Category Archives: Life

When making a big decision

Career, Life

When making a big decision, the first question you should be honest with yourself about is whether or not it will change your life if the decision turns out to be wrong. If the consequences of failure are life changing, one should be very careful to weigh the options.

I will give you a perfect example. Last year I bought an old truck and while I hoped it would be a good buy, I knew that if I got it home and found it full of rust or the engine blew up, it would not change our lifestyle. That is a simple example of a very important point. We all buy and sell things and change jobs and basically make decisions all the time but we don’t always really think the big ones through.

I was part of selling a company one time that for me didn’t turn out well. I had all the great ideas and good reasons why I should do it but I failed to ask myself that one simple question. Will it change my life if it fails? Before we sold the company I was happy, stress-free, content and very pleased with where the company was going. After we sold the company, I remember one day thinking about how much I wished I could go back. I couldn’t because it was already done. Some decisions are life changing and for me, that was a life changing decision that I took too lightly. Had I closed my eyes ask myself, “if this fails will we still be ok,” I probably would have made a different decision.

Before you make a big decision, look at your existing life, your children, your home, your peace, your bank account, your joy and your contentment. If you are in a good place now, look big decisions head on and be honest with yourself. I have made two big decisions in business that I dearly wished I could take back. Sometimes you don’t realize how blessed you are until you make a decision that changes your life and you cannot go back.

I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit of God lives and resides within my heart and all I have to do is ask him what I should do. In both of those business decisions, I did not fully and openly ask God what I should do. It was what I wanted to do and I was afraid if I really ask him, he would say no.

So the point. Before you make big life decisions, be honest with yourself and be honest with God and make the decision in advance that you are ok if God leads you to go forward or walk away. KT

Sometimes, we are all like Rocky

Life

I have all five of the original Rocky movies. The movies are a little cheesy and hokey but the reason I love the movies is because of what they portray.

The movies are about a guy that had none of the proper qualifications needed to be a championship boxer. He wasn’t the smartest, he wasn’t that great of an athlete, he was uneducated, unorthodoxed, slow and pretty much had no qualities that one would associate with a championship boxer. That said, he had the one thing that he needed. He had the heart to win.

He defied all expectations of other people as well as his own expectations. He never saw himself winning and certainly never saw himself as the champion. When you watch the first movie, about have way through the boxing match, he begins to realize he can compete with Apollo Creed and he makes a decision that he no longer is just an average boxer. He begins to push himself harder and fight with everything he had to become the person he secretly always dreamed of being.

Many of us don’t have the skill, talent, brains or education to compete in the world but in my experience it is not about any of those things. It is about heart. KT

It is never the wrong time to do the right thing

Life

In business and life there is never a wrong time to do the right thing. There are many difficult situations in life that can be improved if one party just does the right thing. Just goes to the other person and says, I’m sorry, can you forgive me?

Men are probably the worst offenders because they don’t like to show vulnerability and certainly don’t like to talk about it. Some men will spent their entire lives with unforgiveness hanging over their hands. Men especially think that if they just ignore what happened, the other party will forget and everything will be ok. So many times, the event could be put to rest if a simple conversation was initiated.

Many of life’s big issues start as a small misstep that is left unattended and could be corrected so easily with a soft word. I know people today that when I see them, it is hard not to remember the kind of person they used to be. We are not like God in that he literally forgives and forgets and remembers the wrong no more. We as humans still have a memory chip and can recall what was done but we also are capable of grace and forgiveness. I suspect that we all have friends today and possibly even good friends that disappointed us years ago but the issue was dealt with quickly and resolved and that same person has now become a friend to you.

The only person you can control is you. You cannot control whether someone accepts your apology, rather all you can do is clear your conscience by doing the right thing. KT

Creedence Clearwater Revival

Life

There are three music groups that I love. In fact I would be ok listening to their music from now own. Creedence Clearwater Revival (CCR) is one of them and the other two are The Doobie Brothers and Three Dog Night. CCR started in 1967 and wrote 78 songs and produced 32 alums. They were just a group of young guys who loved music and the world found out about them.

I was a high school sophomore when a friend gave me a CCR album and the lead song was Green River. I listened to that song until I wore out the needle on the stereo. Today in our ski boat there is one CD that is allowed to play in the boat. Creedence Clearwater Revival. The first song that cues up for playing is Green River followed by the second best song ever, Bad Moon Rising

Life is kind of funny in how things that make such an impression on us when we are young, stay with us when we get older. That is the reason that muscle cars are so valuable today. The older guys have made money and buy the muscle car they wished they could have bought when they were young. Of course the price today is 10-20 times as much, but it symbolizes a time when we were young.

Music is like that. It brings you back to a period of your life that you look back on. I remember I was at a Three Dog Night concert a few years back and when they started playing Shambala, I thought about the memory and the time period that song took me back to. It was high school which was the best 6 years of my life. Ha

So I guess it is ok to watch old movies or listen to old songs that remind of where you came from so long as you don’t get stuck in the past and not move forward with life. So today, go to YouTube and put in Green River or Bad Moon Rising and click on Creedence Clearwater Rival and let it wash over you. KT

Going to work

Career, Life

I got up this morning and was getting ready for work and was thinking about all the things I needed to do and the calls I needed to make and people I needed to talk with. There was a slight sense of dread because some of the calls were going to be difficult and the clients were not going to be happy. It is funny how when a broker (like us) doesn’t sell someone’s hotel for what they invested in it, it is always the broker’s fault and never the owners fault. These type deals are rarely hotels that they bought through us but instead they bought them from someone else and now we get the blame for it. Ha. It is like some people we all know that never make a mistake themselves because it is always someone else’s fault. Ever meet someone like this?

I have gotten off subject. This morning when I got up and got dressed for work and all the thoughts were going through my head, I stopped and realized that one day I won’t have the option of going to work. One day I will not be getting ready for work. One day I won’t go to the office and have things to take care of. One day the work will go on without me and one day the younger folks will be the ones leading the business.

Then I realized what a gift today was because I get to go to work. I get to be busy with life. I get to be involved. I get to work around people I like. I get to have a place to go. I get to still earn an income. I get to still play a meaningful role in our business. What a gift.

Maybe today when you got up, you wished you could sleep a little longer and wished you didn’t have to leave the house. Maybe today you didn’t realized what a joy and gift it is to still be needed at work. Many times the greatest joys in life is realizing the simple things that we already have. KT