Posted March 2, 2009
I was contemplating retiring some years back. Always figured I would return to leatherwork, and open a small shop in a little tourist or university town. I’d spend my days making beautiful, things of the finest leathers in the world, handbags, luggage, attaches, garments, sculpture. Or I could rent out boats and jetskis in Pompano Beach, and spend my days in shorts and a good tan.
But then it occurred to me that at this point in my career I am better now than I have ever been at what I do. More knowedgeable, and better connected, I know more people, and as a team our skills are more highly developed. We are inventing and developing better products than ever before.
This is not the time to quit. Now is the time to put the pedal to the metal, and put to use my gifts, knowledge and abilities to the greatest extent that I can, and to do the best work of my life, to the glory of God, and to the benefit of the world. My friend Reuben Klamer, inventor of the Game of Life, is still inventing at 87 years of age.
With persistence, and perspiration, over time, we improve at what we do. I am amazed every 5 years or so, when I look back and compare, to see how much better our products are now then only 5 years ago, and year by year we get constantly better. We have to, or we would be out of business.
At this stage of my life I am physically stronger than I have ever been. From years of weight training I am now lifting weights I would have never imagined, and setting personal bests almost weekly, when I really expected that the best I could do would be to maintain strength, not increase it. If we make constant improvement a goal, we will constantly improve. We can get better, faster, stronger, smarter at what we do if we strive to do that, and if we are to survive in business we have to.
And it is important to me to realize that it applies in my life as well. I can get healthier, stronger, more loving, better in my relationships with those around me. I don’t have to ever stop improving in each and every aspect of my life. One day back when I was thinking I was getting old, I was at the my local motorcycle dealership, and I met a rider who was 85. He had just stopped riding two-up with his wife. He was just beginning to think of getting a trike. To him I am just a kid. And so a kid I will be til I am 85.
Be the best you can be, and then keep getting better. You are not old til you’re dead. Go out each day and do the very best you can. And then do it again tomorrow. To do less is to waste the gift of life we have been given.
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