Years ago, when I was first starting out, I had a tremendous desire to be a success in business. And this boy from Waldo thought, “If someone is successful, I can probably learn a thing or two from them!” So I started reading books by and about successful people and I also observed the successful business people around me. One thing they all seemed to have in common was that they were not procrastinators. Once they decided to pursue an idea, they dove in and began to develop the thought into reality. “Waiting” was just not a word that existed in their vocabulary! They did things NOW! And this thought permeates into everything they did. One example was found in a book about J.W. Marriott, fou
It was a Friday evening in November. I was on the P.K. Yonge football team and we were on our way from Gainesville to take on an opponent in a town 70 miles away. This game was thought to be a “gimme” game for us. We were quite hot (undefeated) and our opponent was quite cold (win-less). During the hour and a half bus ride over, we were all laughing and joking and having a big time. To say we were quite confident about winning this game would be an understatement! As we neared the school, our head coach, Coach Gutierrez, settled us down to get us focused on the game. The day before, Coach told us to come prepared for this game with an extra undershirt to wear under our pads as the forecast w
When I was in my mid-twenties, Dixie, (my wife at the time) and I were invited to go on a bus trip to attend the University of Florida vs. Louisiana State University football game in Baton Rouge, LA. We had recently moved back to the Gainesville area and had entered into the real estate development business. I looked forward to making new friends with those on the trip and doing some networking. Little did I know that one of these people would become someone very important in my life. As we pulled out of Gainesville on that Friday morning before Saturday’s game, the adult beverages started flowing. Gaiety was thick in the air; indeed everyone was in the greatest mood. I soon found out that m
Last year, I took my grandson Jacob to watch his beloved Jacksonville Jaguars play. His dad, my son, Ben, Jr., usually took him to the games, but on this particular Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of taking him. I was excited about this as I knew how much he loved the Jags and how he even knew the players' numbers and positions. Indeed, he was a real student of the game and, in fact, played quarterback on a ‘little league’ football team. But most importantly, this was a day that he and I could share something in common together. Little did I know that he would enlighten me about how to handle what life serves up. During halftime of the game, he became a little bored and asked me if I ha
