Still thinking about Truett Cathys passing one week later.. Heres a little piece I wrote. I thought you might get a kick out of it. Would love to have your feedback too! Enjoy! We often overestimate what lofty things we can accomplish in the short term. However, the reverse is also true, that we often underestimate what important things can be accomplished in the long term. How often do we set lofty goals with unrealistic timelines only to end up disappointed and discouraged. However, in retrospect, and over a lifetime we often look back and are amazed at what transpired over time and the leaps and bounds that were made (particularly) in the later years. Truett Cathy embodied this concept. At age 25 Truett Cathy opened his first restaurant in 1946. It was called the Dwarf House. Three years later the business suffered a crushing setback when his brother and business partner, Ben died tragically. This kind of catastrophe often catapults a small fledgling business into failure. However, Truett regrouped and in 1951 he opened his second Dwarf House location. He rocked along tinkering with his signature chicken sandwich for the next 12 years finally trademarking Chick-fil-a in 1963. In 1967, 21 years into this odyssey he opened his first store located in a shopping mall. And finally in 1986, at the age of 65, Truett opened his first free standing Chick-fil-a. By this time he had been at this chicken business for 40 years. By all reasonable accounts he had attained considerable success. It might have been a great time to call it quits. After all, most people after 40 years of working for one company are eager to enjoy the golden years and the fruits of their labors. But not Truett. He was just getting his fly wheel rolling. In fact, by 2001 Chick-fil-a, under Truetts leadership, was celebrating the opening of its 1000th store. While it took Truett 5 years to go from one store location to a second in the early days, by 2001 he was able to open a store every 5 days. In 2012, Chick-fil-a eclipsed KFC as the #1 chicken retailer in the US and crossed the $5 billion mark in US sales in 2013. Many will acknowledge that Truetts true impact on our society is far greater than what can be measured in dollars and cents and profits. And all along he stuck to his principles. When people said that you cant mix business with religion, he said Theres no other way. Coupled with a zealous passion for customer service, a firm belief in people, and a phenomenal product, Truett demonstrated (but not overnight) that with patience, persistence and a strong belief system over the course of a lifetime one can yield an incredible return on ones investment. Remembering who fuels our efforts, and keeping our sights set on kingdom type activities, I pray we all will leverage our passions and values in pursuit of those things that will yield eternal profits! Until next time! John
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 12:20:06 +0000
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