What's Your Legacy?

On Sunday, Ken and I shared a Christmas weekend tradition of going to a movie.  This year we saw the movie “Unbroken”, the story of Louis Zamperini.

A brief summary of the movie, states:

“After a near-fatal plane crash in WWII, Olympian Louis Zamperini spends a harrowing 47 days in a raft with two fellow crewmen before he's caught by the Japanese navy and sent to a prisoner-of-war camp.”

This is too simple a statement. You MUST SEE this movie. I don’t care how old or young you are. Life is hard, life is lived, and life simply does not turn out the way we expect it to!

Consider Louis Zamperini’s life:

Born January 1917 to Italian immigrants he was a middle child.  His older brother was Pete and his two younger sisters were Virginia and Sylvia. The family moved to Torrance, California in 1919. They spoke no English. He was a target for bullies and he was constantly in trouble.
Pete decided Louis needed to run track to stay out of trouble and Pete would hit Louis with a switch when he slacked off in running practice. 

By 1934, Zamperini set a world interscholastic record for the mile.

In 1936, Zamperini decided to try out for the Olympics and qualified.

Zamperini enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces in September 1941 and earned a commission as a second lieutenant. On May 27, 1943, while on a search, mechanical difficulties caused the bomber he was on to crash into the ocean 850 miles (1,370 km) south of Oahu - killing 8 of the 11 men aboard.

The three survivors (Zamperini and his crewmates, pilot Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips and Francis "Mac" McNamara), with little food and no water, subsisted on captured rainwater and small fish eaten raw. McNamara died after 33 days at sea.

On their 47th day adrift, Zamperini and Phillips reached land in the Marshall Islands and were immediately captured by the Japanese Navy. They were held in captivity, severely beaten, and mistreated until the end of the war in August 1945.

His death had mistakenly been announced previously, when the US government classified him as KIA during World War II, after that plane crash.

Louis did not die before forgiving his captors and carried the Olympic Torch in Japan - some 69 years later. He died July 2, 2014.

You have to see this movie. 

Sit there and think about your life -- who do you impact?  What will they share after you’re gone!

THAT’S YOUR LEGACY!

Colony Christmas

Last week Ken and I were in Palmer, Alaska. We celebrated cold weather in a winter wonderland, where we attended  “Colony Christmas”. 

There were all the trappings of a small town from the turn of the last century. 

We attended craft fairs. The children built marshmallow snowmen and the adults toasted to one another at the Pioneer Museum. A string trio played Christmas music as people simply enjoyed each other’s acquaintance.

Our grandchildren baked Texas Tea Cakes and we attended the play, “A Christmas Carol” at the PAC in Anchorage. 

It reminded me of the night before Christmas: “Mama in her 'kerchief… just settled down for a long winter's nap”.

Palmer is a small farming community north of Anchorage, in the Matanuska Valley. Historically, in May of 1935, 203 families from Michigan and Minnesota relocated to Palmer in an effort to colonize the area.

I was able to visit with one of those pioneers this past week, Bonnie Larash. Bonnie was a 1 year old babe the year her Mom (age 19) and Dad (age 24) moved  to the Mat-Su Valley.

Bonnie, now 80, grew up in the Mat-Su. She has a picture of herself as a toddler I love!  She looks like Shirley Temple standing on a rugged driveway holding a slice of cheese letting the entire world know she will survive.

Bonnie told me Alaska has changed. But people need to remember, “It’s not like the TV shows, nor will it ever be”. 

She remembers 25 below degree days - using hot water from a wood fire and pouring the water over a frozen propane bottle to warm up the propane.  She needed to do this just to get it out of the bottle to shower to go to work. 

As a child, her first home was a tent. Yes, there was lumber, but her folks had to build the house --- no chain saws! When the families arrived they drew lots for the 40-acre tracts and their farming adventure began in earnest. The failure rate was high. There was no US currency; everything came from the company store.

After a few years, Bonnie’s dad realized that unless he got away from that co-op his family would die owing the company. So they moved into the upper story of a flooded out school house.  Life was hard.

