View from the Summit

Any male can be a father, but it takes a special man to be a dad.

Having a little success naturally puts you in the “leadership” position. I have been fortunate enough for almost 40 years now to work for myself. As a result of that alone, I get numerous inquiries about what are the “best practices” and "I must do this or that” questions. Every answer I have is not the solution to every single problem area. Often, what I have to say will not solve your situation or even moderately make it better. You must use discernment; gather a consensus from the multitudes and listen to trusted advisors.

However, there is a topic I would like to discuss with you today that I can say with total confidence and 100% certainty will cause you indescribable excruciating pain if it goes unguarded. What I am about to share is, and always has been, a monumental distraction for many people.

·      Wars have been fought over it.

·      Families destroyed as a result of it.

·      Careers abandoned overnight because of it.

·      Children maimed and scarred forever as a repercussion from it.

·      Great men and women marked by shame for decades as a direct result of it.

I so wish this story were not true, but it is. It was a Wednesday morning around 7:30 AM late 2001, I was on my way to the office. A beautiful morning, hot, but it was still early and the morning air felt nice. I was traveling down a main four lane road that leads directly into Nashville. I was driving on the inside lane, next to the turning lane. Just to my right a Metro bus had stopped in the middle of the road, not at a bus stop, just in the middle of the road. I noticed to my far left a man running across two lanes of oncoming traffic and paused in the turning lane. He was waiting on my lane of traffic to clear so that he might proceed to catch the waiting bus. I slowed momentarily to make certain he was waiting to cross, and then proceeded. This all took place in a couple seconds. I'm sure you understand, when driving we make a lot of calculations in our minds every few seconds. Just as I started to pass him, he took off running to catch the bus, and at that very instant both our lives would forever change.

Holland America can teach everyone about perfection. Early every morning, I sip dark roasted coffee sitting next to the window on the Lido Deck. It's on the 9th floor of the Westerdam, a fabulous cruise ship that treks through the Caribbean weekly. Getting up early allows me a unique perspective that many guests never get to experience. I know. You're thinking, "What an idiot, you need to be in your suite sleeping." The unnoticed tasks are immeasurable. I titled a few noteworthy ones "The Dynamic Duo". While you were still asleep, this pair was combing over the Lido Deck like well-trained detectives. One with a clipboard in hand and the other fully equipped with a laser focused flashlight. Everything from the hot sauce to the telephone gets inspected from stem to stern. I interrupted them momentarily to inquire about the depth of their investigation. One simple sentence was all they offered: "Yes, this is what we do."