"The Seven words that will save your career"!

 

The Seven Words That Saved My Career: Lessons from a Life of Gracious Teachers

Reflections on learning, humility, and the power of “I don’t know, but I’ll find out”

We all have teachers who shape us—not just in the classroom, but in the winding corridors of our lives. Their lessons arrive in unexpected moments, often at times of loss, transition, or challenge. For me, those lessons began early, after my mother passed away when I was just 13. In the vacuum her absence left, my grandmother—Mama—stepped in, offering not just comfort but wisdom, the kind that roots itself deeply and quietly in one’s character.

I’ve written before about Mama’s “Tobacco Plug” and the story of the “Turkey Bag,” pivotal moments that ignited my passion for legacy and storytelling. But she wasn’t the only source of wisdom in my youth. My Aunt Lorraine, my mother’s sister, imparted what would become known in our family as “Aunt Lorraine’s Law,” a principle that’s guided me through countless decisions, both personal and professional.

As I grew older, my list of teachers expanded beyond family, finding new mentors in the workplace. Throughout my career, I was fortunate to work under remarkable leaders who were, above all, remarkable teachers—many of whom I’ve honored in previous essays. One of the most widely read essays on this blog comes features lessons from a former CEO of The Coca Cola Company, (https://fylegacy.blogspot.com/2009/05/teachable-point-of-view.html) and another often quoted story comes from my first boss at Kimberly-Clark (https://fylegacy.blogspot.com/2009/06/authenticity-foundation-of-leadership.html).  But one story, from my time as an MBA student at Vanderbilt University, stands out with particular clarity today.

It was the fall of 1984. I was in my second year, focused more on marketing and sales than on accounting, which had always seemed an opaque science to me. That semester, I found myself enrolled in Intermediate Accounting, taught by the inimitable Professor Tim DuBois. Now, “character” is too mild a word for Tim; he was a Renaissance man, as comfortable on stage as he was in the lecture hall—a published songwriter and a rising star in Nashville’s music industry. He’d even penned the hit song “Love in the First Degree” for the band Alabama.

One Tuesday morning in October—October 9th, to be precise, the day after the 1984 CMA Awards—Professor DuBois arrived in the lecture hall still wearing his tuxedo from the night before. Alabama had just won Entertainer of the Year, and it was obvious Tim hadn’t gone home to change, or perhaps even to sleep. He tossed his overcoat onto the overhead projector and, leaning heavily against it, confessed that the morning’s lesson would be brief. The hangover, he admitted, was pending.

But what followed was a masterclass in humility and professional wisdom. “There are seven words that will save your career,” he drawled in his distinctive Oklahoma accent. “‘I don’t know, but I’ll find out.’” We leaned in, captivated. He went on to explain that at some point, each of us would be confronted with a difficult question or a daunting task, and we’d feel compelled to bluff our way through. That impulse, he warned, was a career-ending trap. Far better to admit our ignorance and commit to seeking the answer.

The lesson lasted barely ten minutes, but its impact endures. Professor DuBois gathered his things and headed out, presumably for a well-earned nap. I have since shared his words with hundreds of colleagues and mentees. In fact, I was reminded of them just last week. Over dinner with an investment banker, I fielded a series of intricate questions about a company’s balance sheet. I handled most with ease, but soon hit a wall—a detail escaped me. The echo of Professor DuBois’s voice rang in my ears, and I found myself saying, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out.” Not only did the honesty strengthen our conversation, but it also offered a teachable moment: I recounted the story of that fateful morning in 1984, passing the lesson forward.

The banker, far too young to remember that distant October, was grateful. He planned to share the story with his own team. And so, the wisdom of Professor DuBois continues to ripple outward, shaping generations in industries far from his own.

As you consider your own journey, reflect on your “teachers”—those who have nudged, guided, and inspired you along the way. Find fresh ways to honor them. Share their lessons, not just for nostalgia’s sake, but so their wisdom might light the path for others, as it once did for you.

Sometimes, the most powerful thing we can say isn’t “I know,” but “I’ll find out.” In those seven words lies the humility to learn and the courage to grow—a lesson for us all, no matter where our story began.

 

The change ( and progress) signified with the ending of "Dial-up" Internet

Change Is Certain, Progress Is Not: Reflections on Four Decades of Technological and Cultural Transformation

From Acoustic Couplers to Artificial Intelligence—A Personal Journey

The news that AOL, once "America On Line," will soon retire its dial-up service may seem like a minor blip in today's digital landscape. In reality, this quiet ending is a poignant milestone in a vast parade of technological evolution—one that I have had the privilege of witnessing, and at times being bewildered by, over the course of my adult life and 40+ year business career. As I approach my 64th birthday, reflections abound: not only on inventions and obsolescence, but also on the intricate dance between change and progress, and how we find meaning and direction within the whirlwind.

AOL's Farewell: The End of a Digital Era

In about a month, AOL will cease offering dial-up internet access—a service that was, for a time, the very lifeblood of the online world. Dial-up, with its iconic screech and hiss, connected a generation to the vastness of cyberspace. Today, less than 0.1% of U.S. households still use it, but its departure serves as a gentle requiem not just for a technology, but for an era marked by anticipation and discovery. For many, the phrase "You've got mail!" is not just nostalgia; it's a reminder of simpler, slower, more deliberate connections.

