2021 hasn’t gotten the clean, fresh start that I had hoped for, but the best time to start something positive is the present. Here are some thoughts that won’t lead to instant gratification (or a fired-up base), but they might be worth keeping in mind (even if it’s the back of our minds).
Treat others as you’d like to be treated. Growing up, this was known as the golden rule. Its brilliance is that it works as well for a three-year-old as it does for the most powerful among us. It seems simple and maybe trite, but if you really think about it, it’s as close to a perfect rule for daily life as you can find.
Don’t point fingers (cast blame) at others. Again, I can clearly remember the childish saying about my three fingers pointing back at me. As we grow up and get more learned, we start focusing on getting better and better at proving/defending our beliefs, which, of course, is important in any society, however, there is an easy trap of becoming self-righteous and seeing the blame in others and focusing so much on building that case that it takes over as our priority–that is a shame and a waste of our talent and resources.
I told you so. Unfortunately, this is my favorite. I too often catch myself in the act or even looking forward to it. Even though I learned as a kid not to say it, it’s hard to get it out of the back of my mind. It’s such a sweet short term victory of our egos. But from too much past experience, I realize that 99% of the time, it wasn’t worth it. Whomever I was saying it to is now deeply motivated to get me back, and so the cycle continues–karma and the golden rule deep at play.
You might be thinking, “Jerry, these rules are well and good for teaching our kids not to hit each other or to say mean things, but it’s completely naive to think that they are applicable in our highly charged and complicated ‘adult’ world.” Well, apparently so, because I don’t see many of our ‘leaders’ today even attempting to following any of them. The innate logic behind this is that in order to get people out of their houses and drive the percentage of votes that are necessary to win an election, their emotions need to be highly charged. In other words, to get more people out to vote, you have to first get them riled up and emotional. And, it’s hard to get people really fired up with high-minded talk about respect, kindness, and living by the rules that we want our kids to follow.
Again, I can already anticipate the feedback on why this standard of behavior won’t work and that today’s leader needs to be a shrewd operator and tough enough to defeat their vicious opponents (inside and outside our borders). I remember reading about a study where scientists, through stimulation, were able to drive rats to turn on each other in a frenzy. Eventually, they were able to reduce the stimulus to zero. Rats became programmed to attack other rats. Are we becoming those rats?
Speak softly and carry a big stick. The heroes of my youth were portrayed as the strong silent types. Ladies and gentlemen who were never picked a fight but could definitely finish them when required. They weren’t loud mouths and didn’t brag. They were first to lend a hand to those in need and would stand up to aggressors on behalf of the bullied. Their word and honor meant everything and you could count on that.
Sure, maybe this was just a made up portrayal for novels and movies, but it set a much better example than what we see in our world today. I know that you know what I mean so I’ll just skip the examples of what has become the norm on TV and music. It really has to be confusing for kids these days. Many modern-day ‘heroes’ (the ones in the media) don’t behave anything like this.
Factfulness— Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than you Think, by Hans Rosling, really helped me to identify some common misconceptions and to challenge some of my own preconceived notions. It’s also reassuring to see some objective data that supports a positive progression in our world. We are rarely exposed to objectivity.
Business: Company-wide, we are hanging in there and, relatively speaking, learning to thrive in an evolving and challenging environment. I’ve said it before, but the key to it all is having good people on the team. Time and time again, it’s our best teams with the strongest leadership that adapt and overcome. I’m very grateful for ours.
Community: I’m super proud and excited to announce that we reached our goal of selling 2,000 Patriot Burgers which directly generated $10,000 to strengthen our veteran communities through Combined Arms. Additionally, we generated contributions from fellow patriots to bring our total raised to almost $20,000! Boiler House Texas Grill in San Antonio dominated our internal sales competition, followed by The Tasting Room in Houston. Both of those locations have decided to continue with Operation Patriot Burger and raising money and awareness for our veterans–congrats to all involved who took positive action to make our country a better place!
Cheers, Texas–together we can thrive!
Jerry
