Dear Friends,
I have a good friend in our church who is a member of our Spiritual
Leadership Class. He is 91 and still learning and still leading and still
influencing people.
In 1937 at age16 he bought a dump truck for $ 375 and hauled soil,
gravel, and cow manure on weekends.
10 years later during a building boom, he bought a bulldozer,
and excavating two cellars daily for area builders, he earned $ 200 a
day, a lot of money at that time.
He then bought a trailer to move the bulldozer which he used to
pull his $375 dump truck.
He joined the ranks of Hess Brothers in his 20’s to operate their
Caterpillar D-7 bulldozer, and he quickly rose through the ranks of leadership.
He worked for the company for the next 46 years rising to the level of
executive Vice President of Hess Brothers Construction Company, one of the largest
highway construction firms in the northeast, employing 400 people and averaging
40 million dollars in revenue annually. Hess Brothers built part of the New
Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and many other major roads in New York,
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Dick was an integral part in the company’s success
that made them one of the largest road construction company in the country.
He was always a hard worker, and waking up at 3:00 am, and
reaching the office by 4:00 am gave him three hours to read his mail, draft
letters that needed to be sent, and roll out of the office at 7:00 am to visit
as many of the ongoing jobs as possible.
In his 80’s he came to know the Lord, was baptized, and joined the
church. Shortly after he became the project manager of a team that helped
create our beautiful gymnasium that today is worth well over a million dollars.
And at 91 he still has a quest for learning how to become a better
leader, gathering with 8 other men to attend our weekly church Spiritual
Leadership class.
In this class I asked the men to watch a video, titled the "5
Levels of Leadership." He followed my advice and below was his response
after viewing the message.
Tom, I took your advice and watched the fifteen
minute video on the Five Levels of Leadership...as I listened and kept notes,
it became apparent to me, that in my 46 years with Hess Brothers, I experienced
each of the steps he described, and thankfully, I was able to correct the
deficiencies of each step, and finally, I was so blessed to reach that
fifth and final plateau of RESPECT, in addition to the other positive aspects
of Leadership, as you gain more experience.
I really enjoyed the video, and thanks so much for making
it available to us.
If you are interested in watching the fifteen-minute video on the
Five Levels of Leadership to discover at which level you are as a leader, just
click on the link below. You might be surprised to discover that, like
Dick, you have reached level 5, the Pinnacle Level.
And yes, you are wrong if you don't think you are a leader because
a leader is anyone who influences people, and everyone does that,
either for good or for bad.
I know like the song says, "I have a long ways to go and a
short time to get here," but like Dick I am on the leadership growth
journey, and I hope you are as well.
Someone was said, “If you are green you are growing, if you are
ripe, you rot.” I don’t want to be like a too ripe banana, if you know what I
mean, so I am looking for fruit that is green and still growing. and I hope you
are too.
Take a look at this link. Check out this 12-minute video to get a taste of what LILO is
all about.
Yours still green and growing,
Tom
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