This moment has prompted me to look back—not only at AOL, but at the sweeping revolutions that have defined my professional and personal journey. These are not merely changes in gadgets or services; they are shifts in how we communicate, work, learn, and dream.

The Pace and Paradox of Change

When I started college in 1979, the landscape was unrecognizable by today's standards. Imagine embarking on higher education without cell phones, personal computers, the internet, social media, email, text messaging, ride-sharing apps, and the myriad conveniences that now define everyday life. These things simply did not exist. The notion that, in 2025, we carry in our pockets devices more powerful than the mainframes of yesteryear would have seemed like science fiction.

Throughout the decades, I have often remarked: "Change is certain, progress is not." These words echo truer with each passing year. While the pace of innovation is exhilarating—at times, mind-boggling—it is not always accompanied by corresponding improvements in quality of life, equity, or happiness. There is a fundamental distinction between change—the ceaseless evolution of tools, systems, and paradigms—and progress, which is the meaningful, positive transformation of our human experience.

The Mainframe and the Modem: Early Days of Computing

One story from my college years illustrates both the marvel and the madness of early computing. In a statistics class, we were required to master regression analysis, starting with the basics—working out the "Least Squares Method" with pencil and paper. But the real magic happened with SPSS, a software package still used today (now as "IBM SPSS").

Back then, using SPSS was a logistical adventure. We typed our data into a keyboard equipped with an acoustic coupler. After programming our inputs, we would dial a touch-tone phone, listen for the static handshake, and nestle the receiver into the coupler, connecting us to a mainframe computer at Ohio State—over a hundred miles away. Our batch projects were submitted to run whenever mainframe time became available, often overnight. The following day, we would check back for results—or, more often than not, to discover a keystroke error that required another cycle of patience and repetition.

It is literally astonishing to compare that ritual with the present. Today, I can run a regression analysis on my smartphone, in seconds. What once took hours or days is now compressed into moments. This is, without question, a triumph of both change and progress.

Witness to Revolutions

My career has been shaped by a dizzying succession of revolutions—plural with intent. From analog to digital, from local to global, from scarcity of information to its overwhelming abundance. Each wave has brought new tools, opportunities, and challenges.

Consider the workplace: Once, communication meant memos, phone calls, and face-to-face meetings. Now, email, instant messaging, and video conferences have redefined collaboration, but also introduced new distractions and anxieties. Financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, education—no sector has been immune to the relentless march of innovation.

Yet, amid this acceleration, questions persist: Are we more productive, or merely busier? More connected, or more distracted? Does each new technology bring us closer together, or isolate us within our curated digital bubbles? The answers are nuanced, and the relationship between change and progress is anything but linear.

The Advent of Artificial Intelligence: A New Frontier

Today, we stand on the cusp of yet another technological revolution—artificial intelligence. The headlines are filled with speculation, hope, and fear about AI's impact on jobs, business, industry, and society at large. Prognosticators abound, offering visions both utopian and dystopian.

I do not claim to be an "early adopter," but neither am I a Luddite. AI, to me, is simply the latest set of tools to be explored, understood, and harnessed. I have begun to incorporate AI into my work—using it to edit and enhance my writing, to conduct advanced searches, to learn and to question. I am acutely aware that I am in the earliest days of this journey, just as unsure and awed as I was in front of that acoustic-coupler-equipped keyboard all those years ago.

The difference, perhaps, is that I now have the wisdom to appreciate both the promise and the pitfalls of new technology. I know that no tool is inherently good or bad; its value lies in how it is used, and for what purpose. Change is certain, but progress must be pursued, shaped, and, at times, defended.

Finding Progress Amidst Change

So, as AOL prepares to fade into the tapestry of history, I am reminded that the true measure of any technological revolution lies not in its novelty, but in its capacity to serve human flourishing. The tools we invent and adopt should expand our possibilities, deepen our connections, and enrich our lives—not merely accelerate our pace or multiply our distractions.

As I move toward another milestone birthday, I do not wish to be absent from the journey ahead. I want to remain curious, adaptable, and engaged—to keep questioning how each wave of change can be transformed into genuine progress. The revolutions of the past forty years have been incredible, and those still to come will be no less so. My hope is that we all find ways to steer these changes toward a future that is not just different, but better.

In the end, perhaps that is the greatest lesson of a life spent amid technological upheaval: that while change is certain, progress is not—but it is always within our reach, if we are willing to seek it out, shape it, and share it.

postscript:  you might notice a change in the font/layout/use of color in the essay above vs some of my past postings.... yes indeed an outcome of me using an AI tool to take my original essay and suggest edits based on grammar and on techniques to help readability on a blog platform... a helpful tool indeed!

Leadership requirements for a very challenging world!

 

 

Over the years (now more than 16 years) since I started posting essays on this blog, I have intentionally steered away from partisan political topics.  In our ever more stratified world and country, I have worked to be a voice sharing thoughts about lessons of leadership and life. stories, insights and experiences (literally printed on the “masthead” of my blog) that would resonate and connect to readers across countries, continents and political affiliations.  Today I turn my attention to the path ahead in this country (and I suspect it will have broader application) and what I see as a “requirement” for leaders working to be agents of progress in a challenging world.  While my data source may seem partisan, my intent is to use the FACTS of today to push us as leaders to be mor effective in light of the challenges of tomorrow.

