Special Post

Sometime during the spring of 1993 my dad took our French exchange student, the French exchange student’s girlfriend, and myself to a Bulls vs. Pistons game at the old Chicago Stadium. After a memorable three-hour dive downtown —thirty of which the two love birds “made out” in my dad’s back seat (priceless memory), we witnessed MJ take over the fourth quarter of a game against his nemesis, lead the Bulls back into the game, and eventually win it in Overtime. The day ended with my dad handing our exchange student a signed picture of MJ with a personal note written to him in French from Michael (Thanks to Randy Lemcke and Johnny “Red” Kerr).

That was a DAY!

Fast forward to April 2008 at the Staples Center. The Lakers had traded for Pau Gasol and were relevant for the first time since the Shaq/Kobe breakup. I was sitting in the nose-bleed section with Sarah after convincing her that I needed to see Kobe play at the Staples Center. We were in LA on our “Spring Break” (I was actually trying to be a teacher at that point, and she already was!). The Lakers played the first three quarters like the Bulls had back in ‘93, and then it happened. Kobe channeled his inner MJ, took the game over, and willed the Lakers to victory. It was tenacious, or as the kids say these days, “savage,” and in a sports sense it was even “cold blooded.” Walking back to the Biltmore Hotel I told Sarah that we had just seen the closest resemblance to Michael Jordan as we will ever see (My wife is a saint for dealing with my sports fandom, she could care less about the NBA!).

I was fortunate to see Kobe Bryant play basketball several times in person — that being the only time in Los Angeles however — each time being an absolute treat. So, when I heard the news Sunday afternoon I was shocked, sad, and mournful. To be clear, I wasn’t the biggest Kobe Bryant fan in the world. I don’t own any merchandise, shoes, or even have any pictures of him hanging up. I just respected the absolute competitor he was. His example was, and still is, inspiring. And I do not use that word lightly as I can count on ONE hand the number of athletes that have inspired me when seeing them in person (MJ, Tiger, Kobe. In that order).

That’s the background of this post. Now some brief commentary…

Ever since Sunday afternoon there has been a pit in my stomach. While countless unknown people die each day from both preventable, and not preventable, things, there is something unique that happens when a well-known person dies suddenly. In a way, the shared grieving experience brings people together, which is always a weird occurrence in these divided times that we live in.

Kobe Bryant was a husband, father, and forty-one years old. While his life was vastly different than mine, he was, to a certain extent, part of my “sports life” for nearly a quarter-century. He had staying power, and most-likely would have been part of the sports’ narrative for decades to come.

What makes his death hard to accept is that he did not die alone. The unrealized potential of ALL the lives in the helicopter is probably what is both most staggering, and sad. In fact, when I have thought this week about the youngest passengers, including Kobe’s daughter, my lip has quivered and I have had to think about something else.

It is just really sad.

Life is this way.

As I have already mentioned, there are people that lose their lives every single day from preventable, even human, mistakes. There are also terrible injustices that still persist in the broken world we live in.

All this is true, yet when someone like Kobe Bryant dies suddenly, we are all reminded that death does not discriminate, and cares little for what your plans are.

I think that is one of the main reasons this stings for many, me included.

There are, however, other reasons I mourn…

Husbands are not supposed to be torn-away from their wives. Yes, there is a lot to the story of that marriage, the one between Kobe and his wife, but why in the name of human decency dissect it now? Kobe’s life was full of ups, downs, and even horrific mistakes.

You know what?

So, is mine.

Dads should also not be torn away from kids. Kids should not lose their life before it begins. Helicopters with seemingly no mechanic problems should fly without crashing…

Yet, sometimes the world does not work the way it was intended to.

Scratch that, most times the world does not work the way it was intended to.

Jesus said that there would be immense trouble in this world. And you know what?

There is.

The public nature of his tragedy does make it unique because most of the wrongs of the world go unnoticed in our busy lives. This is both sad, and practical. Sad because the world is, at least for now, really messed up. And practical because we have to live life.

