Hello everyone and thank you for listening to this episode of The Blue Collar Executive podcast. I am the host, Lewis Taulbee, Jr.
Today I want to talk about not letting fear hold you back. Just diving in. Fake it till you make it. Take the leap, no risk, no reward. Dad would always say, just do it boy. This has been the underlying secret to the entire trajectory of my career. I went from retail, to electrician, HVAC mechanic, boiler mechanic, chief engineer to running hotels, running federal government buildings, running malls. Now I invest, develop and manage billions of dollars of assets for investors. In every single one of these cases I dove in first and then figured out what I was doing. I was fortunate to learn this at a young age with my parents, aunts, and uncles as great examples. If you look at my family tree you will see that for hundreds of years every generation before them were farmers or coal miners. Don't get me wrong, I'm very proud. Those are very honorable careers and still the backbone of our country today. My point is think about how much courage it had to take for my parents and their siblings to break that cycle and do something different. Perhaps the best way to explain this is to read a letter I wrote to my sons with their permission of course. About a year and a half ago my two sons, both in their early twenties, took a giant leap and acquired a multi-million dollar business. Tell me that doesn't take guts. As a dad I was both proud and nervous for them. Knowing that all businesses have their ups and downs, I wanted to give them something that would both inspire and encourage them even in the tough times. I framed one of my favorite John Wayne quotes that says courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway. I have that same picture hanging above my desk. Inside the back of the picture frame I wrote the following:
A young man plowing a field with a team of mules dreamed of something better. Every generation of his family before him were farmers and that seemed to be his destiny. He quit school in the eighth grade to work on the family farm because his dad became ill. At 16 with little education and not much more than the clothes on his back he drove a worn out car to the nearest big city. Walking around looking for a job with his only knowledge and skills being farm work, he saw a sign in a window that read welders wanted. He walked inside and introduced himself to the manager as the new welder. The manager asked if he could weld and without even knowing what the word meant he looked around the shop at the men working, looked back at the manager and replied, “I can do anything any other man in this place can do”. He went on to work there for 12 years and became one of the best welders in the company. The next 40 years he worked factory jobs. Sometimes three at a time to support his family. It was always hard, dirty, backbreaking work, but he knew he was a success because his sons would have bigger opportunities. He would say I do this so you won't have to and always insisted that we get an education. Because of the courage and heart of Lewis Taulbee, Sr. there is no limit to the destiny of his legacy. It is now up to his sons, grandchildren, and future generations to continue blazing the path.
When I heard that story as a young man, it changed the way I viewed everything. I am a strong believer in preparation and always work to be as prepared as I can before doing anything. However, life doesn't always give us an opportunity to prepare. If we are going to keep moving forward, sometimes we just have to dive in and then figure out how to swim. I entered the workforce at a young age. I didn't have the opportunity to take the traditional route of getting a degree first and is why I have been diving in my entire career. I'll never forget when I applied to manage my first super regional shopping mall. I had zero experience, but it seemed like an awesome job and I wanted it bad. After the interview process, I sent a letter to the vice president of that company, telling him that I knew I didn't check all the qualification boxes, but I was a fast learner. I assured him that I would not let him down. He called me the next morning and started by saying,” Lewis you have no experience and we have candidates that are better qualified”. My heart sank because I thought he was letting me down easy. He then said, “I know you are the kind of guy that won't let yourself fail, so I'm taking a chance on you”. I worked hard every day to prove him right. I wasn't going to let myself fail and I certainly wasn't going to let him down. It is scary sometimes, but if you keep the mindset that you will not let yourself fail you won't. It may take a little longer, be a little more difficult, and you're going to make mistakes but in the end you will succeed and likely be better off because of your trials and errors. Look at King David. He's the greatest king of all time, but look at the path he took to get to the throne. He was a shepherd with no experience, but when they a needed warrior to defeat Goliath, this kid stepped up in front of the entire army. He said I got this. Talk about sink or swim. He was a great warrior, army leader, and king. He had no experience at any of it. Look at old Moses. Poor guy couldn't even talk plain, but he stepped up and led 600,000 people out of Egypt. I could give you example after of great leaders, pioneers, and inventors that because of their courage we have a better life today. Think about it, because they didn’t let fear or failure stop them today we have electricity, cars, phones, computers. The list goes on and on. Thomas Edison tried over 10,000 times before he got it right. When somebody asked him about it, he said I never failed once, I just found 10,000 ways that didn't work. This is why I love the game of baseball. It's a game of failure and requires a tremendous amount of courage to continue stepping back up to that plate. If you strike out 7 out of 10 times you step up to that plate you could still be in the hall of fame. That's life. You are going to swing and miss more than you're going to make contact, but if you don't keep swinging, you'll never know that incredible feeling of knocking one out of the park. The great Babe Ruth once said, “Never let the fear of striking out get in your way”. He is certainly someone that experienced that great feeling of achievement. So that's it. I'm encouraging you to go jump off a cliff. Telling you to go jump in the lake. Believe me, the water is great. It might be cold at first, before you know it you will be swimming as graceful as a swan. I'll leave you with what God said to old Moses in Deuteronomy 31 6. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid for the Lord, your God, is the one that goes with you and he will not let you fail”.
That concludes another episode of The Blue Collar Executive podcast. I hope you found some value in it or at the very least entertaining. I wish each and every one of you great success. Thank you so much for listening.