Beginning with the End in Mind

Today is the last day of 2010. By now you have looked forward and looked backward for the purpose of making significant decisions either professionally or personally.

I bet that on your list of goals some of these Top Ten Resolutions appear:

• Spend More Time with Friends and Family
• Lose Weight (or Get Fit)
• Enjoy Life More
• Quit Smoking (or quit some other substance abuse/overuse)
• Get Out of Debt
• Learn Something New
• Help Others
• Get Organized
• Do Something You Love to Do 

It's like we have all been attending the same school and listening to the same professors. Our collective mantra somehow says, "Yesterday was good; Tomorrow will be better yet!"

And all the people said, "Amen!"

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My career path has had me interact with the elderly. What I learn from those who have gone before me is like looking at a dirty GPS screen: I know the future is coming but it is not all that clear to me yet.

For example, I have heard many times how wonderful it is to be a grandparent. This year I get to find out for the first time for myself. It will not be someone else's story; I will own it. The GPS screen will get a little clearer.

We are all heading somewhere. As years fade away the playing field will level out dramatically regardless of money in the bank, letters behind the name, titles before the name, achievements and awards, and the number of pages in our experience journal.

Here are some of the things that I have gleaned from listening to those who have gone before . . . lessons that will be left standing when other things fade away in importance:

• Loving and caring relationships will always be important
• Contentment is great gain
• "Do as you would be done by" is still a curriculum to master
• Showing gratitude opens doors
• "No matter how much things change, some things never change." Happy are the people who know what things never change and respect them
• Pity is reserved for those who let faith die 
• The right word at the right time by the right person can accomplish so much
• Accumulated money rots without generosity of heart

Steven Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, talks about the importance to "begin with the end in mind." "To begin with the end in mind is to start with a clear understanding of your destination. It means to know where you are going so that you better understand where you are now and so that the steps you take are always in the right direction. It's incredibly easy to get caught up in an activity trap, in the busy-ness of life, to work harder and harder at climbing the ladder of success only to discover it's leaning against the wrong wall."

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We are all heading into the future ready or not! 

Here is a prediction for 2011: The goals on your list that most closely align with your true values will be accomplished.

Happy New Year!

Benton Clyde Clark

The innate desire to be somehow noteworthy, memorable or at least noticed has motivated people to do . . . well, noteworthy, memorable or noticeable things.

Consider what it must be like to be one of ten children. How do you get noticed when so many are living under the same roof? My neighbor has multiple children who I cannot name. They range in ages from toddler to college grad. Large families cause me to imagine all kinds of things. When my mother got upset she would run down the list of her kids' names — first and middle names — until she got to the one she was after. Me. So it sounded something like this: Jeffrey Laurence Paul Frederick Alan Jack. What must that be like in a family with ten children?

I can only imagine.

Benton, however, did not have to imagine what it would be like. He had nine siblings. Growing up on the Mississippi farm meant they all had plenty to do. I suppose if a chore did not get done on the farm, it was not long before someone noticed. Stuff piles up pretty quickly on a farm.

All the chores could not keep Benton from eventually wondering if there was something more for him than farm life. It was an inner calling to do something noteworthy. At the tender adult age of 18 he left the farm to go work for his older brother at his jewelry store in Texas. Under his brother's professional care, Benton learned about jewelry and watch repair.

The desire to strike out and pave his own destiny kept Benton looking and listening. Stories of fortunes being made up north in Indian Territory intrigued him. His dreams of money and adventure propelled him to leave his brother's store and hop a train towards Chickasa in the Indian Territory with fifty dollars in his pocket.

Pulling to a stop in Purcell, Benton went to purchase a ticket for the remainder of the trip to Chickasa only to discover that his wallet was gone! Penniless and in a town where he knew no one, Benton was nowhere near noteworthy, memorable or even noticeable. A man of weaker resolve might have begged his way back home with his ego bruised to live a life unnoticed in the shadows of the familiar. The 23 year old son of a Mississippi farmer decided that going back was not an option.

Some might call it fate and others might call it Providence when Benton met up with a familiar face from Texas. A gentleman from down South had opened a racket store (a forerunner to the five and dime store) in Purcell and permitted Benton to set up a corner where he could fix watches. It was an opportunity.

Benton hung up a shingle proudly announcing his service.

The town of Purcell was a regular stop for trains from the North Division and the South Division. Railroads required all company watches to be inspected every fifteen days! Benton the watch repairman became a noteworthy stop for railroad employees and a business that moved out of the five and dime into a store of his own.

Within a few years a watch engraved with his name had the reputation of fine quality sought after by railroad employees.

Benton weathered severe economic times by diversifying what he offered in his store. He sold phonographs, player pianos, the first General Electric refrigerators and even cars. Even though jewelry and watch repair remained his core business, it became known that this father of six was resourceful and determined. It was his good business sense in responding to the needs of his market and his creative solutions that kept his business growing while many others shuttered their doors.

Benton's commitment to customer service, superior quality, resourceful and entrepreneurial spirit engraved his name in the territory we now call Oklahoma. A memorable and noteworthy business. A true American success story. Most people do not know this old family story when they pass by one of three jewelry stores that bear Benton's name in Oklahoma City today. Most shoppers are unaware that the fine store was the idea of a Mississippi farm boy.

Ask anyone on the streets of Oklahoma City about Benton Clyde Clark the jeweler and you might get a puzzled look in return. "You mean B. C. Clark?" followed by a warm smile.

B. C. Clark, the business that is known for it's Christmas jingle. A jingle so familiar and so endearing to Oklahoma that Christmas would not be Christmas without it. A jingle that has been sung every year since 1956.

I bet you'd like to hear it for yourself . . . the jingle that is so noteworthy, so memorable, so noticed that young and old alike sing it with a smile on their faces . . .

The familiar jingle

Made famous on Jay Leno

Danced to

Played by

Sung by

And Sung by

Noteworthy. Memorable. Noticed.