Admonish and Teach…

The BTL band has been meeting with Larry’s clients this week to determine how they want to continue the “good work” that Larry began in them and in their company. This has been reflective, saddening, and mostly INSPIRING.

As I’ve listened to former clients describe “The L Train” and his work with them,  the melody line has been as clear as any of my favorite U2 tunes.  Here it is.  Do NOT miss this.  Here is what I’ve heard time and time again.

It would invariably go something like this…

Larry had the ability to teach me incredible truths about myself, my leading, my team, my individual performance, and my life.  He taught every single time we were together.  AND, somehow, he never made me feel small, stupid, or something less than him.  He never preached to me.  He built me.  I would open my calendar and see that Larry was on for that day, and think, this is going to be good.

Larry was called to minister.  He ministered while in the pulpit and he ministered while in the business world.  He ministered in work and he ministered in life. Ministers are called to do, primarily, two things.  Funny these are the same two things that Fathers and Mothers are called to as well.

Ministers, Fathers, and Mothers are called to admonish and to teach.

How will your family, friends, and clients describe their interactions with you?

Will they only remember your success, your drivenness, your fixation with winning, or your negotiating prowess?

Will they recall your technical knowledge, your hiring process, your sales technique, your endless hours of toil, your nose for money, your ability to buy low and sell high, your twisting of the facts to present yourself and your solutions in the best possible light, and your high bar for performance that they could never meet?

Will they remember how you corrected them and how you taught them?

Will they remember how you cried with them and stood beside them?

Will they remember you as their builder?

AND, will they remember that you believed in them, even before they did?

Tell me more, my friend.

Tell me more…