My blog this week changed as a result of an untimely loss. Recently, a good friend of mine died in a tragic accident. He was an accomplished attorney in the local area, a tireless volunteer in the community, and more importantly, in this regard, a U.S. Marine officer many years ago. Our friendship grew out of two overlapping areas of interest - exercising regularly at a local gym and flying airplanes together. As you might imagine, we had some hearty conversations in both venues. On one particular day, after my buddy read my recent Five Guys in General blog entry, he wrote a note back sharing this sage advice:
"Glad you are doing this because as we both know, if the right people don’t lead, then the wrong people lead. Not everyone has the ability to understand leadership and you are correct, with any endeavor the first thing you always have to do is get the right team on the bus, which means, sometimes you have to get other people off the bus.
Second, you have to find people with the right attitude. Remember, ultimate freedom is the right of a person to choose their attitude.
Third, you have to find and develop what each team member wants to achieve from being a part of the team, because only those who have stated and defined goals will be motivated to achieve.
Fourth, you have to find people that have the leadership qualities to take all glory of any success and give it away.
I have said this to my girls’ volleyball teams over and over and over again and it goes like this:
1. What is your purpose? To win!
2. How do you win? Through teamwork!
3. How do you achieve teamwork? Make everyone else the star!"
Great advice from my perspective.
And so, I offer this guest blog from a friend who left us suddenly as the result of a tragic accident. You can tell he had some impressive training and mentoring from the United States Marine Corps - but he also had a hardy love of life’s simple pleasures like flying, sports and camaraderie that yielded basic rules on how to win at games like volleyball - and in life in general. I’ll miss this friendly, outgoing community leader and father.
Semper Fi - Always faithful…!
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