Unexpected Heros

Happy Friday, Cadre crew. Super excited to chit chat with you today. I wanted to talk about unexpected heroes, born and raised. I was born in a traditional family, mother and a father. Grandma, grandpa, grandma, grandpa. I have a lot of heroes. I had a lot of those expected heroes, my mom, my dad, my grandma, grandpas. And they were wonderful. And still different values and philosophy, etcetera, in me. But it's those unexpected heroes that provide value and change. And one of those individuals that I wanted to share with you today was when I took my first big job, my first big role ever after graduating college.

And it was working for an organization in Duluth, Minnesota. And he was the general manager of the organization. Him and I were kind of like the old oil water, and, you know, we rubbed each other the wrong way. And I was a 24, 25 year old whipper snapper, and I had all this ambition and drive and energy. And he was a little bit older. He was getting closer to retirement, and he had all this wisdom. I didn't see it at the time, but all those philosophies and all those things that he talked about that at the time were nails on a chalkboard to me.

I'll give you an example. One was, we always kind of joked around how he could probably, you know, how much, know, how much toilet paper was gone out of the company. We'd always kind of kid around with that when we were, like I said, younger. And, you know, thinking about it today is he ran a really efficient business, and he treated people so well, and he, he established a really incredible work life balance for, for all of us. And he drove those things, you know, before they were even, like, topics of taboo.

And they were taboo topics, you know, before now that, you know, he brought them forth. And I'm really proud to have this individual in my life at that, at that time, which ultimately has affected me so much 15 years later in imparting that wisdom onto individuals. So what I'm, what I'm asking you for today is think about your life. Think about your life of maybe there's first job, maybe the. Maybe a second job. Maybe it was people you rub shoulders with the wrong way or whatever it was. And did you take good from that?

Did you learn from that? Did you take those experiences and blend them into value for you in your life? And I will tell you again, I just want to say this. One of the individuals that changed my life the most 15 years later, 16 years later, was an individual that we really didn't connect very well. And I'm just really proud of him and the work that he provided for that agency. He's since retired but I can only hope someday to be as good as a general manager leader as he was. And I can see why. Everything he did was very systematic with a drive, with professionalism, with an energy, you know, about him that was yes, geared towards the bottom line but, you know, really imparted so much wisdom on all of his employees.

He treated people with respect, did everything the right way. So again I ask you, you know those unexpected heroes in your life that come across as almost, for lack of better words, confrontational at times that churn really positive. Be careful. Those unexpected heroes will come into your life when you least expect it. Enjoy it. Have a wonderful weekend, y'all. I appreciate you. Do something special and keep your eyes out for those unexpected or think about some of those stories that you've had in your life.

Thanks, everybody. Bye.