Occasionally, however, something like this slows us down for a moment.

Here are some questions to consider this week:

Maybe we should allow the event to speak to us?

Maybe we should take stock of our own lives?

What needs attention?

Or, who needs attention?

Last Saturday Kobe Bryant flew to and from his daughter’s basketball game. While I don’t know for certain, I would imagine some of the same passengers were in the helicopter Saturday that would tragically be in it on Sunday.

Everything worked flawlessly Saturday.

Then Sunday happened.

We just don’t know when our Sunday will come.

Neither did they.

I know. This is hard stuff.

And it stinks.

But I have to remind myself that Sunday will someday happen for me too.

I cringe when Christians offer cheap “niceties” in these kinds of situations, so I am not intending to do so and apologize if anything I have written so far does come across that way.

Instead, I am just going to be blunt on my position and encourage you to seek your own.

Jesus plainly said life would be hard. He died because of it, so why do we expect safety? In fact, there are thousands of His followers being persecuted as I write these words.

There is a price to be paid, that is for sure.

My life, on the other hand, is mostly easy street.

At least presently.

Yet, the day will still come.

Cancer, helicopter crash, old-age, it does not matter.

The day will come.

My hope is in the one that conquered death. So, as I process this senseless tragedy, I look to Him, and follow his advice to mourn with those who mourn.

I know this might sound weird because I never met Kobe, or any of the other passengers on that helicopter, but I do mourn for them.

God speed to them all.

Good-bye “Mamba.”

The next time someone tries to convince me that something cannot be done, I will think of you and work harder.

I may fail, but like you did…

I am going to take the shot while I still can.

In the cue of upcoming posts, I write about a few changes that I am making in 2020. One of the changes is adopting a “Rule of Life,” which I explain in more detail then. For now, think of it is a list of self-guidelines for your daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly activities that you want to prioritize. It isn’t intended to be “legalistic,” but rather “instructive” as to how you spend your time.

In my “monthly” bucket, I have challenged myself to take one extended time (4 hours is the target) away from the office for the purpose of solitude. There are many reasons for solitude, but that is a different post. For now, here are some learnings from yesterday’s time in quiet thinking about life, business, family, and so much more.

(I captured all of this in my Full Focus Planner notebook. I am sharing everything but a business idea that I thought of).

Random tidbits:

What does winning at 100 look like?

This thought came to me about an hour in.

1. Health
2. A Happy Marriage
3. Evidence I have lived for Jesus and not myself
4. Evidence our kids follow Jesus

Then I put my pen down.

A thought struck that I wrote down next:

I am chasing a lot of the wrong stuff.

Earlier in my time I did an “insecurity check for 1/22/20.”

What do I feel insecure about?

1. My blog and writing
2. Leadership
3. Contribution at work
4. In general, what people think of me.
5. My golf game (compared to my dad)
6. Drawing (this I captured later when I tried drawing what was out my window. Gee, I sound like a weirdo – again, insecure! – I was motivated by the Planner’s space for “sketching”).

I stopped listing at this point because it was getting painful! =)

I am focusing on a Proverb for 2020 (“Trust in the Lord”) and will share more about that in the upcoming post “3 Small Pivots for 2020” that I am either posting 1/27 or 2/3). Given that context, this thought struck me about 90 minutes in….

Rest is a complete TRUST in God’s faithfulness.

It was at this point in solitude where I realized how unimportant I was to the work we do. Things keep running without me checking my email for a few hours, or doing anything productive – as the world defines “productive” (sorry Dad, thank God you don’t read these – LOL).

And this is FREEING on two levels. One, we have a great team! Two, it is not all up to me…

Later, another thought struck me as I sat quietly:

The longer in solitude I spend, the more intense joy returns like a long-lost friend.

Weirdo again.

Insecure again.

But, getting past the rush and noise is so…

Refreshing.

