Month: December 2013

Here is the seventh best thing I learned last year:

Great Words – When our son left for college, I started texting him a motivational quote each class day. He never mentioned receiving them; yet, the first time I missed – five weeks later – he texted, “No quote?” I fulfilled this commitment 62 out of 75 days before he returned home for the holidays. These are my favorites:

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” ~ Maria Robinson

“Mister, when you read Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s not on trial. You are.” ~ Justice Antonin Scalia, quoting his sophomore high school English teacher, Jesuit priest Tom Matthews

“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.” ~ Voltaire

 

Counting down the Top 10 Things I learned last year. Number eight:

Not Impressive – Our son, newly graduated from high school, was to begin an internship with 21 others at a Fortune Top 10 company. Having completed the extensive paperwork months earlier, as of the Friday before, he didn’t know who to see upon arrival. He called the contact. No reply. Monday arrived. He called at 8 a.m. A return email came hours later: “Looks like it will be next week. I’ll be in touch.” The following Monday another email appeared: “We’ve decided not to have an internship program this summer. You should make other plans.” It amazes me how poorly some leaders deal with communication of difficult news. It amazes me even more how poorly some adults treat tomorrow’s leaders.

 

The ninth best thing I learned during 2013:

Living Credo – Logos Bible Software had a glitch in August that resulted in many online prices being listed at zero. Dozens of people took advantage of this unintentional bargain in the few minutes before programmers fixed it. “We’ve heard from some asking if they needed to return the free products,” blogged president and CEO Bob Pritchett. “We made a mistake. We own it, we learn from it, and we welcome the chance to show we mean what we say about values and ‘The Logos Way.'” That’s easy when the error is minimal. This one cost Logos $40,000.

 

Each December, I take a break from my typical monthly newsletter to reflect on the ‘Top 10 Things’ I learned during the year. Here’s wishing you much joy and prosperity this holiday season… as we begin with Lesson #10:

Tracking Knowledge – In March, I started logging a spreadsheet of what I learn. One reason was so I wouldn’t have to scratch my head to remember the lessons below. There are 57 entries about things I didn’t know – from notes on how to be a better coach, to examples of excellent customer engagement, to the humility of Pope Francis. (‘When he was still Rev. Jorge Bergoglio, the man who espouses service to others did laundry for seminarians under his tutelage.’) You might want to begin keeping your own list January 1… and chart how much you grow during 2014.

 

Before sitting down to write this month’s issue of Fast:Forward, I re-read each of my previous 119 newsletters. Over the past 10 years, I’ve written about three hurricanes, two inaugurations and one lengthy economic malaise. I embarked on several journeys knowing I would share the experiences with readers, including: booking the first-ever JetBlue flight out of Houston; inviting my favorite author, William Martin – who I didn’t know – to have dinner in Boston; taking up swimming as exercise at age 50. I opened up about jury duty for a capital murder trial and having to decide my position on the death penalty, reflected on the passing of two mentors and described what it was like to be a blind shopper.

My first year-end ‘Lessons Learned’ column appeared in 2007, and the response was so positive I’ve made it an annual endeavor. (Good decision: two of the three Decembers prior to that I had discussed the wisdom of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Marcia Brady.) Other times I shared stories about the seafood restaurant in Ft. Myers that ran out of fish, the formerly homeless young man from our community who is now a budding NBA star and the cleanest bathrooms in America at Buc-ee’s.

The best compliment I received from a reader was: “You have a talent for taking people and events that don’t appear to have anything in common with your point and making it all come together with ideas for business and life.” Emails like that ignite the energy that flows through my fingers onto the keyboard. I’m the vessel; the inspiration clearly comes from elsewhere.

Overall, I identified the list below of 77 people who – in all their human frailty – have appeared in my newsletters as guiding lights of leadership, vision and grace:

Presidents
John Adams
Abraham Lincoln
John F. Kennedy
Gerald Ford
Ronald Reagan
Barack Obama

Supreme Court Justices
Sandra Day O’Connor

Politicians
Robert Gates
Rudy Giuliani (2 times)
Colin Powell (2)

Astronauts
John Glenn
Neil Armstong
Walter Schiarra

Heroes
Baby Jessica
Louis Zamperini
Chesley Sullenberger

Visionaries
Gutenberg
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton
Thomas Edison
Henry Ford (2)
Walt Disney (3)
Warren Buffett
Steve Jobs
Michael Dell
Allan Mullaly
David Neeleman (2)
Bob Parsons
Mark Zuckerberg
Tony Hsieh
Elon Musk (2)

Fiction Writers
Edgar Allan Poe
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Mark Twain
J.K. Rowling
William Martin (3)

Business Writers
Peter Drucker
Stephen Covey (2)
Tom Peters (2)
Jim Collins (3)
Seth Godin (5)
Malcolm Gladwell
Patrick Lencioni (3)
Daniel Pink
Marhsall Goldsmith

Musicians
The Beatles
Mick Jagger
Bruce Springsteen (3)
Michael Jackson
Sting
Bono
Nickelback
Supersonic

Personalities
Will Rogers
Leopold Stokowski
Paul Harvey
Dick Clark
Tim Russert
Merle Harmon

Entertainers
Maureen McCormick
George Lucas
Michael J. Fox
Sandra Bullock

Athletes
Jackie Robinson
Darrell Royal
James Street
Herb Brooks
Bart Conner/Nadia Comaneci
Bill Walsh
Michael Phelps (4)
James Casey
Tim Tebow
Colt McCoy/Jordan Shipley
Tiger Woods (2)
Rory McIlroy
Missy Franklin
Jimmy Butler