JFK Assassination

Hey, everybody, how are you? Chad Thibodeau, here I am coming to you live from Dallas, Texas. And right behind me is the memorial that we have in Dallas, Texas, memorializing one of the most tragic events in our history, and that is the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. And I'm here on what they what is been come to know as the grassy knoll. And I'll flip for you, this piece of brown grass right here when he was assassinated, was where hundreds of people were standing. And right here on this road is the very road that the motorcade went down and JFK was shot and killed. Right around this corner, you may notice this building over here. It's a brown building, the one right here behind these trees. This is the Texas Book Depository where allegedly Lee Harvey Oswald stood out that window and he aimed and fired and shot our president. Now, I'm coming to you live from this very spot, downtown Dallas today because I want to be able to help us understand that there are some things that we can learn from his assassination that will help us in business, things that can teach us about working with clients and putting out fires and ultimately gaining testimonials. You know, this was one of the most tragic days in our history. One of the most tragic days. And all around me, surrounding all around me are reminders that this was a very tragic day. But what we know is that with every tragedy, there is a lesson to be learned. And I want to talk with us today. For those of you who are business owners trying to launch your online business, or perhaps you are a leader, you're trying to lead an organization or lead a group of people, perhaps you're a pastor and you're trying to grow a church, what are some things that we can learn from his assassination? So I put down seven notes. If you're following along, here's a training that we can do. Step number one is as a leader. As a leader, you have to. Well, actually, before I get to step one, let me just tell you that, hey, guys, stuff is going to happen, ok? We're going to have aggravations with clients. We're going to have aggravations in our organizations. People in our church are going to get upset at us and mad at us. People in our family are going to get upset at us. Things are going to happen. Let me see if I can tell you why that happens. I like the definition of frustration is when expectations and reality collide. When expectations and reality collide, then frustration is going to happen. If you have a client and they're expecting one thing from you, but they don't believe that they're getting from you. What's going to happen is they're going to get frustrated, they're going to get aggravated. In our day and age, they're going to let you know they're frustrated. Not necessarily to your face. Sometimes they let you know on Facebook, sometimes they let your other clients know, and then they got to come back and tell you, but they're going to be frustrated. Now what happens is if you let this frustration persist, it's going to spiral out of control, and then chaos is going to happen. Okay? That's what we know. So frustration is when expectations and reality collide, and chaos is when frustration persists and they don't believe anybody's doing something about it. Chaos is going to happen. So just imagine that day. Remember that day that when JFK came by this road right here and he was shot, all of a sudden, everybody, chaos was just out of control. Okay? And we'll talk a little bit about how they got that back in order. But just know it's okay if you have frustration in your organization, but if you let it persist, things are going to become chaotic. So what are seven things that we can learn from the assassination of jfk? And I'm coming to you live. If you're just jumping in, I'm coming to you live. The very spot that JFK was assassinated. That's the Texas Book Depository Building right here. Here is his memorial right behind me. Okay. And then this is what has been affectionately known as the grassy knoll. Now, it's a little green, it's a little brown today, obviously, didn't turn the sprinkler on. And then this is the road that the motorcade came down. And ultimately, right around where this painter is, is where he was shot. Actually, I don't think it's a painter. I think that' I don't know what that is, but anyway, so what can we learn from this? Number one, as I think about this, I mean, our president rode in a limousine with a top down coming down this particular road right here. And so that's my first thing. You need to assume the best, but you need to be prepared for the worst. Assume the best, but prepare for the worst. One of the things that gets us in trouble as leaders often is when we assume the worst about people. And we're skeptical and we're cynical and we just think everybody's out to get us. Here's what you have to know about being a leader in an organization. Or running an online business is the world is not out to get you. I know sometimes it may seem like that, but the world is not out to get you. You need to assume the best of people for the most part. Almost everyone is good for the most part. Everybody has your best interest in mind. So assume the best. So that day, JFK came riding in a limousine, assuming the best about people. Now, ultimately came back to bite him, as we know. But you have to expect the worst. So even though you assume the best, expect the worst. So go into a relationship, go into your situation, go into your church world, go into your online business, assuming the best about people, because for the most part, they're great. But you have to be prepared for the worst. And I thought, what's fascinating as I studied the assassination of jfk, as I stand right here on Dealey Plaza, as I've studied this is, boy, the second he got shot, they knew exactly what to do, when to do, where to go, how to go. Why? Because they were prepared for the worst. So my question is, even though we assume the best, what is your emergency plan? What's your emergency plan? What