Who Is Your ... Favorite Role Model?
Stop!
????Think about this …
You Will Acquire the Qualities …
????You Admire in Others?
Choose your role models wisely.
I never had a mentor. That is a statement, not a regret. Even though I had no mentors, I found several excellent role models.
My favorite role model was Hubert Hollums.
As a youngster, Mr. Hollums and my family were members of the same church, but I did not know him.
?
My first contact with him was as a customer. I was a 13-year-old-boy delivering afternoon newspapers on a bicycle. The newspapers were dropped off from a truck at a vacant lot next to his Shell service station.
I never spent more than 10￠ in his service station. That was the amount of my usual purchase, a Coke, and a candy bar or a package of peanut butter crackers.?
He treated me like a valued customer!
In fact, Mr. Hollums treated me with the same respect as a customer who bought a full tank of gas or a new set of tires.
While waiting for the truck to bring my newspapers, I liked to watch the men working in Mr. Hollums’ garage. The people at most businesses didn’t want a 13-year-old boy hanging around watching them work and would chase me off.
?
Mr. Hollums was different. No matter how long I was there ?… no one ever suggested that I was not welcome and should leave.
At an early age, I recognized there was something special about Hubert Hollums.
Mr. Hollums started in business with a service station and became one the most successful and respected businessmen on the south side of Atlanta, Georgia.
He was a devoted family man and very active in our church.
When I was elected to serve on the board of our church, I saw him as an extraordinary member. He never sought the spotlight; he quietly encouraged people and promoted harmony.
He was sincerely kind and … always found … the positive side of every issue.
Mr. Hollums was generous and benevolent, but he was quiet about his giving and did not seek recognition.
I admired him as I grew older as much … no … even more, than when I was a boy.
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Over the years, I had many opportunities to watch Mr. Hollums.?Whatever he did … he was all-in … not a token in-name-only participant. ?
I was privileged to serve with him more than 20 years as a trustee of Atlanta Christian College (now Point University). He quietly supported the college financially and openly shared his outstanding business skills.
At a college board meeting, Mr. Hollums surprised the trustees when he announced because of his age, 83, he would retire so he could be replaced with a younger person.
I took advantage of the opportunity and asked the chairman to let me make a few comments.
I stood … faced Mr. Hollums, and … spoke directly to him.
I doubt that, before that day, Mr. Hollums knew … what he had meant to me.
I told him for the first time, that he had been my favorite role model and … why. Beginning with when I was a newspaper boy 47 years earlier, I described how he had served as a role model for me.?And thanked him for the powerful and positive impact he had on my life.
I went into more detail and used more examples than I have space here to write.
Controlling my emotions was difficult, but it was an experience that I treasure. ?I knew I might never again have the opportunity to thank him directly for modeling qualities I admired so much and I told him …
“You have been my favorite role model.”
When the meeting adjourned and we began to leave, a professor came up to me and said,
????“Jimmy, you are Mr. Hollums.”
??????????Did I become the man I admired?
Will you become the person you admire?
?????Choose your role models wisely!
Have you chosen your role models?
????Choose your role models wisely!
Remember …
?????You Will Acquire the Qualities You Admire In Others!
--- Jimmy Collins
Like stories? My latest book?Jimmy’s Stories?is available on Amazon.
More principles are in my book,?Creative Followership. Available on Amazon.