Business, Politics, Economics, Leadership

I learned much from my father, and I also failed to learn much that could have saved me a lot of pain, in life and in business. While he lived, and after I had matured sufficiently to understand both what I had gained and what I could have gained, I was able to share this insight with him, and hear him tell me he had come to the same realization, and had the same conversation, with his father…

My father’s life was not easy, and he struggled to cope with the challenges it threw at him – he was human, after all, and flawed like all of us. Some things I learned by listening to what he said, some by watching what he did, and some as a consequence of failing to watch or listen – he mostly taught by example, and occasionally emphasized a lesson with strong words or a firm hand. At times, as I paid my dues to the rites of passage, we were at odds, sometimes almost estranged – and yet, whenever I was deeply troubled by something in life, whenever I needed someone to listen and understand, his was the company I sought out, his was the ear I bent, his was the advice that I needed.

I came to understand the truth of what he taught me as I stood to give the eulogy at his funeral. I realized that what I had written was not what I wanted to say, because it was not about what mattered most to me, or what would have mattered most to him. The truth was (and is), my father taught me that respect is earned, that work is hard, that burdens must be carried, that truth must be told, that debts must be paid, that promises must be kept, that actions have consequences. He taught me that reputations are made in a lifetime and lost in an instant, that true friends are rare, that a word spoken cannot be unsaid. He taught me to walk tall, be bold, do my duty, love passionately, live with honor, and ask for forgiveness.

Above all else, he taught me how to be a man in a hard world.

Thanks, Dad.