get busy with the present

If the daily grind is wearing you down and you worry you’ve been in the same job too long, spare a thought for 100-year-old Walter Orthmann, who’s been at the same company a record-breaking 84 years. 

Guinness World Records Ltd. announced that the Brazilian sales manager holds the official record for the “longest career in the same company” after verifying in January that he’d been with the same textile firm for more than eight decades.

The centenarian began working as a shipping assistant at Industrias Renaux SA, now named RenauxView, a year before the outbreak of World War Two, when he was just 15 years old. He was quickly promoted to a position in sales, an area where he remains to this day. 

For a little context, the median number of years that U.S. workers had been with their current employer in 2020 stood at 4.1, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

So what’s the secret of Orthmann’s exceptional career? 

“I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow. All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise and go to work,” Guinness quoted him as saying. 

“You need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future.”

De Wei Dexter Low

"This Manager Sets Record by Working for Same Company for 84 Years," Bloomberg. May 4, 2022

lift where you stand

Some years ago in our meetinghouse in Darmstadt, Germany, a group of brethren was asked to move a grand piano from the chapel to the adjoining cultural hall, where it was needed for a musical event. None were professional movers, and the task of getting that gravity-friendly instrument through the chapel and into the cultural hall seemed nearly impossible. Everybody knew that this task required not only physical strength but also careful coordination. There were plenty of ideas, but not one could keep the piano balanced correctly. They repositioned the brethren by strength, height, and age over and over again—nothing worked.

As they stood around the piano, uncertain of what to do next, a good friend of mine, Brother Hanno Luschin, spoke up. He said, “Brethren, stand close together and lift where you stand.”

It seemed too simple. Nevertheless, each lifted where he stood, and the piano rose from the ground and moved into the cultural hall as if on its own power. That was the answer to the challenge. They merely needed to stand close together and lift where they stood.

I have often thought of Brother Luschin’s simple idea and have been impressed by its profound truth.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Lift Where You Stand,” Ensign, Nov 2008, 53–56

time for the right next step

In a hotel room in Denver before the second game of the 2019-20 season, [Deandre] Ayton got a call from the league office. “Bada boom bada bing,” he recounts. “‘At this time, we’re letting the world know you are done.’” Ayton tested positive for a diuretic, a banned substance used to mask PEDs. He was suspended for 25 games.

The first thing Ayton did was walk to [Monty] Williams’s hotel room. “I just knew I had to be honest and make sure I tell my front office and coach what was up before it got to the media, just to show my respect,” Ayton says.

Williams sat Ayton down next to him, hugged him, and told him, “D.A., you did what you did. These are the consequences. Now, it’s just time for the right next step,” Ayton recalls.

Seerat Sohi

"Will Deandre Ayton Get His Moment in the Sun?" by Seerat Sohi. The Ringer. April 28, 2022

change the rule

When [Monty] Williams was fired by the New Orleans Pelicans in 2015, he surveyed former players, who told him they felt like they couldn’t make mistakes in front of him. He vowed that if he got another chance to coach in the NBA, he would listen to his players more. “That made me feel like an idiot,” he said. “To have any one of our players not feeling like they can be themselves. It was something I hope I’ve learned from.”

He eventually worked in San Antonio’s front office. There, he internalized a Gregg Popovich mantra about flexibility: “If the rules stifle talent, change the rule.”

Seerat Sohi

"Will Deandre Ayton Get His Moment in the Sun?" by Seerat Sohi. The Ringer. April 28, 2022

because they were inspired

Those who truly lead are able to create a following of people who act not because they were swayed, but because they were inspired. For those who are inspired, the motivation to act is deeply personal. They are less likely to be swayed by incentives. Those who are inspired are willing to pay a premium or endure inconvenience, even personal suffering. Those who are able to inspire will create a following of people – supporters, voters, customers, workers – who act for the good of the whole not because they have to, but because they want to.

Simon Sinek

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek. Penguin Publishing Group. 2009. p.6