I highly recommend it, which is why I am sharing this post to subscribers today. I am not posting anywhere else.

Don’t buy the lie that you don’t have the time.

You have the time.

Prioritize it. Even, if it is for just 30 minutes.

I will be at it again sometime in February.

(Postscript: By 11 a.m. I was at work, didn’t miss anything, and stayed there till 5:15 PM. With a “full” tank I was HIGHLY productive yesterday. I’m sure my Executive Coach would be shocked by that admission…(Sarcasm!))

Lap Tran has worked at Hoffer Plastics for 34 years. He is part of our family. A few months ago, Lap let me know that he was coming up on the 40th anniversary of his arrival to the United States. He then surprised me by asking me to write a story about it. I thought about it his request for about a week and decided his words would be better than mine. So after a little coaxing, we sat down on a recent Friday afternoon and had a two hour conversation. What follows are my questions in bold, followed by Lap’s answers. I post this on the actual day, October 29, that Lap arrived at O’Hare International Airport, but the story began back in Vietnam…

When did you leave Vietnam? November 25, 1978.

Why did you leave Vietnam? I wanted to escape. I can’t live with the communist.

What about the communists couldn’t you live with? How they treat people. You have no freedom of speech. School, you had no choice. You had to do what they told you to do. If a dog was walking by and they called it a pig, you had to call it a pig.

Can you give me an example of something you saw that you couldn’t live with? I had a friend that suddenly disappeared and never saw him again.

Tell me about life in 1978 leading up to this? My village had a soccer tournament playing against the team from Saigon. My village invited me to come home to play against the team from Saigon. At the time, I was playing professional soccer in Saigon. This was my second year playing professional soccer in Saigon. So, I came home to play the game and arrive Tuesday prior to Sunday’s game. I spent the week practicing and I escaped Saturday prior to the game.

Why did you choose Saturday – and I am assuming it was at night? Yes, it was at night. My family had a plan for me to escape Vietnam. But, it was not that time. When I came back for the week of practice, some of the people that owned the boat that would be used for my escape told me about their plan to escape. They had three families that were going to escape at that time, but they feared that the government had found out about it. So they had to go and they invited me to go with. My sister and brother were also supposed to be on that boat, but they were not in the village at the time. And because of the government, we had to leave immediately.

Can you tell me more about the escape? It was night time. I was supposed to go down to have a meeting for the soccer team about the next day’s game, instead I continued to go to the boat. About 10 p.m. at night I got down to the river and got on one of the three little boats.

How many people were on each boat? On the boat that I got on there were only four people. There were only adults on my boat, but there were women and children on the other two. Our plan was to use these three boats to get from the river down to the ocean. Once we got to the ocean, we would all join on one boat.

What happened next? These boats were acting like they were going fishing. So they first have to stop at the guard station before being allowed to enter the ocean. So the three boats parked at the guard station, while each of us hid under fishing nets or whatever we could find to conceal ourselves from the guards. The guards allowed us to go on, and just when we thought we were in the free, one of the smallest kids began crying. At this point, the guards began shouting for us to STOP. We couldn’t stop because if we stopped they would catch us, and we most likely would have been sent to prison camp in the jungle. Everyone that went to the prison camp in the jungle never came back.

So what did the guards do next? They began shooting at all three boats…

Was anybody hit? A few people on the boat were shot, but none fatally. At least yet.

What happened next? We got to the ocean and put everybody in one boat so we could save gas. This included transferring the wounded people as well. Our intended destination was the Philippines. So we set out for the Philippines because it was a free country, yet after four days on the water, we assumed we had missed it. I didn’t know that we had missed, but the fishing guides were confident we had.

What did you eat or drink on the boat during those four days? We had some food that we brought along. We also had some water. But, I was immediately sea sick on the ocean and couldn’t eat or drink.

What happened to the wounded? They kept getting worse and worse during this time. (My note – it is apparent that these four didn’t make it. It was also apparent that this memory was very difficult to talk about. So, I decided to stop asking about it).