are you going to do when your clients get frustrated at you? What are you going to do? Now, here's a little lesson on this. I'm going to spend the majority of my time today on this first point, and then I got six other points I want to share with you. Here's what we know in scripture. There's a passage of scripture where it tells the people in the church they should always be prepared to give an account for their beliefs. Now, why is it important to be prepared? Why is it important for us to be prepared for the worst? Here's why. Because when we're not prepared for something and somebody blindsides us with something that aggravates us, our initial response as human beings is to become defensive. Okay? So if you're in a situation and you don't have an emergency plan for what you're going to do when a client gets upset at you, when a client comes at you with an accusation, if you're not prepared for that, you're going to hash out at him or her, you're going to lash out, and you're going to be very irritable, you're going to be defensive, you're going to put your guard up, you're going to be pointing fingers at everybody else, and it's going to cause you a lot more harm, and you're not going to be able to do anything productive or anything positive. So you need to be prepared. So ask yourself the question, what is my emergency plan for when a client gets out of control or when somebody gets aggravated with me, or when someone literally just gets frustrated and they've got an expectation and I didn't meet that expectation and their expectation and reality collided and they were frustrated. What is my emergency plan? If you don't have one, I can guarantee you that chaos will erupt. So, number one, assume the best. Be prepared for the worst. What's your emergency plan? Number two, you need to surround yourself with people who have your best interest in mind. But you also have to understand that you're going to have people who are going to turn on you. Okay? So think about this. I think about, you know, if I could turn this around. I think about this exact moment when President Kennedy rode in his motorcade and he was coming down this road right here, okay? He was surrounded by Secret Service, okay? He was surrounded by Governor Connally, rounded by his wife. He was surrounded by people who had his best interest in mind. But we all sort of believe, the conspiracy theorists in us, that there was. We don't think that, you know, Lee Harvey Oswald probably acted alone. We probably think there was sort of an inside job, right? And as conspiracy theorists, you know, begin to reign, we begin to think that there was probably someone on the inside that turned on him. Well, here's what you have to understand as a leader, okay? You need to surround yourself with incredible people who have your best interest in mind, okay? And they're going to have your best interest mind for days or for months or weeks and perhaps even years. But don't be surprised when one of them turns on you. We've all had somebody betray us. We've all had that happen. It just happens. Why? Because that's the nature of people, okay? It's the nature of people. You know, if you're religious, I mean, you know the story of Lucifer, I mean, he was like God's archangel and he turned on God and he became the devil or Satan or Lucifer or whatever, right? I mean, from the beginning of time, good people have always turned and moved from your friend to your opponent. It just happens. So here's what happens, ok? Even though you're going to surround yourself with great people who have your best interest in mind, every once in a while one of them is going to turn. You need to let them go. Absolutely. Let them go. Here's a big mistake that we make as leaders sometime is we love those people, we're loyal to those people, they're friends with us. And what we do is we try to talk them into staying or we try to talk them into coming back. And here's what you need to do. You need to love them and you need to let them go. Literally let them go. Because if they turned on you once, they will turn on you again. And you need to make them not a part of your organization, not a part of your team. You need to let them go. And I think about that with the Secret Service, you know, as they surrounded jfk, someone on the inside. Someone on the inside had the goods on what was happening. You know, whether it be, you know, they let it known what his route was going to be or the timing of it, I don't know what happened. But somewhere someone on the inside turned. So just let him go. Number three. What can we learn from the assassination of jfk, number three? I think of the guy who replaced him, lbj, Lyndon Bain Johnson. And the lesson that I learned from him is when chaos erupts, the situation needs a leader, not a finger pointer. When chaos erupts, the situation needs a leader, not a finger pointer. Now think about this, okay? And I'm going to try to get away from this road so the semis aren't real loud. And I apologize. I don't have my headset on, so I'm trying to talk loud and into the phone. So I apologize if I get really close sometime. But situations need a leader, okay? When chaos erupts or a client gets frustrated and they bring a frustration to you, a leader listens, okay? A leader listens. Why? Because a leader knows that there is something to be learned in every criticism, even if you don't believe the criticism is warranted, even if you believe they're out of bounds. There is something that we can learn from everyone who criticizes us. And a leader knows that. So a leader listens. When chaos erupts, it needs a leader, not a finger pointer. So a leader listens because he understands there's a lesson to be learned, okay? A leader understands that conspiracy or finger pointing will only cause more confusion. Think about the JFK assassination, okay? Because there's so much conspiracy about it. We don't. We're not any closer to any answer. Here we are. You know, this happened on November 22, 1963. Here we are in December of 2017. We're