Arlin Sorenson’s (he started HTG, the peer group Mavidea belongs to) father recently passed away. Yesterday he emailed HTG with some of the lessons he learned from dad.

I am sharing them below with all of you.

If your dad is still around, call him today and get some more of that dad wisdom while you have a chance.

Make it a great day.

Jake

Lessons Learned From Dad

So what did I learn from Dad? Well it was a long list, but here are some of the key areas where he changed my life:

1. Faith – this was foundational. It wasn’t negotiable. Church was required. His life led us to come to the Savior by the example he set. His number one focus was making sure we knew the Lord and had eternity covered.

2. Legacy – looking forward was how he lived. Not just a little ways, but way down the road. BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal) was his friend. He always had his eyes set on the next big thing he wanted to accomplish.

3. Planning – he was a planner. He didn’t do things until he knew what that meant. It wasn’t always completely detailed and spelled out, but he knew enough of the path to move forward and followed the plan until he achieved the goal.

4. Worry – just don’t. People aren’t thinking what you think they are, and even if they are, who cares. He told me thousands of times ‘you can’t start swimming til you get to the water’ so stop worrying about what might be and deal with what is.

5. Do it right – he was a stickler for doing things right the first time. ‘If you can’t afford to do it right, you shouldn’t do it at all’. And ‘if you don’t have time to do it right, when will you find time to do it over?’ Words I didn’t always appreciate but have learned are very true.

6. Perfection – doesn’t exist and is seldom needed. Good enough usually works. We didn’t have to have the best of things, just things that did what was needed. It is far more important to take action and do something than sit around and wait for perfection while doing nothing.

7. Hard work – ‘the early bird gets the worm, and those who work are those who eat’. I got some of my workaholic traits from him, but I now appreciate the power of work ethic and putting full effort into getting a job done. I wasn’t always a fan of working, but it has served me very well.

8. Risk – ‘even a turtle has to stick his neck out to get anywhere’. There must be investment before there is any return. So if you want to grow, you have to risk. It needs to be measured and never taken to the point failure will kill you, but you can’t be afraid to take some chances.

9. Family – ‘you can pick your friends, but you don’t get to pick your family’. Make the best of it and work to make it a wonderful thing. God put you where you are for a reason. It won’t always be easy, but it is where you are so make it a great experience.

10. Marriage – get over yourself. Marriage is not about “I.” Your job as husband is to love and lead, not lord and lash. Marriage is for life; there are no options. ‘Til death do us part means exactly that. What God has joined together, no one should ever change. Covenant marriage is forever.

11. Kids – the greatest blessing we experience as parents is the birth of a child. Spare the rod though, and we spoil the child. Spanking is not fatal; it is necessary. Kids need to learn to work and be responsible. There may be time to goof off tomorrow, or after the work is done, but play comes after we work first.

12. Time – it is our most precious commodity and something we have to use wisely. The best time is the time early in the day, before you get up, because that is time you can add to your day and accomplish more. Wasting time is a sin. ‘There is ALWAYS enough time to do the things that are important’. ‘We can ALWAYS make time to do what matters’. Anything else is an excuse.

13. Living – we always took time to have some fun and live life. Every year dad made sure took a family vacation. Didn’t matter if we could afford it, or had time for it, we did it. It was a priority and we saw a lot of the country together as a family.

14. Love – not so much an outer expression but rather a way of living. He wasn’t much of a hugger, or pat on the back kind of guy. But he was always there and always had our back. He loved us with the love of a father – tough love when we acted up – but gentle love when we needed it.

15. People – at the end of the day, life is all about people. There is nothing more important, nothing more worthy of investing in, nothing that should consume us more than building relationships and pouring ourselves into the people in our patch.