So what happens after four days? We don’t have any directions, so the fishing guide is just stirring the ship by using the moon and sun. After they missed the island, they decided to turn the ship. But they were debating about how much turn to because they didn’t want to turn and go back to Vietnam. They wanted to turn and get to Malaysia or Singapore. Eventually, a week later, we ended up in Malaysia.

You were on the water for close to 11 days? Yeah…

Were you seasick the entire time? I was still seasick and couldn’t walk at all. The only reason I could survive is that my brother, who had left Vietnam before the fall of Saigon and ended up in Paris, had sent me a multivitamin. So I took this every day on the water and it probably saved my life.

How was everyone else on the boat doing? Every else was doing fine. They were eating and drinking well. The only exception were the ones who were shot. I was the only “city boy” and that’s why I was doing bad.

So what happened when you got to Malaysia? Because there were too many boat people from Vietnam, we were turned away. They told us to go to Singapore. We felt really safe because we could ride along the coast line from Malaysia to Singapore. When we got to Singapore, the government there wouldn’t allow us to come in either.

For the same reason? Yes

So where did you go from here? We hung out in the Bay Area where all the International ships parked. One of the Korean ships saw us, they took pity on us after we were asking for water and food (all that had run out). They told us to follow them to international water because they couldn’t do anything for us in Singapore water. We were communicating through sign language but somehow could understand enough to follow. When we got to International water, they asked us if we wanted to go to Korea. Of course we did, so we got on the boat after they put the ladder down.

Could you climb the ladder? No, they had to send a guy down to pick me up. They literally carried me up the ladder to the ship. Unfortunately, I would still be sea sick on this ship as well.

Was the trip from Singapore to Korea easy? No. Within four hours the Captain found out that his government did not want to pick us up either. But we were already on the ship. So, he tried contacting Hong Kong, Philippines, or anyone that would take us in. Nobody would. So without a boat, or anything, he had to take us to Korea.

Did they give you food and water on the ship? Of course. But I was still sick.

What happened when you got to Korea? The Korean government came out and they punished the captain.

What did they do to him? They hit him in front of us.

Looking back all these years later, do you think the captain is a hero? No, he is. He absolutely is a hero for us.

In a sense, did he save your life? He saved a lot of lives…

What happened after the captain got beat? They sent in the Red Cross to pick up all of us and bring us to a Red Cross refugee camp.

Any idea where your camp was located? Busan city, Korea. Ironically, we landed here on Christmas Day. December 25, 1978.

Where did you after you left the ship? They took me directly to the hospital, while everyone else went to the refugee camp. I was transferred there a few days later when I was okay.

What was camp life like? We had food, we had everything we needed. Everything except our freedom. We couldn’t leave the camp.

When you were well, and back in the camp, what was your plan? I needed to put an application in to go to another country. I could pick three countries, and I picked France as number one because my brother was there. Number two was the United States. And number three was Canada. I was twenty years old and didn’t know much.

What happened with the application? 3 months later, I received word that France was coming to interview me. I qualified to go to France after the interview.

So why aren’t we doing this interview in French? During that time, I received a letter from my dad who was still in Vietnam. He told me not to go to France. I found out later that was because my family feared for me not making it in France. Rather, he wanted me to go to the United States because he felt like there was a lot of opportunity there.

How did your dad know that you were in a refugee camp in Korea? When I landed in Korea, the government in Korea allowed us to contact our family. So I sent my brother in France a telegram letting him know where I was at. He then told my parents.

What did you think of your dad’s advice? All I wanted was to get out of Korea at that time, so I just listened to my dad. However, I came to find out I was not qualified for the United States.

Why weren’t you qualified for the United States? The United States had selection criteria for who qualified. First, anyone who worked for the U.S. government in Vietnam were qualified. Next, came anyone who had family currently living in the United States. Third, if you were younger than 18. Fourth, anyone who had any extended family. And on and on it went. I didn’t have anyone over in the United States, so I was at the back of the line. I put my name in and took my chance.