Last week, right before the holiday the house passed the budget bill that had come back to them as part of the “budget reconciliation legislative process” from the senate.  The FACTS of the bill are stark and have been widely reported…. Including extended tax cuts for wealthier Americans, budget increases for Defense and ICE, with large budget cuts in SNAP and Medicaid… all resulting in a significant increase in the budget deficit and an expansion of our National Debt.  What has been equally well reported is the broad unpopularity of the bill captured in polls taken across the last month or so featured below.  While its a dangerous idea to try to lead and govern a  country based on polls of the moment, this is a brutal picture that shows just how unpopular this bill is across a wide range of individual polls and polling methodologies.

My purpose for this essay is not to complain about this bill or prognosticate on the implications of the budget moves (there is plenty of that going on in the media currently.) My intent is to share a few thoughts that have struck me on how I need to act/operate as a leader today in light of the FACTS of the budget and our current landscape and encourage other leaders to join in thinking about their approach as well.

A few key ideas/themes keep resonating as priorities going forward… and here are three that I am currently working hard on implementing:

Clear Eyed:  

We live at a time of incredible and accelerating change.  Historic global norms, alliances, business models, tariff plans, tax policies, supreme court rulings emerge and fall by the wayside daily and it’s difficult to keep up with the barrage of headlines announcing the latest dynamics.  In this context, I am working to stay current and accurate with the facts at hand while also working to NOT get whip-sawed by the histrionics being applied to these moves by any political party or orientation.  It’s why I used the spelling of “FACTS” in capital letters above as I commented on the recently passed budget bill.  While the potential implications are always important to consider… it’s the “FACTS” that are in the bill that will be most important to “see” clearly.  Now more than ever I am focused on that “clear-eyed” approach and am working hard to bring that to life daily.

Positive/productively focused on tomorrow

I have always “joked” that we were just trying to “make tomorrow a little bit better than yesterday” as a way of describing my focus for the business/team/organization that I was involved with at that moment.  While a historic “joke,” that admonition seems like a “stretch-goal” in today’s reality.  Considering the challenges that are emerging from so many facets of life, it’s difficult to keep “working on tomorrow” with a positive/productive tone.  Regardless of the challenges and pressures, I know I need to keeping working on my “positive/productive” headset and to keep my focus and action on ways to improve the ‘tomorrows” for all of us!

More resilient than ever

Recently I posted an essay on the topic of resilience ( see more at, https://fylegacy.blogspot.com/2025/06/resilience-vital-priority-for-leaders.html)  The idea was to reinforce that for leaders that “resiliency” was a very important characteristic, centered around the definition of “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.”  This idea that we need to “recover quickly” seems truer and more relevant today than when I posted that essay just a month or two ago.  I am focused on how I can bounce back/ “recover quickly” from challenges and issues that arise. 

As we face the dynamics and challenges that lie ahead… either in your specific challenging business landscape or in the wildly changing political world…. keep these three ideas in mind.  While certainly no panacea, I believe that these three “leadership requirements” are more important today and in the days ahead than in any time of my now 40+ year business career and professional life. 

The ultimate demonstration of power is to give power away.

 

 

It is with humility and an awareness of the “unpopularity” of this topic that I begin today’s essay.  Here in 2025, in a world torn apart by war, mis-trust and strife… and in a nation deeply and often violently divided on ideological/partisan lines, it’s hard to imagine that I would suggest a leadership concept that DID NOT build on the concept of the dominating strength of an individual leader.  I am explicitly suggesting that by looking at history and seeking models in today’s landscape we can learn the truth to the idea that the “ultimate demonstration of power is to give power away.”

As is often my bent, I take a page from history and look to the end of the American Revolutionary war in 1783.  Having defeated the British army at Yorktown and signed a peace treaty officially ending hostilities, thus forming the United States of America as a new world nation, it was unclear how power, specifically the executive power of this new country would be established.  The following is a quote from the Maryland state archives,

“At the end of the Revolutionary War, many people in America and Europe thought Washington would retain the reins of power to become the leader of the new nation, or even king. When told by the American artist Benjamin West that Washington was going to resign, King George III of England said "If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world."”

This comment from King George III of England from that time is at the center of my premise… that by walking away from power, by giving it “back” to the infant federal government Washington would be the “greatest man in the world”… simply by taking the action of “giving power away.”  While an incredible historic moment in 1783, it was one repeated later that century when Washington “stepped down” as President after his second term, leading to our first “presidential election” which was a hotly contested one (ultimately won by John Adams) in 1796.  Though being asked, encouraged and at times “coerced” into a third term, Washington once again had the strength and conviction to “give power away” and not serve a third term as President, thus retiring to Mt. Vernon where he passed away soon after in 1799.  The picture above, hangs in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capital shows General George Washington resigning his commission at the end of the war.  While a historic depiction of the actual event, it has tremendous symbolic meaning reinforcing the primacy of the civilian elected officials of congress over the power of the military, and the central foundation of that congress rooted in the U.S. constitution… a history lesson well worth remembering today in the light of the recent “No Kings” rallies across all 50 states!

