensured they would only achieve average at best. The story of this horse is like many of us, we’ve been told we will never make it and we don’t have the 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

Life’s greatest luxury

Life

The greatest luxury in life, is time. I was told today about two people, one of whom I knew, had passed away this week. They we both in their mid to late 50’s.

I was asked this past week to teach our Sunday School class and as I was going over the material, the theme was, what would you do if you knew you only had a short time to live? Well at 8;30 on a Sunday morning, that got everyone awake. Ha.

Within the lesson I gave the mental image of a person being in a hospital bed surrounded by their family and knowing time was short. I ask what would you most want to say to your family in that situation? If you had that moment in time, what would your final instructions be? My guess is, after you told them you loved them, you would give them the very best advice, wisdom and instructions possible. You would leave them with the best fatherly or motherly advice you had. Knowing your time was limited, you probably wouldn’t waste a moment on unforgiveness, strife, anger or jealousy because those things will not matter anymore. What will matter the most is the wisdom your family leaves that room with to carry into their own life and the lives of your future generations. The words you would give them will the very best you have to offer.

Funerals have a way of getting the memory of a life very clear and very simple. I have never attended a funeral where the family parked the guy’s car outside so everyone could see it. Near the casket, there is no list of the investments the deceased owned or pictures of his boat or his houses or how many times he worked late or his greatest sales accomplishments. No, the only things you see are pictures of his life lived and pictures of his family. It’s amazing how simplistic a funeral can get to the core issues of our lives. Maybe, just maybe, while still living, we could adjust our thinking to what is really important and what is not important. Life itself is a luxury and the greatest of all, is time. KT

Acting like you are entitled

Career, Life

Have you ever been around someone that acts like they are entitled? The dictionary definition of the word entitled is, believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment. The example used in a sentence shone in the dictionary is “his pompous entitled attitude is etc. etc.”

In the business world, I believe one of the greatest leadership qualities one can acquire is the adoption of a servant’s heart. Meaning, I am here to serve our people, our clients and our customers and I don’t need recognition for it.

Jesus Christ, the night before he went on trial and was crucified, wanted to demonstrate (not just talk about it) to his disciples what a servant’s heart looks like. He got on his knees and told his disciples to all sit down and he then proceeded to wash their feet which in that time era, was synonymous with what servants did. He was God incarnate but chose to lower himself to show love and to show how to love.

Years ago, when I was in the restaurant business, we were having some new coffee equipment installed by Standard Coffee. I got to talking with the equipment installer and about life and work. The equipment installer had the same last name as the chairman of Standard Coffee so I asked him about it. He told me he was his son. I asked him why he was installing equipment instead of other executive roles and what he said left an impression on me to this day. He said, “If I want people within the company to respect me, I need them to know I was willing to start at the bottom.” What a leadership attitude.

Whatever the job role is, the person knows in their heart when they go home at night if they did their best. There is something about going home, knowing you did your best, that effects every area of your personal life. Why? Because every day you do your best, it makes you a better person and every day your self-esteem goes stronger and stronger until you look up one day and realize that you have become the person you most wanted to be. KT

First impressions

Life

The success books will tell you that a first impression is critical to your success. I don’t see it that way. More times than not, it takes much longer to develop trust.

We all know people in our lives where the respect for them grew over time. I remember one-time years ago we were interviewing for a new pastor at our local church. One of the candidates was a very soft-spoken man that didn’t give off a bold first impression but he just had this thing about him that made you like him . We hired him and after the first year we realized that while he spoke softly, people related to him. He seemed to be everywhere at all times when someone needed him and he church grew under his leadership. If we had based our decision on first impressions, we would have never hired him and would have missed the right man for that season in our church.

In 2000 I was in a meeting where there were 10-12 people and we were meeting with a gentleman that was one of the wealthiest people I had ever met. He was not loud and boisterous but rather he was so quiet that when he spoke the entire room had to lean forward just to hear him. His first impression was one of a calm self confidence that was so infectious that 18 years later I can still remember the setting.

First impressions are very good and frankly what we should strive to achieve but don’t get caught up in feeling as though you have failed if you made a less than great first impression. One of my dearest friends in the world is an attorney and client who tells the story of the first time we spoke together. To hear him tell it, I apparently stuttered on the call and he said he picked out three words he could understand (ha) and formed his response off those three words. It makes me laugh every time I think about this. I finally met with this gentleman and we development a brother level friendship and today, if I needed someone at 3am, he is the guy I would call.

Therefore, first impressions are important and helpful but don’t let anyone make you believe that it is the only impression that matters. Trust, belief and friendship grow over time and generally does not happen during the first impression. KT

Difference between ability and calling

Life

One of my family members just came back from an event where they met with a very prominent leader and he told them something that hit home for me.

The leader said “just because I have the ability to do something doesn’t mean I have the calling to do it.” Translation; we don’t need to do or become involved in everything we may have the ability to do, rather choose carefully what you become involved in. People who know me have heard me say many times that weather you are building a house, changing jobs, buying a car or starting a business, more times than not there will be hidden aspects that will cost more and take more time than you originally expect.

Recently, I was asked to serve (part time) in an advisory capacity with a very prominent organization. It was an honor to have been asked to serve but when I did a self-inventory of the time required, I realized that I would be giving up other family aspects to serve in this capacity. So, I had the ability to serve but it didn’t line up with where my personal priorities were. I have people in my family, work and church that are counting on me and I felt that if I accepted that position I would be taking time away from one of those three groups and I didn’t think it would be fair to them.

Keeping your life and time in control and manageable may be one of the most important leadership decisions you can make. We cannot be all things to all people and it is smart to choose carefully where you obligate yourself and your time. When we are invited to participate in things we generally think it will be a limited commitment but more times than not, these commitments can become much more involved than originally thought.

So, choose your time carefully and don’t over commit. It is good advice. KT