Bonnie grew up and worked at Peggy’s Diner in Anchorage (by the way it is still there) where she earned $2.49 an hour and she raised three kids!  After the children grew up she was offered a job on the Alaska Pipeline, Pump Station 12.  She earned $12.49. She said it was the best job she ever had.

Bonnie is a treasure.  She has life experience!

Look around and you’ll find a Bonnie; I have a few of them.  There is my Aunt Knoxine and my Dad, Tom Campbell.  These people are remarkable, rugged individuals. They have survived life and have life wisdom.

                                                       

I like that!

This holiday, spend time with people who can teach you to learn to leave your own trail.

While I'm away enjoying the grandkids in Palmer, I am posting this in my absence.

New updates from Leadership from the Heart Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Contents: Common Mental Mistake: Practice only your Strengths Common Mental Mistake: Practice only your Strengths Dec 09, 2014 07:15 am | Dave Kraft Here is my friend and fellow blogger JT Ayers with some excellent thoughts on the need to pay attention to your weaknesses as well as your strengths. Originally posted by JT Ayers ---------------------------------------------------  Your mind and your leadership are connected beyond your comprehension. Your thoughts, emotions, and subsequent actions are interconnected. The way you’re feeling affects the way you’re thinking; the way you’re thinking affects the way you’re feeling. The energy of the mind is the essence of life. – Aristotle For the next several weeks, I will be covering the Most Common Mental Mistakes of a Leader and then, I will discuss Strategies to Overcome Those Mistakes. These posts will drastically help you in your leadership. I will be highlighting one mistake each week. Common Mental Mistake #1: You Only Practice Your Strengths It’s easy to do what you like best.  You enjoy it. It’s fun. You feel productive and happy. However, as a leader you have to be efficient in your weaknesses as well. Neglecting your weaknesses will only hurt your strengths. Think of these abilities like muscles. You can’t work out only your favorite muscle all of the time. If you do you risk the other supporting muscle to atrophying.  You must work out all of the supporting muscles around your favorite. This will ensure maximum strength.  A coach of mine once told me about a 70 – 30 principal. 70% of your leadership or job should be fun, enjoyable, and plays to your strengths. However, to have that 70% you must take care of the other 30% that you don’t enjoy.   Here is an example: Administration work is a weakness of mine. I do not enjoy it. So, I have two options: 1. Continue to neglect this weakness and get fired  2. Become efficient in this weakness in order to highlight my strengths.  Here are the 4 steps to ensure you can become efficient in your weakness. 1.    Identify Your Strengths What are you good at? What do you love to do?  What makes you feel productive? What activities do you accomplish that make you feel effective? These are indicators of your strengths. Make a list. Get a second opinion that affirms your abilities. 2.    Now Identify Your Weaknesses Gather feedback from a trusted friend(s), co-workers, or gather results from an informal survey (best to make anonymous). Get information! Know where you are before you begin mapping out the journey to your desired destination. 3.    Improve Your Weakness Strengths are made up of 3 things: Talent, Skill, and Knowledge. A weakness means you don’t have the natural talent. However, you can control the Skills and Knowledge. These are learned. - Watch those that do it well - Learn from your past mistakes - Read articles, books, blogs, listen to podcasts. Your weakness will be someone else’s strength - Get mentored 4.    Now Apply Your Weakness In Light Of Your Strengths Your weak abilities must be applied in light of your other strengths. Do only what will highlight your other abilities that you consider strengths. In light of your strengths, how do your weaknesses come into play? For me, I decided to get help with some administrative aspects of my job. I delegated some of these tasks to someone with strong administrative skills. In the next couple of weeks, I will be writing on 4 more common mental mistakes. I will then begin to identify Mental Mistake Solutions.  The applications are endless. I encourage you to pass this post on to a friend and begin to find ways to ensure that you can become the best leader possible with these mistakes in mind. What did I miss? Do you agree that practicing only your strengths is a Common Mental Mistake?  Leave a comment below. Like on Facebook. Forward to a Friend! Next Week’s Common Mental Mistake: Having No Definite Goals

2014 Perspective

Today I simply want to look at perspective. By definition, perspective is “a particular attitude toward a way or regarding something; a point of view”. 

My perspective has changed this year. In December of 2013 I purposed to do some things differently in 2014. I had a desire to read daily; exercise regularly; and celebrate life with family and friends. In 365 days there are some noticeable changes. 