As I mentioned in the first sentence above, this concept of “giving power away” as an act of power certainly seems foreign in our political landscape today; equally rarely see it practiced well in the universe of business.  Business leaders are expected to be decisive, have all the answers, be clear thinking in times of uncertainty and to somehow “divine” the future trends coming at a business regardless of industry country.  It is in this context that I often go back to the quote from Warren Buffet below.  

 

His comments about the idea that “True power is about sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint.” rings so true to me and my personal leadership journey.  “True power” emanating from restraint is so hard to achieve, especially in times of uncertainty and crisis.  “Sitting back” and working to logically understand the situation at hand WITHOUT EMOTION is so key to leading an organization through challenging moments…so key to being truly powerful as a leader FOR the enterprise that is being led.

Take a few moments when you can to find ways to “give power away” and look for avenues of impact within your organization ( or colleagues outside of your team) where those actions of “restraint” can have a powerful productive impact.

postscript:  a quick note to say thank you to the readers of this blog.  Last week the blog hit 200k+ page views with 289 essays posted on line.  what started out as fulfilling a request for a friend to "post a story or two," the blog now has a life of its own and I am incredibly humbled and thankful for your readership!

 

In Memorium: after 50 years

 

It was 50 years ago this past week, December 8, 1974, that my mother passed away after a tough battle with breast cancer.  My mom, Arline Marie (Wark) Levisay, was a lovely, kind, gentle person who passed much too young, and whom I think about all the time.  I am startled to think that it’s been 50 years… in some ways that amount of time seems both too long and too short in my perspective today.  In many facets, her passing was (and is) the core defining element of my life.  “I am who I am” through enduring the pain, sadness and loss after her illness and death, and equally “I am who I am” by becoming a stronger, more independent, more confident self-driven individual because of her death.  It took quite a while for me to recognize that there were positive elements in my life that emanated from her untimely passing… but that realization is true.  I am deeply saddened by the thought of her never knowing my sweet wife Jennie, or ever getting to meet her two beautiful incredible grandchildren Bryson & Marie because she died when I was only 13… far too young for both of us!

 

Last year I wrote and published a family history book that focused on the lives and family of my father, Dale Hill Levisay and my mother Arline.  The copies have been shared broadly across the family, and I often refer back to it to refresh and renew my memories.  The excerpt below is a section that I wrote about my mother, and I thought it fitting to share on this anniversary.

 

 

 

 

Arline lived her young life in Brooklyn with her sister Lorraine, and her parents Fred and Kunigunda (and for a while her grandmother Marie often called Nana, who lived in the same home with them.)  She went to school at P.S. 104 the “Fort Hamilton School” and I still have a wonderful photo from 1943 of what must have been her 8^th or 9^th grade school class picture.

 

 

 (a picture of Arline in front of the Christmas tree, probably late 1940’s…. that electric train has been passed down in the family and it still runs every holiday season!)

 

 

We don't have too many details of her early years, we know that she was confirmed at St. Jacobi Lutheran church in Brooklyn and after High School, she attended the nursing school at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn and graduated as a Registered Nurse in 1950 or 1951.  She met my dad in 1951 on a blind date, set up by mutual friends, while he was in the Navy, while his ship was docked for repairs at the Brooklyn Navy Yard; the image seems right out of a movie, a sailor dating a nurse in New York right after WWII.  They dated for six months and as the family story goes, he asked my Grandfather Wark for his “permission” to marry his daughter and my grandfather denied his request!  Whether it was that my dad was a skinny hillbilly from West Virginia, or that he and my mother had only known each other a few months, my grandfather “required” them to wait a year.

 

Indeed a year passed and in 1952 my dad did propose, my mother agreed, and ultimately on August 8, 1954 they were married in Brooklyn N.Y.  The picture earlier in the story shows the wedding party in full formal wear, and the white dinner jackets really caught my eye… they were the inspiration for our wedding party when Jennie and I were married in August, 1987.  The two of them enjoyed a Honeymoon in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and there are photos of them at Franconia Notch State Park.

 

(the photo below is one of my favorites of my mother, I believe taken on the Honeymoon trip in N.H.)

 

 

Arline’s story continued for another twenty years with a happy marriage, giving birth to four children (my older sister Lois died of childhood Leukemia just a few weeks after I was born in 1961), raising our family and being very active in the local Lutheran Church in our “hometown” of Murrysville Pennsylvania.  She stayed very close with her sister Lorraine (my dear Aunt Lorraine whom I have written about often in this blog) her parents and her two aunts, Katherine and Emma.  She became very sick in the spring/summer of 1974, unfortunately suffered deeply from the disease and brutal chemo treatments and ultimately passed that December.  Her death rocked our family and left an impact that I still feel and consider today, now 50 years ago; my mother Arline was and is loved, was and is missed, and her life and death have deeply defined me to be the person I am today… I will miss her forever!

 

p.s. the picture of her grave above was recently taken at the beautiful cemetery where she is buried in Delmont Pa.  My dear friends Jimmy & Dave (highlighted in the recent essay on “gratitude”) both have family members buried nearby my mom’s grave, and they keep on eye on her plot regularly… I am very appreciative of their attention to keeping our family plot clean and cared for!

 

Lessons from Venus!

