"HOWEVER"...A LESSON LEARNED FROM LANCE

By Jody McPhearson
An Inspirational Speaker at The Re-De-Fined Project

 

It has been a rough couple of weeks for Lance Armstrong. My goal is not to pile on to it. Rather, my desire is to learn from it. So this is about what I learned from Lance. I call it "The lesson of However".

 

Let me begin by saying that I admire the fact that he has overcome. It is a well known fact that the doctors gave him a 50/50 chance of survival from stage 4 testicular cancer. In case you have been living under a rock, he beat it! I am equally appreciative of the fact that LiveStrong has been able to raise over $470 million dollars since 1997, according to their website. You see, my mother is a long time survivor of breast cancer.

If you are awaiting the big but, there is no but. You see, but cancels out everything that came before it, and there is no way that I can cancel out the healing of a man's cancer. there is no way I can cancel out the work that the Livestrong foundation has done. So there is no but!

However...There is an extremely big HOWEVER! (You see, however in the simplest terms means contradiction.) Sorry, you probably knew that. HOWEVER...

“This really is a story bigger than Lance,’’ Scott Mercier, Lance's ex-teammate, said. “It’s bigger than cycling. It really goes to the core of (the fact that) ethics matter, (and) doing things the right way matter. It seems whether it’s business, academics, politics, I think the country is fed up. Hopefully we’re seeing a cultural shift that how you do things is more important than the result.’’ You can read the story here

Is this a novel idea? That way we do things is more important than just the results? Is that the voice of the minority? Aren't we yet at the point where character, ethics, and morals are the most important qualities that we instill into our children?

That's the HOWEVER! Even if an athlete wins the Tour De France seven times, character counts. Even if an athlete is the youngest player to score 20,000 points playing basketball, there is a right way to treat people. Even if a recording artist is named the most successful R&B artist of the last 25 years by Billboard, morals count. Even if you are one of the highest paid "reality stars", how you got there is just as important.

If not, there will always be a HOWEVER next to your name!

Isn't this really the lesson that we should be sharing here? Isn't this what Lance has taught us? I believe that this is what's called a teachable moment!  Tonight grab your children and tell them the cautionary tale of HOWEVER.



Refund Your Blessings

Are you nice even when you do not feel like it? That was the question I asked after the store manager handed my money back.

I had run into the Wal-Mart to get a refund for an item that was not properly working, and after 15 minutes of back and forth, I was faced with a disgruntled manager. I nicely asked if I could talk to another manager about the refund and a separate manager came to the desk. As I explained the situation again to the second manager, it seemed we were heading down the same road. As we talked I wondered if I would get my money back.

Moments later, the manager said “By now, customers are usually irate and yelling, but you’ve been patient.” Then he said, “Let’s try something else.” He asked a few questions and started punching numbers into the cash register. After a short delay, and stories about irate customers, the machine produced a receipt with my refund.

The manager went on to tell me the reason the first manager was being so difficult is because a group of high school students were observing customer interactions from a local high school. The kids were in a room, inside the Wal-Mart watching the live footage.

As I was leaving the store, one of the young students came out to thank me for the way I handled myself. He told me I was the only customer who did not get mad or say anything mean to the managers. He told me he learned a valuable lesson from the observation of my refund. Although my refund was small in price, the lesson was priceless in the eyes of a group of young people.

We never know when young people are observing us so it is best that we be consistent examples of how they should be when they grow up.

This was a perfect opportunity for me to discourage a room of students without realizing the harm I could have put on our community. Simply because I kept a level head and displayed positive character, young people were encouraged to be nice even when you feel like going straight off on someone else. Am I always this calm? Absolutely not! I just wanted YOU to see how you can impact our youth with your day to day interactions with others. Their eyes and ears are always open.

The next time you are in a store or simply out in public, what lesson are you teaching the class of students who may be observing you? Just know that every single day, you are a teacher and young people are watching you and learning from your actions. I challenge you to always, REFUND YOUR BLESSINGS.


Travis Hardin

Pay it forward

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 "Photo Credit: Howard McWilliam"