So you just lived in the refugee camp during that time? Yes.

When did your name get called? 9 months later, I received a letter at camp that told me I was okayed to go the United States. It said I could go to Elgin, Illinois, and that a church group there had sponsored me.

What did you feel in that moment? I felt numb, nervous, and scared. I didn’t know a word of English.

When did you leave the camp? A couple months after I received the letter, they put me on a train headed for Seoul. When I got to Seoul, they took me to the U.S. embassy. There the U.S. ambassador’s wife gave me five dollars.

What do you remember about the U.S. Ambassador’s wife? She had brown hair, she was tall, and she was very nice and helpful. She told me that if I go to Chicago and if nobody comes to pick me up, use the five dollars to call a number that she handed me.

Do you remember what the number was for? The number was for the church in Elgin to let them know I was there in Chicago. It was just in case.

How did this make you feel? It made me feel really good.

Less nervous? No. (Laughs) I didn’t know anything about the United States.

How was the flight over from Korea? I freaked out about the flight before hand, but it wasn’t too bad. It was just really long.

What happened when you landed in Chicago? All I had was five dollars in my pocket, a toothbrush, and a stack of papers. Welcome to America!

What day did you arrive? October 29, 1979.

Were the people picking you up there when you arrived? Yes, they took me back to Elgin and gave me a place to stay at one of their houses. The next day, they passed me off to local Vietnamese people already in Elgin. So they started helping me setup English classes, finding a place to live, and teaching me how to start my life…

Where did you live first? I lived at an apartment on the east side of Elgin, off Porter Street.

What are earliest memories of American culture? I had never seen snow before in my life. I had never felt cold weather in my life. So these are the things that first come to mind. I was also in shock by all the farm land around Elgin because in my mind I always thought of the United States as all New York City.

Did you meet anyone from Vietnam that helped you get acclimated to the American lifestyle? I found out that my future wife’s family already lived in Elgin. It turns out that their family —who I knew back in Vietnam —heard about me trying to get to the United States, and were part of the church sponsoring me coming. So when I arrived, they found me after the church people brought me to Elgin. They only had been in the United States for three months to a year.

Did you already know your wife, Connie? Yes, I knew her back in Vietnam. My older brother was (and still is) married to her older sister.

Was Connie in the United States when you arrived? Yes.

What was she up to? She was going to Elgin High School. I ended up going to Elgin Community College at that time.

When you start dating Connie? It wasn’t until much later —1982–and we were married in 1984. But, we knew of each other when I arrived in the United States.

Back to your education, where were you studying English? The YWCA in Elgin. Back then, they had a program called CTA. It was basically a program that paid us to go to school and learn skills that we could use later. I also went to ECC for two years where I studied about machines and tools.

Why were you interested in machines and tools? I went to a technical school in Vietnam before and thought that was what I could do here.

What was your first full time job? Union Special in Huntley. I was a machine operator there and worked there from 1983-1985.

What made you leave your first full time job? While taking courses at ECC, one of the instructors (Maurice Muntz) knew Al Horn and Al Horn worked at Hoffer Plastics. Al Horn said that he had a tool room apprentice spot open at Hoffer, and Mr. Muntz told me that I should go apply for this job because that was what I was going to school for.

What happened next in the hiring process? I met Al Horn at 7 a.m. in the morning. It was a Saturday. When I was walking in, Al didn’t even talk to me because he didn’t think I was the Vietnamese guy that he was looking for. This was because I am tall, and Al assumed that I would be a short guy because most Vietnamese are! I still laugh about this to this day. He then interviewed me and offered me a job. However, I had to wait four weeks to begin because tool room four was still under construction.

When did Hoffer Plastics hire you? June 1985.