 

I had the chance recently to attend the annual general meeting held by Butterfly Equity, the PE firm that I have worked closely with over the past 5+ years when we bought Bolthouse Farms back from Campbell’s.  I am proud of the Butterfly team and their incredible growth and am very proud to serve on the board of the Butterfly Equity Foundation whose focus is to support non-profits in greater Los Angeles in nutrition security, food as medicine, and increasing healthy food access in underserved communities.  To see more about Butterfly Equity or the foundation, see: https://www.bfly.com)

 

While the meeting this year was primarily focused on the growth and success of Butterfly Equity broadly, and the specific performance of its companies, it was a real treat to get to see the guest speaker, Venus Williams, share her thoughts and learning from across her incredible career in Tennis and in life.  Venus was very gracious and candidly very humble as she spoke to the crowd and as she answered questions that came from the audience.  Here are few specific Q&A “moments” that struck me as deeply true and incredibly applicable in business and life today:

 

Ø  “Challenges”: An early question had to do with the incredible amount and breadth of “challenges” that Venus had to deal with across her youth, her playing career, and today as an entrepreneur.  How did she handle them and what advice would she give for those facing challenges in their businesses today.

 

o   Venus responded, ” you don’t want to ask for fewer challenges… you ask for and work on building more skills.”  She NEVER stopped trying to get better at Tennis, and she worked on that objective every day for decades!  That I idea that we all should focus ourselves and our teams on “building skills” every day for decades is a powerful inspiration!  Our businesses and our companies WILL face more challenges ahead, and we can’t just wish them away.  

 

Ø  “Pressure” : a  question from the audience had to do with how she and her sister Serena handled the pressure of growing up and training so hard from very early ages to excel at tennis and what does she think about the pressure facing on kids today.

 

o   Venus responded that “pressure was a privilege” in her mind and that “kids without pressure won’t be ready for life.”  I won’t focus on the parenting lesson in this comment (though I deeply agree with Venus on this one!!) but we must convert our thinking and the headsets of the key leaders in our organizations to take this idea on… how to think that “pressure is a privilege.”  Every business I know is facing a wide array of pressures every day, and rarely (ok, never!) have I thought about them as a “privilege” personally… but the power of building the strength and grit of an organization is built on that simple idea…and ALL organizations would benefit from building “grit!”

 

 

Ø  “Legacy”: Now this topic is close to home for yours truly… having written a blog

 (“Find Your Legacy”) on this topic since 2009 and have been speaking about this topic since the time my grandmother died in 1998!  

 

o   As Venus was wrapping up her comments, she shared her thoughts about where she was in her life today and what she thought her “Legacy” was as of today.   She commented that “Legacy was about what you can give… not what you take” in life and that she wasn’t done “giving.”  I loved the response to remind all of us that we aren’t done leaving an impact in life … leaving a legacy… and whether you are a world renowned Tennis star, a business leader, or a simple attendee at a great meeting in Southern California ( referring to yours truly) we all have the chance to haven an impact, leave a legacy, on those we connect with today or in the days to come!

 

 

I hope that a few of these ideas/inspirations from Venus’s talk connect with you personally and that you can see ways to apply them in your work ahead.  Work to think about how they may apply to your personally, and then think of applications for your team/teams broadly.

“Someday, with your help…. maybe, just maybe ... we can be bigger than K-mart!”

  

 

Across my almost 40-year career, I have seen quite a few changes in business, industries and technology.  In college, my first computer experience was in an era pre-PC where we used punch cards to “write” out commands for programs to run on a mainframe computer in a city hundreds of miles away… transmitted by analog phones in a cradle.  Equally, I have had the chance to meet, work with, and call on a wide variety of business luminaries across the decades and the quote that is the title of this essay comes from the one and only Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart.

 

It was 1986 and I was working as a Marketing Assistant for Kimberly Clark.  Based at HQ in Neenah Wisconsin, I had the chance to work with a wide variety of the senior execs at KC during those days and was working directly for one of my personal mentors, Bruce Paynter.     Bruce passed away from ALS in 2009, and I have written a number of essays about Bruce, and they are listed in the archive to the left of the home page for this blog.  Take a few minutes and read about the lessons I learned from him over the years.

 

Getting back to the mid-80’s and my experience with Sam Walton.  I was part of a team of KC managers and execs (led by Ralph Buckingham, the bigger than life President of sales for KC) who went down to Bentonville Arkansas to meet with this relatively small southern retailer… Walmart.  Now by then, Walmart had over 800 discount stores (over 10,000 total stores today) and had not yet opened its first supercenter.  The original discount store was a small discount department store that sold no food, produce, dairy, or traditional grocery items and offered a very limited selection of Kimberly Clark products.  A regional customer for KC for sure, but not in the top 10 list of national accounts (and probably not top 20 either!!)  Regardless of its size, and seemingly insignificant prowess, we went down to Bentonville for my first ever “top-to top” customer meetings.

 

While I don’t remember too many details of the meetings and all the topics covered, the final conversation led by Sam Walton himself is one that will never be forgotten.  He and his team walked us through their future plans to build and expand the brand-new store concept… the Walmart Supercenter. (the first Supercenter was opened in Missouri in 1987) He described it as two stores in one… a discount store on one side and a grocery store on the other… both sides fueled by the  same “everyday low prices” consumer promise.   While an interesting topic, it all seemed pretty fanciful and hard to believe.  Sam Walton finished his pitch by asking KC, just like he was personally asking a number of other prominent CPG companies (P&G, Kraft, General Mills, Coke, Nabisco, to name a few) to put members of THEIR team in Bentonville to work directly with the Walmart team…. so “someday with your help, maybe, just maybe we can be bigger than K-Mart.”

