What can you tell from a funeral?

Last weekend I attended the funeral of my Stepfather Dr. Robert White.  When I attended his funeral I was blown away by the amount of people that showed up to honor his life. I was saddened greatly by his loss because it was sudden.  He was raking the lawn and fertilizing the day before he went into surgery.  His death was not expected.  I won't go into the details of the illness because I want to respect his privacy but lets just say he was not critically ill before he went into surgery.  We all expected him to make it.  He was 69 and was constantly on the move.  He loved to help out with outside projects whenever he could.  Especially when it came to trimming bushes.  We joked that he is up in Heaven right now trimming the bushes for God.

He was a Chiropractor for some 40 + years. If anyone was not a user of technology, it was my stepfather.  He ran is practice without a computer all of that time.  He and my mother did not even own a mobile phone.  They had no internet at their house.  How and the world did they survive?  Pretty well!  Stepfather was exceptional at showing up.  What I respect about him is that his actions matched his words.  He was not one of those people were all talk and no action.  Quite the opposite in fact.  One year while we were on vacation he chopped up our bushes while we were away.  We had only mentioned it  in passing.  Action!  Thats what most sales people and business people are missing these days.  Thats an ethic that the current generation will have a challenge grabbing hold of with all of their electronic communication.  I have always worked for companies that were focussed on getting out with people "belly to belly".  This is what Bob excelled at.  He had life long relationships with his clients who followed him wherever he went.  I remember him heading to work on Saturday mornings to help patients out of pain.  He did this almost every Saturday.  I prefer sleeping in.

Some 500+ people showed up to his funeral.  I don't even think I know 500 people.  And I work at it every day. These were people who's lives he had touched.  He did not use email, chat, or mobile phones.  I don't think he ever made a cold call.  He just met people where they were at.  Every day.  I hope this blog honors his memory.  I'd better get out in the yard and start trimming the bushes.

~pz

I'm Back!

Hello out there.  Sorry I have not blogged for quite a while.  I was gone on vacation for 2 weeks where is intentionally did not blog.  I also had just started my new role as Director of Managed Services at Advance Integrated Technologies just before I left on vacation.  Well.  When I returned from vacation my Step-Father went in to surgery and unfortunately he passed away about 2 weeks ago.  My brain was full of thoughts and information.  I wanted to blog but could not straighten it all out.  So...I hope you'll keep reading because I'm going to keep blogging.

Thanks for waiting.

~pz