What’s your earliest memory working at Hoffer Plastics? Walking in the first day and reporting to Brian Wagner. The first memory was probably before that, when I met Earl Boehne, the Plant 5 manager. He went out of his way to welcome me to Hoffer Plastics.

How did that make you feel? It made me feel really good, welcomed, and like I was going to be part of something.

What’s your next memory? I worked with Brian Wagner and another new tool room apprentice. Everyone on that team was really helpful, friendly, and willing to show me things. They were willing to teach. During that time, I worked about 60-65 hours per week, went to school at night, and did the homework at night. I had to put in a lot of effort —110%—and basically give it my all. I was getting home around 11 to 11:30 PM each night, and had a little girl at home that I barely saw, and it was that way for about four years.

What happened after the four years? With all the hard work, and what I had learned, I was in a good position for advancement. One day, I saw your grandfather and told him that I wanted to be the next Brian Wagner and lead a tool room. I asked him if he could help me get there.

How did he respond? He told me that the next day I should come to his office and he would have a meeting with Leo Nelson (HR Director) to find a way to help me pursue my ambition.

You had a special relationship with my grandfather, tell me about it… (Deep breath). He treated me really well. What I have today is all about him. He is not only the owner of the company, he is also my mentor, my father, and makes me feel like I am one of his sons. When my daughter and son were in the gifted program at Elgin High School, Bob would go to the award ceremony and brag about my kids and tell people “that’s the daughter of the guy working for us at Hoffer Plastics.” He really made me feel like he was proud of what I could achieve in life.

What is your favorite memory of him? He called me to take the van from the company to go to his house and pick up all the bonsai trees and take them to the nursery. Before I left the house, he told me exactly how much all the trees cost and then said, “So, be careful” (with a smile). For me it is a lot about him.

What is a lot about him? It is a family. It is a joy to work with him. He doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. He was easy to talk to. I would go to him for every personal situation I had. I would tell him about everything. Basically, everything I earned here is because of him and Hoffer Plastics. So, every year on February 21 (the day he passed away), I go to his grave and pray for 10-15 minutes. I also like to talk about how life’s been going the last year.

What are your thoughts about Hoffer Plastics? This is more than work, it is family. It is something that I have given everything to. It is a special place to work. This is basically my life. I have lived in the United States for 40 years now, and I have worked at Hoffer Plastics for 34.

What’s the one piece advice you would have for me —and the rest of the third generation at Hoffer Plastics? For you, to be yourself. I think you have really come a long way. Lean into the production side. Build more into the people on the floor. You are getting taken out to sales meetings too much. Get stronger help there and invest more in people here.

What do you think grandpa Hoffer would advise me to do? He would want you to get to know everyone at Hoffer Plastics. He would want everyone at Hoffer to want to know you. He would want them to open up to you. They are doing that. Just keep working on that.

What’s the last thing you want to say to commemorate your 40 years in the United States? I am grateful to find a company like Hoffer Plastics so I can work and support my family. My kids are really successful, and my life is really good.

I first noticed a year prior. It must have been some time late in the fall of 1998 that I realized that my next birthday, 9/30/99, would fall directly on the day of the Upstate Eight Golf Championship of my Senior season. It was, as I would say then, either going to be the best birthday ever, or one of the worst.

My Junior season had, in many respects, been a complete failure. My friend, and co-leader, Jon Duppler held up his end of the bargain. He was always so consistent and relaxed. While I, on the other hand, stumbled out of the gate and never recovered. I tried hard, perhaps too hard. All I remember feeling was pressure, for the local paper had done a pre-season write up on the “dynamic duo,” as they called us. We had been part of a state qualifier the year prior, so the sky was the limit. After finishing a distant third in our conference – to the eventual State Champion St. Charles team – we surprised everyone at Regionals, but fizzled out in Sectionals. Jon went on to the State competition alone, while I drove back from Rockford in the rain wondering whether I would ever regain my confidence.

