WARNING - WARNING - WARNING
WARNING – WARNING – WARNING
If you read to the end of my post, you’ll be required to do some stuff. You’ve been warned, so settle in.
Hello to my LinkedIn colleagues, pals and family. We are 7 days away from Thanksgiving. SEVEN DAYS!
This week was awesome, and it’s only Thursday morning, so there is much more awesome ahead. I don’t make promises lightly, and I don’t take the use of parentheses and ellipses lightly – but I do promise that I’ll likely overuse them.
Got home from my travel last night and I spent time online chatting with my friend Dan. Dan lives in Israel, and though we’ve never actually met, we struck up a friendship on a Facebook guitar group that we both moderate. I’ve played guitar for many years, and let me tell you…Dan is one of my guitar playing spirit animals. He is amazing. Dan is also an expert rock climber; something I could absolutely never do. Last night we spent more time discussing rock climbing than guitar stuff.
Dan shared that if you want to get ‘way up there’ – you have to look around, think about the path, and realize that the best path, the most successful path, means that sometimes you’ve got to move sideways, back a bit or pause to take an additional look. Simply going forward is not the way to own the rock. He also shared that before a climb, its smart to ask a lot of questions…and to question what you think you know. Hmmm…
Dan has climbed and owned many rocks in his life.
This week, I had the absolute pleasure of meeting (yes, in real life) Andrew Clarke (our CEO), and Victoria Taylor (SVP of Merchandising). We traveled through Colorado with my awesome partner and leader in the market Alissa…and spent time with a few of our awesome teams (BTW…they are all awesome).
That stuff up above that I wrote about my friend Dan. Yup…that’s the stuff we did. We asked questions and considered paths. We didn’t sell the idea that there is ‘one way’ – we leveraged all of the collective energy, smarts, opinions and talent to learn. And learning from all of those smart and talented people around you just allows you to own that rock.
Asking to ask is appeasement – that is NOT what happened.
Asking to learn, valuing the feedback/opinion…thought (there goes that ellipse again!) is where the power comes from…and that is what happened. Candor, authenticity, and truth – that is what happened.
That 16 year old kid that you hired into their first job. If you listen, I bet you’ll learn…we’ve all been that 16 year old kid.
It was a great week.
Welp. You’ve read this far, so, now…(ellipses again) you are committed.
You must do these three things before the week is up:
*Do something nice for yourself
*Do something nice for someone you know
*Do something nice for someone you do not know
Remember, you promised – and like me, you do not take promises lightly. Post below and let me know what you did! Follow up is important - LOL
And on to my promise…my 90+ year young mom reminds me (almost daily)…this too shall pass.
As always, I remind you that we are all in this together. If you need a shoulder, a chat, a cup of virtual coffee, advice…or anything. Just reach out.
Let’s all win the rock. Together.
Oh, one last thing. If you’ve never tried Skinny Dipped dark chocolate almonds – please get some (Target, Costco…) and thank me later. ??
Pretty cool Jerry!! Finding doing for others is doing for myself, it gives me so much happiness. And for a stranger...while at Costco it started to pour, an elder was in a mobile grocery cart trying to get to his vehicle. He was waiting for the rain to slow, which it didn't (its Florida) so I said to my granddaughter, we need to help him somehow, he was all alone. We walked over to him and asked if we could take his groceries to his car, he declined, said it will stop soon. Didnt look like it, so... I said how about this, we will use your clicker find your car and bring it to you, the man was hesitant, but relieved. We made a new friend that day.
Great post Jerry! As I read to the bottom, I realized that I accomplished these 3 things just yesterday! 1. Treated myself to a much needed mani/pedi. 2. Did a porch drop off of groceries for a friend battling an illness. 3. And while I was in line with those groceries, a young girl nearby (maybe 10) was buying her mom a gift. I heard her say... “oh no! I didn’t think about the tax and I don’t have enough” so I handed her $5 to cover it. I could see the smile in her eyes and how grateful she was. That really made my day! Wishing you a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving weekend!
Area Manager
4 年Truly an amazing story ! And yes I will! ??
General Manager of Town to Trail Outfitters & Licensed Real Estate Professional
4 年Jerry, loved your story! And what a great analogy to business and growth! Always looking around, behind and listening before you move forward. Excellent post and I will do those 3 things you requested this week!! Be well my friend!