Happy Sunday Everyone:
I meet with my buddy Don every Tuesday, I call it Tuesdays with Don. We’ve been doing this for the past 13 years. He’s 80, he’s one of the most important people in my life. He’s done life well. He’s an accomplished person, has seen a lot of things, knows a lot of people, he’s run companies, owned companies , failed at a company, survived both prostate/pancreatic cancer…he’s just seen a lot and I trust him and look to him for a lot of guidance in my own life, mostly because of his moral fiber.
This past Tuesday we were together and he’s talking about how active he continues to be at the Bohemia Club. It’s a club he’s belonged to for 45 years, it’s a special place. If you haven’t heard of it, google it, too long to explain here. As we’re talking he said “it makes me feel like I’m still in the game”. Basically Don’s way of saying it makes him feel useful. He then proceeds to tell me he did a talk up at the club based on a Sunday Thoughts I had written where Jim Collins was told my Peter Drucker to stop focusing on being successful and focus on being useful.
Don broke it down further to define what he thought being useful meant. He discussed 4 primary words. To be useful you need to:
1. Give people your time.
2. you need to be able to be vulnerable with people.
3. You need to care.
4. you need to tell the truth.
Where I’m trying to tie this all together is I have been asking myself the question “what game am I playing?” a lot lately and I’ve also been super aware of some highly successful people around me that have retired that don’t seem all that happy. So when Don said “makes me feel like I’m still in the game”….I started thinking “what game” is he talking about. Game of life? game of feeling important? game of feeling useful?
I seriously can’t tie this all together right now so going to make a statement and keep moving on with my day:
If my game is defined by the amount of loans that I close and how much I have in the bank, I’m going to be in trouble. If the game that I play is to be useful to as many people as I can and let the chips fall where they may, that would be a great game to play and one that doesn’t get less important the older I get, probably the opposite. I would always be in the game. As I think through being useful with Don’s words of time, vulnerability, care, and truth, the world gets way more simple, and better.