1999 started with a match on a Friday afternoon before the school year officially began. I remember feeling extra nervous knowing that I had to get off to a good start. I shot 37, was low in the match, and we won. I can’t overstate how important that start was for me. Everything began to flow from there…. The rest of the season we won invitationals with various teammates stepping up. Mike Rodriguez gave us extra fire power we did not have the year prior. Ryan Eberdt and Jim Danowski bickered at each other like old men – something they still do 20 years later – and always surprised the opposition with the occasional low rounds. Jon, of course, was always Mr. Consistent, and could always go low. Bret Pemoller and Jon Hunter also played key roles.

The moment that I think about often from that season, and the one that possibly started my leadership journey in business, happened in the parking lot at Bartlett Hills Country Club just after we had defeated the defending State Champion Saint Charles High School, and our rival, Elgin High School (golf matches can sometimes be with 3 teams). I had shot a “sizzling 32” in the match (that’s how our local paper described it!), which was supposedly a school record. The rest of the team played well and we won handily. Yet, when we got back to the bus, our junior varsity team was yelling at the St. Charles bus about how we had destroyed them. I yelled at OUR team, telling them to shut up, this was only the first battle and I did not want this incredible team to have bulletin board material for the conference championship. And besides, had the JV team even won their match?

A few weeks later, however, our team arrived to its final match against Nequa Valley with confidence that had morphed to cockiness. Believing we were invincible, we decided to mark our golf balls “10-0” that day (“10-0” representing a perfect regular season). As you can imagine, we finished “9-1.” Afterwards, Jon and I led another team meeting about what we had learned that day. As leaders, Jon and I accepted responsibility for allowing that nonsense to go on. To this day, I don’t talk about outcomes in sporting events until they become final!

We entered the Conference Championship on 9/30/99 in a three-way tie with Nequa Valley and Saint Charles. So the conference tournament outcome would decide everything. The weather was a little windy, cool, and damp, to start the morning off. With the added expectations of what was at stake, I started my round in similar fashion to the weather by bogeying 4 of my first 5 holes. Walking to the 6th tee I remember being on the verge of panic attack. Was this really happening, I thought.

I told myself two things in this moment that are applicable to my job twenty years later. First, I had teammates. Jon, Mike, Ryan, Jim, Brett, or Jon would have my back. I also knew Chad Dalhman would be walking the course firing the guys up, exemplifying what teamwork is all about and inspiring us all in the process. And secondly, a comeback happens only when you believe it can happen. So don’t worry about what you are going to shoot, I thought, just hit the next shot.

For the following three hours, hitting the next shot was all I thought about.

I played even par the rest of the way and shot a 4 over 76, which was not great, but good enough. Jon shot something lower (75?). Frankly, I don’t remember what the other guys shot but it was enough to win easily.

We had won our Conference Championship!

Happy birthday indeed!

We were champions.

While our time together ended a few weeks later, just shy of taking home a trophy down at State, I still go back to THIS DAY – 9/30/99 – as the day when we finally put it all together and achieved something none of us could have done on our own.

For the last 20 years I always get a text from Ryan Eberdt that says the following:

“Happy Birthday and happy anniversary.”

It is typical Eberdt, and why we love him. I also echo it today.

Happy 20th Anniversary to the 1999 Upstate 8 Champs!

To the guys of that team: The best part of that team was that team. Winning a few golf tournaments, even the Conference, did not make our lives any better. Although success is always a lot of fun! What’s telling, and why I have written this post, is that you guys taught me that it is not so much what you do as who you do it with that matters most. Upon reflection, this experience helped shaped my thoughts about leadership, team-building, and achieving goals with others.

I am so thankful for the memories we share.

Now, as I pivot back to modern day, I see elements of you all in our team at Hoffer Plastics. That’s not surprising, for we have a lot of good people here. People who are willing to play in the rain, or even in the snow.

I miss you guys.

I thank you guys.

It was one heck of a run that I will never forget.