Dear GreatLIFE Member, Team Member & Support Team Member,
It is hard to think Summer is over and kids are back in school! For me, this is my favorite time of the year with the Fall colors, football, Sanford International PGA Legends tournament and pheasant hunting season with friends, family and my dogs! I hope you and your family have a great Fall!
I don’t know if you follow women’s LPGA golf but there are some interesting connections with the LPGA, Sioux Falls and GreatLIFE. Back in 2016, at our Symetra GreatLIFE Challenge, an 18-year-old rookie name Nelly Korda won her first professional title here in Sioux Falls. In the last month or so through recent victories, she is now the #1 ranked player in the world on the LPGA. In the Olympics this past month she won the Gold Medal and her career kicked off with our GreatLIFE Challenge! Another former winner of our GreatLIFE Challenge was Celine Boutier, a young French golfer is currently ranked #65 in the world. It sure was fun and exciting to see these young talented ladies succeed!
The other day, I received notice from my bank that they were discontinuing their safety deposit box program and requested that I close out mine. Yesterday I went to the bank and emptied it out. There was very little financially in it, but it was packed with old thank you letters, newspaper articles, notes that I had sent to some Make-A-Wish families, old pictures and other life mementos. I spent a few hours last night and this morning going through them at times they brought tears – and many smiles! So many of these I had completely forgotten about, but now they are treasures.
One of which was an article that an old high school buddy and currently a professor down at USD, Dr. Mike Roche, had sent me back in August 1994 about how there is too much talk. The point being that actions speak louder than words and I firmly believe it. The way you live your life, how you treat people – especially what my Dad referred to as the “little people”, those that take your order at a fast food place, the car wash attendant or the person cleaning your office, how you treat them tells a lot about your character. A quote that I love is “Preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words”.
Another was an article by Lou Holtz, the great Notre Dame football coach and motivational speaker that is pretty simple and so true. It is about asking three questions to a person to really get to know them. The three questions are:
1. What makes you smile?
2. What makes you cry
3. What is your biggest dream?
Another one was the cover newsletter for our old Burger King Teamwork Tribune from January 1996 that will be included later that are lessons I have learned and believe in. Teamwork Tribute Tom
Forever I have suggested to friends, family members and people I have worked with to set up files for people that are special in your life. Keep filling them with little “life mementos” that at the time may seem not very significant, but I will guarantee you that down the road they will become meaningful heirlooms!
Thanks for being a GreatLIFE Member, Team Member and Support Team Member! Hope you enjoy the Fall and remember my definition of success, “Success: when the ones closest to you, love and respect you the most”.
Tom