 

I still remember those exact words and the stunned silence of out KC team.  K-mart was one of, if not the largest of Kimberly Clark’s customers in 1986 and it was IMPOSSIBLE to imagine that Sam Walton’s dream (vision/fantasy/mirage/etc.) could ever come to life.  We politely finished the meeting and went out into the parking lot of Walmart’s HQ… which was literally the old Bentonville High School.  I remember the team laughed and was sure that this Arkansas retailer would NEVER be bigger than K-mart and that we could NEVER imagine putting a KC sales exec in that town, dedicated to working with Walmart.  If memory serves, Ralph Buckingham did decide to put a sales exec on Walmart to keep an eye on things but moved them to Memphis (over 300 miles from Bentonville.)

 

I share this story today for a few reasons:  

#1) I was triggered to capture this in writing by the announcement that the last K-mart in America is closing this month…. pictured above.  Not only is Walmart definitively bigger than K-mart, but they are also the largest retailer in the world by a mile!  

#2) Secondly, as a young marketing assistant in 1986, I wasn’t sure who was right in that Arkansas parking lot.  Sam Walton had big ideas and big dreams and was asking for our help…. and I had a sense that we could help him and the folks at Walmart.  The KC execs were so SURE that his vision was nothing more than a pipe dream or a fantasy… but didn’t completely dismiss him or them either.  I learned an early lesson (repeated numerous times across my career, most notably at Blockbuster, see https://fylegacy.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-gravity-of-blockbuster.html) that while “Change is Certain, Progress is not,” … no one can forecast the moments of massive transformation when “Change” morphs into “Progress”. 

 

#3) Finally, I have learned a ton across my career and am working hard today to keep adding to those important lessons.  In life and in business we operate in the “forward/drive” gear… there is no reverse.  Remember, we have an infinite INABILITY to change yesterday, but an infinite ABILITY to affect tomorrow!  Try hard to take the lessons of your past… or lessons you are learning today… and work hard to apply them to make tomorrow better than yesterday and “maybe, just maybe we can be bigger than K-mart!”

 

 

 

 

“Momentum”: a powerful dynamic in business and politics

 

 

 

Let’s start by saying that we are living in a moment of a real shift in “momentum.”  Wherever your politics may lie (and mine lie in the landscape where I am VERY excited about the current “momentum” shift of the democratic ticket) it is clear that something big has happened to change the momentum of the Harris/Walz ticket since President Biden chose to not run for office again on 7/21/24…. literally just 25 days ago!  Regardless of my excitement and enthusiasm, this moment has caused me to reflect on the nature of “momentum” and different approaches we could take to understand it and to take action to affect it not solely in the political landscape. 

 

The formula is age-old and pretty simple… an entity at rest has a certain size or mass…and when it is put into motion at a certain velocity… that combination of mass*velocity produces momentum.  While the formula is simple and straightforward, a little decomposition is helpful.  The size/mass of an entity is a bid deal in this equation.  An “entity’s” size, scale, or mass really matters here… think about a small object (pebble) vs a large object ( a car)… or to go farther think about a very small object ( grain of sand) vs a very large object ( Boeing 757) the size matter to what energy is requires to get the entity moving.  This is an important idea to consider when YOU may want/need to change the momentum of something you are dealing with.  In our current political landscape, the momentum was declining for the democrats coming into the summer and a major action…. a big burst of energy was needed to change the momentum of the race… President Biden’s announcement on 7/21/24 was just that sort of bombshell… it was a big “velocity” driver that began moving the mass of the electorate and in less than 4 weeks has dramatically changed the momentum of the upcoming election.

 

The current political landscape is quite a case study, this also aligns well to my experience in business.  In 2019, I was fortunate to be part of a small team that had the chance to buy Bolthouse Farms “back” from the Campbell Soup Company.  I had been part of the team that sold it to them in 2012, and after leaving in 2015, the business went into a dramatic decline.  By 2019, the business was a mess… topline sales declining by double digit rates, bottom-line profitability declining even faster.  Bolthouse Farms is a large company with thousands of employees, numerous facilities and at that moment in early 2019 quite a mess.  We KNEW that by “buying it back”, it would take an incredible amount of energy to “turn the ship” and rebuild positive momentum.  What we didn’t know at that moment in June of 2019 when we closed on the deal was that Covid-19 was around the corner.  That global pandemic provided more unexpected challenges but pushed us to put even more effort and energy into the business of regaining positive topline and bottom-line momentum!  The business today is very strong and has a lot of momentum across the board… but the energy and effort to move that “mass” was incredible in reflection.

 

I think its pretty clear how the idea of “momentum” comes to life in politics and business, and the significant effort it can take to “change” the momentum of a situation going in the wrong direction… when the momentum of something is negative and possibly worsening, it is vital to act immediately and apply maximum effort to change the trajectory of the entity in motion… one must act immediately with maximum effort.  What is not so clear is what to do when the momentum is good/strong and going in the right direction.  What is the key to keeping the business/ political situation on the right path and maybe even gaining “more” momentum?  Let’s look back at the formula above for some insights here.  In my experience, “P” (Momentum) is not static… it is not a steady/constant/guaranteed idea. 