Family memories:

1)      Ken and I remodeled our home in Alaska (and visited 3 times)

2)      Karen married Steve (January)

3)      We honored Uncle Knox and Aunt Mary (January)

4)      We celebrated Uncle Jimmy’s life (February)

5)      Cory married Lori (April)

6)      Kaylee announced upcoming nuptials to Josh (July of 2015)

7)      Ken & I hailed our 43rd wedding anniversary

8)      We purchased an RV and took our first trip (September)

9)      Dad marked his 85^th birthday (October)

10)  We’re attending “Colony Christmas”, Palmer, Alaska (December)

Office recollections:

1)      Nacho Bar (May)

2)      Annual Thanksgiving Feast (November)

3)      Remodel Stapley Office (September)

4)      Restaged Park Plaza (September)

5)      National Speaker Michael Maher (September)

6)      Marissa had baby Jessie at the beginning of the year

7)      Nicole moved to Flagstaff and Lexi stepped into her slot

8)      Karla merged into the group when Park Plaza joined forces

9)      Marc connected in January

10)  Leslie blended with us in April

11)   Corina joined the staff in July

12)  Gina came aboard in September

People around me see the noticeable changes, I feel the invisible changes. Yes, there has been some drama and even some trauma this past year, but when I look back on 2014, it has been a grand adventure.

On December 12^th,  Ken and I are off to plan 2015.  We’ll be flying to Alaska, for family time with our Alaskan children and grandchildren.  There’ll be snow, Christmas caroling, hot chocolate and private time.  Don’t worry. We’re back in time to share Christmas lamb with the kids here in Arizona as we spend a warm sunny Christmas day on the back patio and in the hot tub.

Experience has taught me to be SMART this time of the year - plan and project for 2015.  

As John Lennon said:

Implement That Plan

My Dad celebrated a mile post this past Sunday.  We applauded his 85^th birthday.  Dad is a remarkable person ---

Christmas 1992 Dad gave each of us an essay of some of the “happenings” in his life.  He has often indicated there were many things he didn't write; however here’s a story he did share:

The year was 1946, Dad was 16 years old.   

“I (Tom Campbell) was elected president of the FFA (Future Farmers of America), in this capacity I went to the state convention at San Antonio (Texas). 

The meeting was held at the Gunter Hotel and while I was awaiting a meeting I happened to converse with an elderly man seated next to me in the lobby.   His name was W.A. Harding. He explained to me he was the owner and grower of 1,200 acres of lemon trees.  The lemons were of a variety that could not easily be shipped due to their thin skin (Meyer Lemons) and he proposed to juice these lemons and preserve them with a preservative the military had used during the war…

I asked Mr. Harding what his plan for selling this lemon juice was and he told me he had not made any arrangements to sell and distribute the finished product.  I told him my Dad was a good salesman and that he might be interested in selling his products.  He said contact your Dad and see if he is interested.  I called Dad and told him about Mr. Harding.  That day Dad came to San Antonio and during the next three days The Puretex Lemon Juice Company was organized.  Mr. Harding was to be responsible for the juicing and bottling of the lemons and Dad and me would distribute and sell.  The State of Texas was divided at Ft. Worth, everything west of a north-south line would be covered by me and all east of that line would be the area covered by my Father. 

We had a very simple sales plan.

 We would ask for an order (knowing that the grocery man would say no).  Our next approach was consignment, that is if the lemon juice sold he would pay for it and reorder (nine out of ten would not even do this).  Our final offer was we would give them a dozen bottles if they would agree to try and sell it.  Our second year in business we gave away 10,000 gallons of lemon juice.  My fourth year of selling lemon juice I sold 50,000 gallons of juice in 3 oz. bottles…”

Think for just a moment about how remarkable this is.

A kid Introduced himself to a business man, listened to the details, developed a plan in his head and took action to implement his plan. My Dad helped to bring a new product to Texas grocery market.

Yes, there are occasions which when immediately implemented, open doors of opportunity and impact generations of people.

Just in case you had not put it all together this was when “reconstituted lemon juice” --- the green bottle you probably have in your refrigerator today --- came to pass!