fans first, right?

It's the end of a game and people are going home. It's pouring. Like, biblically pouring. That happens in the South: sometimes the sky just opens up and dumps buckets without warning.

Since our first rain delay, we've learned a few things. We line up our staff with umbrellas, and they take turns walking fans to their cars in the parking lot. They always hold the umbrella directly over the fans, getting wet in the process. Then, it's a race back to the gate to pick up another fan. 

Laura, an intern just two weeks in, is approached by an older gentleman, and the amble away. After thirty minutes, I suddenly realize she's still gone and think, Whoa, where is she? Just as I'm about to rally the troops, Laura walks up. 

She's drenched.

Where have you been?" I ask, grateful she's okay (if a little wet). 

"I walked a guy all the way home to his doorstep," Laura says. "He told me he lived right down the road and had walked to the game." As it turned out, "right down the road" translated to a mile down the road. Suffice to say, Laura got her steps in for the day. 

I'm speechless, which is rare for me. Then Laura looks up at me. "Fans first, right?"

Right. Now that's going the extra mile to keep Fans First.

Jesse Cole

Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience by Jesse Cole. Lioncrest. 2022.

socialized to think about success

Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw understand the challenges [of Servant Leadership] better than most. The co-founders of Zingerman's Community of Businesses have built their $30 million food, restaurant, and training company on servant leadership principles. In the process, they've wrestled with three paradoxes. First, the higher you rise, the harder you must work for others; no kicking back in the Barcalounger of success allowed. Second, although you hold formal authority over employees, you must treat them like customers and, when reasonable, do their bidding. Third, when your desires and the needs of your organization conflict, your desires draw the low card. "It's a big change from the way we're socialized to think about success," says Weinzweig. "When you've put so much energy into getting to a leadership position, this is hard." 

Leigh Buchanan

In Praise of Selflessness: Why the best leaders are servants. Inc. magazine. May 1, 2007.

you can’t wait for the sun to rise

At the end of a recent podcast interview, the host asked me, “What’s the best advice you ever got?” Before I tell you what I said allow me to rewind to 2007 when I had another career decision to make: hold on to a large, steady paycheck as the vice president of a global PR firm or commit full-time to my growing writing and public speaking business. At the time I was doing some freelance writing and I interviewed the real-life Chris Gardner, the man who actor Will Smith portrayed in the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness... Gardner told me the true story of how he spent nights in the bathroom of a subway station along with his 2-year-old son. In the daytime Gardner would put on his one suit, drop off his kid at daycare and take unpaid classes to become a stockbroker. You can guess how the story ends. Gardner rose to the top of his firm and became a multi-millionaire.

I knew the Oakland, California subway station Gardner had slept in because I passed it each day on my train trip into San Francisco. I had plenty of time to contemplate the advice he gave, words that changed the course of my career. “How did you find the strength, the spirit, to keep going?” I asked Gardner. “Carmine, here’s the secret to success: find something you love to do so much, you can’t wait for the sun to rise to do it all over again.”

Each day when I rode past the station I would think about those words. It forced me to question my choices and the daily trips into the city, which I dreaded. I wasn’t waiting for the sun to shine; I was waiting for it to go down so I could head home. I quit the PR firm, trading the stability of a salary for the instability of a start-up. Last week I was invited to BookExpo America, a prestigious book industry conference in New York, to sign copies of my sixth book. Gardner’s advice had changed my life and my business.

The most inspiring leaders are those who don’t work at a job but pursue a calling. In doing so they inspire the rest of us to be our best selves and to match our skills with our passions. They give us confidence to pursue our dreams.

Carmine Gallo

Homeless Man Turned Millionaire Offers The Best Advice I Ever Got. 6/11/2012. Forbes.