 “P” is a dynamic reality always moving and as a business or political reality grows and gains success, it actually increases its mass (“M”) and without an increase in velocity (“V”), momentum (“P”) actually reduces.  This reality reminds us that the better we do, and the larger we grow… the MORE energy we need to exert to keep that growth and success going.  

 

It may seem exhausting, but across my career, the moment I have seen business/political leaders celebrate success (often assuming it would continue on its own) and stop investing in the people/ ideas/technology NEEDED for future growth, momentum would begin to erode and start heading in the wrong direction.  The reality is you can NEVER stop putting energy into a good situation with good momentum, and if it’s a bad situation with negative momentum, you need to take action immediately and deploy maximum energy/effort to get that momentum to shift!  Don’t forget the simple formula above… it may seem like a high school physics tool, but it is deeply true and applicable all around us today!

postscript: the current presidential political campaign is an incredible example of the dynamics of "momentum" and the polling chart below shows it dramatically.  With less than 3 months to election day, this is going to be an incredible "case study" !

 

 

Living without Regret... The lesson of Zermatt

 

It humbling to realize, but it was 15 years ago this week that my old boss and dear friend Bruce Paynter passed away after a battle with ALS.  Bruce meant the world to me then ( and in the years before his passing) and I think of him often today.  Bruce is very much in "present tense" with me today and so many times over the past year leading Bolthouse Farms I have often thought back and wondered... "what would Bruce say/do in this situation."  It was almost exactly 15years ago today that I wrote an essay ( one of a number) that was inspired by a final conversation that I had with Bruce, titled "Living without Regret," ( read it here...https://fylegacy.blogspot.com/2009/07/living-without-regret.html)   "As I sit here today, this topic of "Living without Regret" is again on my mind, and I wanted to share a few thoughts/learnings that might be helpful.

In my readings this week, I came across a CNBC article that dug into a book (You only Die Once: How to make it to the end with no regrets, by Jodi Wellman) on this topic.  A very insightful part of the article was the author's description of "Regrets of Commission" vs "Regrets of Omission" and how they were different and had different dynamics.  In the author's view, "Regrets of Omission" were the really dangerous ones... things you regret NOT DOING in your life.... and areas to focus on and work on in your life.  This idea really got me thinking and in the soul searching I became center on a story from my life and a lesson in this specific area that I describe "The lesson of Zermatt."

While I have never been to Zermatt (YET!!), my Aunt Lorraine spent many trips when she was younger ( quite literally skiing there in the 1960's with a group of here closest female friends) and for her Zermatt ( with the magnificent views of the Matterhorn) was one of her most precious spots on earth.  I knew this growing up, and thought about Switzerland/Zermatt/The Matterhorn as a sort of mythical Swiss "Valhalla"where the cows wore bells, no cars were allowed and the Swiss chocolate flowed from every corner.  I thought to myself when I was young that someday ( when I hade "made it") I would treat Aunt Lorraine to a trip back to HER Zermatt!

Well, the years and decades moved on, and as a person busy with a family and a business career, I never had the time for the big Zermatt trip.  It wasn't until 2015, after selling Bolthouse Farms to Campbell's and thinking my time was done in "carrot-land" ( oh how naive!!) that I talked to Aunt Lorraine about my big idea... how about we take a big trip back to Zermatt??  Now this was 9 years ago, and Aunt Lorraine was in her 80's still doing well ( in my eyes) but she quickly said that while it was a great idea, she couldn't go!  I was dumbstruck and started selling... I would pickup the tickets, I would come get her in NJ.... I wanted to handle all the objections!  Aunt Lorraine was patient, but persistent to say that a trip like that would have been great a few years ago, but in 2015 it would be too much... too scary... here capabilities too limited...and she wasn't up for a trip like that anymore.... she would never go back to Zermatt.  While at first I was frustrated with her, I realized that I was the culprit... I had blown it; my intense regret ( "Regret of Omission") was my burden and in many ways still is!

While Aunt Lorraine is still alive, she is now in hospice and is nearing her end-of life and I have deep and precious memories of her across my entire life.  I share this story as a personal nudge ( to myself and the readers) to say that life is short and very fragile and if there are any regrets ( and especially "Regrets of Omission') in your lives today, it high time to take action NOW!  Someday I will find my path to Zermatt, and will take a keepsake of Aunt Lorraine with me on that trip in honor and in memory of that incredible woman.  I will also keep Zermatt active in my mind today... thinking about what actions I NEED to take NOW, focused on the "Regrets of Omission" in my life today, and I encourage all readers to take a few minutes and do the same... do you have any "Zermatts" in your life that need action now??

"It's hard to put a price on Wisdom!"

