George Washington: A Humble Leader

Hey team. All right, so welcome back for another Monday Message, and today I wanted to talk about one of our Founders. I was recently reading, and it’s about George Washington. He’s on a 25-cent piece, he’s on the dollar bill; most of us have seen him many, many times. You guys have undoubtedly studied him a little bit growing up through school. I don’t know how many people I’ve ever read or seen his Farewell Address. He gave it on September 19th, 1796.

I was there, no kidding. My son, I tell him all the time that I was born when the Marine Corps was born. Back in 1775, it’s when the Marine Corps came alive. I tell my son, I’m getting ready here soon to turn 247 years old. He just kind of rolls his eyes like, Dad, stop it. But the reality is George Washington did say these words.

At that time, people thought he was going to run for a third term, and he was against that. He didn’t want to set up a monarchy; he wanted a republic. He wanted it for the people, by the people. That’s why George Washington fought. It’s a lot of what he did, and he was a great strategist. It was because of his great strategy, hard work, and determination as a leader in the beginning of our country that we beat the British. That we lasted, and that we were able to become this great nation that we are today.

He was the first president of the United States. He didn’t even want to do it, but he did it for the people. After doing it two terms, he said no. He said, I’m not going to do it anymore, and that shocked a lot of people. But in his farewell address, he tried to convince people that his services were no longer needed, that the country could go on without him. That was huge, that was important for the country at that time.

He also tried to say that he really didn’t feel qualified to be president, which shows a huge amount of humility. What a humble statement to be saying, that one, the country can go on and you don’t need me anymore. And the second is to be able to say that, I don’t even feel like I was qualified to be president. He said that the accomplishments, any accomplishments he ever made, were only because of the support of others, again, giving credit to others, another humble statement.

So again, that’s one of the reasons for our core values, humble. It’s enlightening to me that the founder of our nation, one of the founders, the first president of the United States, again, on every dollar bill, was able to say that the accomplishments of others, that he would humble himself in that way and take that stance. He went on further to say in his address that he truly believed that the strength of the nation rests on the private morals of others. He called that to be indispensable, that our private morals, our core values, so to speak, are morals because our core values are moral.

Humility – humble, transparency, investment, resolve, right, those kinds of things that our company’s core beliefs are about being valuable core purpose because nothing less will do things for others, we take them because we celebrate like a family, those core values for Northwest enforcement are in line with what would be right, integrity, and those kind of moral statements of George Washington’s time. And so they are important for us, for us to succeed as a nation, for us to succeed as a company. We need to align ourselves with those core purposes and values that align us all in good ways, in positive ways, to uplift us as a company and as a nation.

So on this Monday, I wanted to just kind of bring into our perspective those kinds of things. And it is hugely amazing to me to see someone of George Washington’s stature in the importance of his time. He could have easily ruled our nation until he died; he could have easily remained president for the entire time. But it takes a very smart person to not seek out power. It takes a very powerful person to maybe not use that power. That is a thing that I admire about one of our founding fathers George Washington. And who I strive to be like and emulate over time as I get older.

I start to recognize the importance of those things. All right, so God bless you on this beautiful Monday. As you keep marching forward into the fall, we have Halloween coming. So, I’m sure if your kids are like my kids, people are getting excited. Like, I’m sure my dentist will be excited also. All right, God bless you guys. I’ll see you guys next week.