What do you say to an employee who wants a raise now? Do you say, “NO! Times are tough. Our revenues are down. Our profit margins are down. I cannot give you a raise!” That’s not an acceptable response. If you’ve got valuable employees that you really want to keep, then you cannot give that response. If you make that employee mad, they might quit or become non-productive. Trying to replace that employee is going to be so expensive, and if they stay but are not inspired because you turned them down for a raise, they are not going to be as productive or as valuable to you. So have a little sensitivity towards them when they say they need a raise.
These are tough times. Not only are they tough times, but everywhere we look it’s doom and gloom. Read the newspapers. Read the editorials. Look at MSNBC or Fox News at night and they are going to talk about the market going down, mortgages are a mess, real estate won’t recover for two years, joblessness is up, and we see no end in sight. It’s easy to be despondent. It’s easy to be discouraged. It’s easy to just want to feel sorry for ourselves, but this is the opportunity of a lifetime for you and me. This is a time for the tough…for the mentally tough…for the people who will not give into the conditions of the day, because your competitors and so many other people in business are going to slack off. They are going to be in the turmoil and stupor of depression and discouragement, and they just won’t be able to do anything.
I went to see Frankie Valli a few weeks ago in concert. It was a great setting – right here in the heart of Buckhead in Atlanta, smack in the middle of one of our nice residential sections of the city. We have an amphitheater called Chastain Amphitheater. Chastain has been here for many years, might seat 4,000 people or so — all outdoors, and very popular in the summertime. You can spread out your food on tables, drink a little wine, and listen to some good music in this beautiful setting. And I got to listen to my favorite artist of all time – Frankie Valli. It wasn’t Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – he had four young guys up there singing with him and a band behind him with about 13 people, and it was the greatest concert I have ever been to in my life. Frankie Valli is 74 years old, and he sounds great!
We all have times in our lives when we witness an event that is life changing – an event that is spectacular. Yesterday in London England at the Wimbledon Championship, we all saw the greatest tennis match that was ever played by two of the greatest players who have ever played: Rafael Nadal, 22 years old, and Roger Federer, 26.
They played a match that lasted 4 hours and 48 minutes, but it spanned 7 hours and 14 minutes. It endured three rain delays. It was the longest singles final in Wimbledon history, played by these two men, two young men of extraordinary talent. We watched them hit forehands and backhands, serves and returns. We watched them run that court. And while I watched this match, I couldn’t help but marvel at what is inside of each one of these young men. What gave them the resiliency — the will to continue on — when it seemed that all was lost?
Would you believe that the price of gas is over $4 a gallon and moving towards $5 a gallon? You know, I see that happening and I watch the reports on the news. This price increase is affecting all of us, some more than others. It affects every aspect of our lives and that price increase is reflected in what we pay for everything! And because this is having such a dramatic impact, we are actually seeing a cause and effect happen.
I read recently that for the first time in 20 years our use of gas is down dramatically and is continuing to go down, which tells us what? We are adaptable. We are going to find that we can maybe not drive our cars to as many places as we did before. We’ll ride bicycles, we’ll ride motorcycles or scooters, we’ll walk, we’ll combine our errands, we’ll not take trips because we have got to adapt. We will do all these things because we can not afford to travel and drive as much as we did before. This cause and effect is happening in America….the land of plenty. And we are really adapting. For the first time in 20 years, and I find this astounding, we are saying, “No — I am not going to pay this price” and we are reducing the demand for gasoline in this country by not using as much.
On Wednesday, June 18th Tim Russert was laid to rest. A lot of significant things happened at his memorial service. A lot of great words were spoken, people expressing their feelings, telling stories, and having a really grand Irish funeral. But the most impressive part of the funeral to me was Tim’s 22 year old son, Luke Russert, who gave the eulogy. His uniqueness showed up before the eulogy was even given when Luke Russert asked the presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, to sit side by side in a show of unity as they move towards the presidential election in November. I thought that was more than symbolic, because I think we have the chance this year to show the heartfelt feelings and greatness of our country, which should not be steeped in hatred just because one is liberal or one is conservative, one is Democrat or one is Republican. We’ve had far too much of that.
I played football in the National Football League for 18 years, four years of football at the University of Georgia and four years of football at Athens High School. I had a couple of coaches in high school – Waymon Sellers and Billy Henderson. They were instrumental in my understanding of life, as well as developing as a football player.
They worked us hard. They made us practice the fundamentals over and over again. Those were important, but they were not nearly as important as this lesson: They instilled in me that in playing the team sport of football – it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about my accomplishments or how many passes I could complete or how many runs I could make. It was about my teammates. My mission was supposed to be about my teammates. My job in a team sport was to make my teammates better. If I had that understanding and that attitude, and my teammates had that attitude, we had a much better chance of winning. My mission then, not only in high school and college and pro football was just that – it wasn’t about selfish ME. My focus and my mission had to be about making my teammates better, and if I made my teammates better, then our team had a much better chance to win.
Hamilton Jordan was the Chief of Staff to President Jimmy Carter. At age 32 or so, when Jimmy Carter was in his first year as Governor of Georgia, Hamilton wrote an 80 page document outlining how he could become President. Jimmy Carter followed it to the letter, and this unknown peanut farmer from Georgia who had no chance in the world to become President became President. President Carter acknowledges that fact today, and all of us in Georgia are well versed in the legend of Hamilton Jordan.
Hamilton died 2 days ago at age 63. He had battled cancer for 20 years. I am passing on to you a message sent to me by Hamilton’s good friend, and my good friend, Scott Miller. Scott Miller is one of the great marketing minds in America. He is Chairman of the Board of Zyman Group, a marketing company that works with the biggest and best companies in America. I thought you would enjoy his thoughts on Hamilton.
As I’ve said to you often, entrepreneurs are the best business people in this country, and the reason they are is they are the ones that are doing the work. They are engaged. They have their hands all over their businesses. They’ve got good hearts, and they work hard at what they are doing, at whatever age they are.
One of the greatest entrepreneurs and greatest human beings I have ever known is Buddy Koffman from Binghamton, NY. He came into my life when I was 27 years old. I was playing for the New York Giants and had started some businesses in Atlanta. I had a lawyer who worked with me who was a good soul and a bright man, and he was going to run all these businesses for me. He did – but he ran them right into the ground!
I am a serial entrepreneur. I have worked all of my life. I had a little wagon when I was five years old in Washington, DC, and I would go down to the Safeway grocery store and take the little old ladies’ groceries from the Safeway store to their houses. That was back in 1945, and they would give me a nickel or a dime. I had a paper route when I was seven years old. I delivered newspapers every afternoon during the week and at six o’clock in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays.
I have built businesses all my life. I have built 15 different companies. I believe the greatest business people in the world are entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs get it done now. They don’t put off until tomorrow what they can do today. They’ve got energy, they’ve got a belief system, and they’ve got a passion for what they are doing. I used to think in my younger life that the big business people, the guys who run these big companies, were “the bomb!” But now I know that “the bombs” are the ones that build their own companies. People like Bill Gates, the college dropout. Michael Dell from Dell Business Systems with one quarter of college under his belt.