 Over the past few weeks, and probably more candidly over the past few months, I have been going though quite a transition.  As you can see in earlier essays, I "retired" from Bolthouse Farms early in the year, and over the past few months I have been actively working to transition my headset, schedule and indeed my lifestyle away from being a Senior Executive in a large private company based in California     (and commuting weekly to Bakersfield Ca. as part of that role) to changing gears in a big way to be focused on my family, my community here in Atlanta, and to head toward new paths for the chapters of my life that lie ahead.  I have travelled across country with my daughter Marie on an incredible roadtrip that I reflected on in a previous essay (######), travelled to see old friends across the country ( wonderful across the board) and most recently just came back from walking the last 100km off the Camino inn Spain with my wife Jennie, my sister Alice and her husband Jan Willem.  I am still processing that trip deeply and when I am done "churning," I am certain that I will post an essay about our time on the Camino.  With that precursor, I have been hit by few moments recently that keeps me turning towards this idea of "Wisdom" and I wanted to explore it today.

Over my life, I have been around a number of people that I would describe as "wise," some from my professional life ( certainly my old boss Bruce that I have written about extensively on this blog) and from my family ( certainly my paternal grandmother... dear old Mama... also mentioned widely across the blog) and I have "chewed" on the idea of what makes these two VERY different people both so "wise?"  It's not their backgrounds, education, lifestyles, etc.... all of those "definers" are so very distinct, but they were      (both now passed) both so "wise" in my eyes and I still very actively think about them both and often wonder what they would do in situation that I am facing today.  Let's dig a little deeper to help our understanding.

Wisdom: noun, the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise.

Knowledge: noun, facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject.

Intelligence: noun, the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

The unique factor that I see in the respective definitions is the implied idea of combining and applying "experience, knowledge, and good judgement."  It's rings so true that both Mama and Bruce brought these three ideas to life personally, in the actions of their lives, and in their impact on my life.  I LEARNED a lot from both of them and as I reflect on it today, I want to "live into" being a source of wisdom for those I touch.  This idea of combining and applying "experience, knowledge and good judgement" is a powerful driver for me personally as I turn toward the next chapter of my life...and maybe an aspiration for all of us regardless of what chapter of life we may be in today!

p.s. I put the title of this essay in quotes because it came from a shuttle bus driver at the Atlanta airport.  After returning from our trip to the Camino, and after a very long day of travel, we cleared customs at ATL, and boarded a shuttle bus to head to International "Park & Ride."  Our luggage didn't make it, so we were traveling light, but our fellow travelers had some large and very heavy bags.  The driver of the shuttle bus, with a smile on his face, asked for the heavy bags to be set on the floor, so he could just slide them into the rack, and to put the lighter bags higher on the luggage rack.  As he said that, he looked over to me ( the only other person in his same age range, the other travelers were all much younger) and said that "guys like us have to save our backs whenever we can....remember... its hard to put a price on wisdom!!!"  An incredible line from late last Saturday night, and one that really got me thinking!!

Service, Sacrifice & Solidarity

 

I don't usually comment in my essays on my travels, but this week has had quite a deep impact on yours truly.  Heading out of Atlanta on Monday, I flew to BWI and was picked up by dear old friend and work partner Cathy, who joined me on quite an intense adventure yesterday ( Tuesday) at the Shapell Center.... the archives of the Holocaust Museum... in Bowie Md.  I was doing research on a family member, my Uncle Jim, who fought in WW II and participated in the liberation of a concentration camp in April of 1945.  It was just recently that I discovered that there were original documents and photographs of his in the Holocaust Museum archives, and I made an appointment for a research visit yesterday.  I can't yet describe, or even really process the experience, and will try to find a path to share more on this experience and the resulting insights in a future essay.... to say it was intense and overwhelming is an understatement.

After leaving the Shapell Center, in a very heavy mood, I asked Cathy if we had time to go to Arlington to visit the National Cemetery ( https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/#/).  somehow, it was the only place that made sense after reviewing the photos and docs,  and we made our way through DC and parked in a quiet spot in the Cemetery near where a relative of hers is buried.  The picture above is from that spot and I wanted to share it in this essay.  I was overwhelmed and surrounded by so many who has served their/our country and made incredible sacrifices.... some with their lives...not knowing what they would be called on to do.  The breadth of the sense of service and sacrifice was brought into sharp relief by an active funeral of a navy veteran just to the north of where this photo was taken.  These acts of service and sacrifice were certainly historic, just like my Uncle Jim's incredible service and sacrifice from almost 80 years ago, AND they are very current and contemporary.  So many young men and women serving OUR country today, making incredible sacrifices today... "inspiring" seems like just too trite of a word to describe the immensity of their actions and the immensity of our gratitude that is required!

I included the word "Solidarity" in my title because coming out of the Shapell Center and at Arlington, I felt an intense pride in being American.  I am not polly-anish or naive about the complexity of our history, but when I think about the soldiers & sailors that have left our shores to support and defend the ideals of freedom and democracy while fighting the nightmarish dreams of dictators bent on destinies of racial genocide and global domination ... I am personally humbled, and profoundly thankful.  As I was taking the picture above, I was also struck that Arlington is not subdivided by political party, or personal ideology.  This is a sacred spot, maybe one of the most sacred,  for ALL AMERICANS... not of one party or another, not one class, creed, race, nationality, or another.... a sacred spot for all of us as Americans that reminds us all of the sacrifice and service of so many for what we hold dear.  As we move as a country into election season of 2024, I hope to keep these images and sensibilities of "Service, Sacrifice & Solidarity" present and keep focused on the path forward for all of us as Americans.