Happy Sunday Everyone:
have a client that was introduced to me through his daughter in law, who is one of my best business partners. “Referring friends and family” is, in my opinion, a highly overused marketing line. With that said, in its truest sense, there is no bigger compliment in business than to have a business partner refer a family member, it speaks volumes to the relationship you have with that person.
John P is the client. He’s 72, he’s 5’8, he probably weighs 160lbs. He’s relatively ordinary on the outside. His daughter in law originally referred him to me as someone I’d like a lot but suggested/warned me that he was very “funny”. Not funny like “ha ha” but more like “interesting”. His family refers to him as “memo man”. If he decides he likes something or thinks you’d like something, and he likes you, he sends you the item, with a memo on why he’s sending it. When I started working with him, we got on the subject of Italian food, John is Italian. We talked about North Beach in SF, and our mutual love of pizza. When I closed John’s loan, John drove to San Francisco, bought me his favorite pizza, and delivered it to myself and my team in our office. When he dropped it off, it wasn’t something he considered to be a big deal, he just wanted me to try his favorite pizza. It took him at least 3 hours to do this for me. John’s family consists of his wife, his kids, their spouses, and his grandkids. Everyone in John’s family loves John, and John loves his family. He’s very simple. He worked his whole life, lived responsibly, lived inside of his means, planed for retirement, and is now living in retirement. He’s a blast from the past.
Last Saturday Night at 3:30AM John was awoken to shattering glass in his family room. Without thought, John jumped out of bed only to find a man in his house with a shovel. This 30 year old man hit John with the shovel and dropped him to the ground. John’s thought was “die, or do something”. John tackled the guy, got the shovel, hit the guy with the shovel, fought him while rolling outside of the house, beat the crap out of the guy in his backyard, and was nicely surprised when the police showed up and tasered the guy to end the evening. John was naked, bleeding, and obviously/rightfully so, in a state of shock, as was his wife. A week later he still isn’t sleeping, and is still shaken, but he’s relatively okay.
Why am I writing about this? Truth is, I’m not 100% sure except to acknowledge John P. When I think about John, I think of a quiet, humble, lion of a man. John isn’t seeking any attention from anyone. He only wants to give attention to people he cares about and people he loves. His foundation and how he has lived his life, is, in my opinion, why he was able to do what he did. John is not a “tough” guy. At 72, he’s certainly not a meat head that watched UFC fights and put his skills into action….he was simply protecting his family and his home. He’s a person of action, clearly. It causes me to question what I would have done? We all want to say we’d do what John did, but who knows until you’re there. Who knows how else this could have been played out, what’s done is done and how it happened is how it happened. Biggest lesson for me is this is yet another example of action vs. no action. In his case, his actions likely saved he and his wife’s life, but in everyday life, action is going to win over non action most, if not all of the time.
We don’t always get to choose the situations we find ourselves in but we do choose how we respond when we’re in those situations. Even at 72, I can all but guarantee John’s confidence in himself went up because of how he responded to this situation. My favorite part is the fact that he has an entire family behind him scratching their heads on what John did, how he responded, and at the same time, not surprised.
The grandkids have two new names for John, “beast Grandpa”, and “The Naked Ninja”, I love that.
Have a great rest of your Sunday.