Be Enthusiastic

Hey team. All right, so here we are again, and I wanted to share with you this little quote I read. It’s a little bit about leadership, but I think it’s about life for all of us a little bit because we all like this kind of stuff, I would think. I would hope.

“Be enthusiastic as a leader. You can’t light a fire with a wet match.” Nobody wants to be around Eeyore, right? “Oh, the world is falling apart.” Something nice happens, and “Yeah, but tomorrow I’m probably going to lose it all.” Nobody likes that. Enthusiasm—you need to have it.

Be enthusiastic as a leader. It’s really important that you need to be enthusiastic, inspiring, and uplifting toward your team members and stuff. But even as a team member, when I was just a young United States Marine, I was enthusiastic, and I always looked on the bright side. It’s indwelled in me, and I’m born this way.

I know that there are others out there that are not born this way. I just know that because I happen to be married to somebody who’s not born that way. We complement each other in many different ways. Karen was not born that way, but she brings a side to the equation that helps me balance out and think. I can just be like, “Oh, it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this.” And it’s like, “Yeah, but we need to think before we jump.” Measure the distance before we fall flat on our face. And sometimes it’s okay to fall flat on your face.

But being enthusiastic, whether as a leader, as a parent or as a team member in our community, is important. Be enthusiastic because you can’t light a fire with a wet match. If you want to kindle something, if you want something to grow, if you want something in your life to be, you need to be positive and be around people that are positive.

Do you need to think about what could go wrong? Absolutely. I’ve gotten better at that. I used to jump, jump, jump, and make a lot of mistakes. I probably spent a lot of money I didn’t need to spend. Wasted a lot, and had to work a lot harder to get out of a pit that I dug because I wasn’t thinking. I was too enthusiastic and didn’t think about all the consequences. I didn’t count the cost and didn’t have the self-discipline to focus, and I made a lot of mistakes.

Having people in my life like my beautiful wife has helped me. Having people like Codie, who is a lot like that—she’s very thoughtful and weighs things out really well. The same thing with Sonja; she thinks from a lot of different points of view and is very measured, but at the same time very enthusiastic and has a can-do spirit. I love that about her. And the same thing with Greg—he thinks about things from a lot of different points of view. It can frustrate me sometimes, not Greg, but just that kind of thinking. But they balance me out really well.

You’ll notice that I just mentioned four people that have to balance out me. I need four or five people around me to balance out my enthusiastic energy. Some of you are like, “Only four?” I know there might be another 10 or 12 in the company that help do that for me. If we had too many Energizer bunnies like me, we’d be just bumping into each other all the time. So it’s really helpful to have that. But each and every one of us needs to find a little bit of enthusiasm in our own life because you don’t want to be that wet match. You’ll never start a fire, and you’ll never keep warm. So you want to make sure that you have some enthusiasm in your life.

I’ve seen my wife grow over these number of years. She’s become more energetic and more enthusiastic. I’ve rubbed off a little bit on her, and that’s okay too. I’ve seen her grow, have more enthusiasm, be more energetic, and more positive. She can light a fire now, even under me sometimes. I’ll maybe get a little bit down, I become a little bit more like her, and sometimes she’s the one that’s encouraging me. That’s a beautiful thing to see happen. I’ve enjoyed watching it in her.

So I want you guys to think about that this week for yourselves, your family, your community, and the people you have relationships with. Are you an enthusiastic leader among the people you have influence with, or are you a wet match? Something to think about. Be valuable because nothing less would do.

God bless you guys. I’ll see you next week.