Scene: Middle of nowhere in Central Florida
I was driving my son Ryan back to Starkville, Mississippi yesterday to help him move into his apartment at Mississippi State University. He will resume his junior year next week. As we left our new place in Tampa and headed North, about an hour into our travels we passed the exit for Brooksville and Homosassa Springs and highway 98.
If I would have exited and turned left, we could have driven 9 minutes to see the first place I lived after college. Had we exited and turned right and driven less than 5 minutes, we could have visited the golf course where I started my first professional career after graduating from The University of Florida. The road below the overpass was the same old county road but the newer pavement I was driving on was less than 20 years old.
We didn’t stop because we wanted to get to Mobile, Alabama before sundown but I have to admit, I got a little sentimental thinking back to those memories and early post-college relationships that I created some 30 years ago.
Items in Rear View Mirror May Be Closer Than They Appear
I learned a lot over those three years I worked in the golf business at Southern Woods Golf Club and World World Golf Club. It’s where I returned after my wedding with my new bride and lived in our first house together. (Actually, we rented from one of the members that lived in the neighborhood). I even ranked my first boss, Stan Cooke, amongst my top 100 most influential people in my three-part series for posts #99, 100, and 101. (Wow – that post was written 13 years and almost 1100 posts ago)
As I drove up the Suncoast Parkway (a road that was still on the drawing board when I lived there in the early 90’s), I flashed back and remembered that I certainly learned a lot during those first three years out of college.
What was your first job? Your first “real” job that you could truly call a career?
If you think back on those younger days, what did you learn about business? What did you learn about the world? What did you learn about people? What did you learn about yourself?
Are you more confident today?
Do you understand the power of relationships?
Did you learn what a good mentor looks like or do you look back and maybe realize you could have used more leadership, guidance, training, or support?
Look Out Your Windshield
Fast-forward to today. Or, as the map says…”You are Here!”
What are you doing with your life right now, that 30 years from now, you might look back and say “that’s when I learned __________!”
How do you treat your peers? Clients? Total strangers?
What are you doing each day to #BecomeBetter?
Will you look back on this time in your life and be proud of what you’ll do today? This week? This month?
Are you confident your family will have some great stories or lessons to look back and say they learned something from you?
We passed that moment of my past in a matter of seconds, but there is no doubt in my mind that one thing I’ll never forget from those days there in “the middle of nowhere in Central Florida”, it was a good time to learn about building relationships, solving problems, and having fun.