not any closer to an answer on his assassination today than we were that day. Why? Because conspiracies and finger pointing. And a good leader knows that I need to listen and don't point A finger. Because I want to bring a solution to the situation, not cause more chaos to a situation. So when a client comes to you with some frustration, the worst thing that you can do is try to turn it back on them and give what I call a yeah, but yeah, but this and a yeah, but that, and yeah, but you didn't do this and a yeah, but that. No. A good leader says he listens, he listens, or she listens first. Because there's a lesson to be learned in every criticism. Another thing that a leader does is he provides a voice of reason. I remember watching some YouTube clips. I wasn't alive in 1963, but I remember watching some YouTube clips of the very first address from Lyndon Bain Johnson after the assassination of John F. Kennedy. And he brought a voice of reason. He had calmness in his voice. He was prepared in his voice. He brought strangers and resolve in his voice. And what it did was it calmed a nation. It brought healing to a nation. It brought us together. It did not divide us. And that's what a good leader can do. When somebody comes against us and they're frustrated with us, a good leader listens. And a good leader provides a voice of reason. A good leader takes responsibility, okay? He or she owns up to the fact, whether they believe that they're in the wrong or not, they own up to the fact that the situation is not how everybody wants it. And they step up to the plate and they realize and understand that there's something that can be done, and they take responsibility. And a leader, a good leader in this situation creates an emergency plan or creates a contingency plan. Why? Because they've already thought about it. They already know what's going to happen when an emergency happens. And so a good leader will listen, will be a voice of reason. They take responsibility and they create an emergency plan. This is what happens when chaos erupts. Chaos needs a good leader. Not a finger pointer, okay? Not a finger pointer. Number five. Or actually number four. I guess this would be. I think of Jackie, okay? I think of Jackie O, John F. Kennedy's wife. And we all remember the pictures. We noticed the pictures of her after her husband is shot. And she sort of leans up against the limousine going after him. And she was literally covered in blood. She went to the hospital. She was there when they pronounced him dead. And she insisted on being on Air Force One with his body in that casket that day, flying back to Washington, D.C. and I got thinking about this as you see the pictures, she's in the back of Air Force One, literally covered in blood. I mean, you think about what her reputation is. Her reputation has always been, she's an incredible dresser. She's organized, she's put together. She's sort of the heartthrob of America at this time. And here she is. She is covered in blood. But she knew that her reputation was incredibly important. So she did the hard thing. As she got on the airplane, she didn't try to clean up. She didn't try to make herself look pretty, because she knew that her character was more important than her outside appearance. And so it was more important that she got on that plane and go back to Washington with her husband. That would do more good for her and more good for her family and more good for our country than it was if she cleaned up and got all nice and pretty. But I thought about Jackie O. When you think about that, she was on the back of Air Force one and literally 20ft away from her. 20ft away, they were swearing in Lyndon Vain Johnson. They were swearing in lbj. So in other words, the country had already moved on. They didn't waste any time. They moved on. She no longer was the First Lady. Yes, we were going to take care of her for a little while. We all knew that. Our hearts went out to her. But her husband no longer was the president. There was already another president. There was already another First Lady. And she went on there. She carried herself with dignity, and she. She preserved her reputation no matter the cost. Now, think about this, how it can help us in business. Okay, you have clients who come to you that you may or may not have done a very good job for them, and they're probably upset at you. Well, in our Facebook day and age, the last thing that you want is people griping about you and complaining about you on the Internet. You know, you don't need your business to get a bad reputation online because we're just one Google search away from having our reputation ruined. So you need to do whatever it takes to preserve your reputation. You need to give money back. You need to work harder. You need to hire more people. You got to do whatever it takes. Even if you end up losing money on that client. Do whatever it takes to preserve your reputation. And here's what we find. A lot of times. Number six, A lot of times is. I'm sorry, A lot of times what you do is you find out that you can keep a client, which is number five. Number five is do. Do everything you can to keep them. Don't be so quick to cut and run. See, because when we preserve our reputation, okay, when we do everything we can, you want to try to keep that client. The last thing you want is you don't want a client cutting ties with you, moving on to your competitor, badmouthing you, trashing you, giving you a bad reputation. But if you can do everything to preserve your reputation, that means you're going to do everything you can to keep that client. Don't be so quick to cut and run. Chances are there's always a solution to your frustration. Always. You can always figure out a way how to keep it figured out. This is good advice for relationships. This is good advice for business. This is literally good advice in every aspect of life. Don't be so quick to run. Figure it out. See, a good leader finds a solution in the problem, doesn't believe that the solution is just simply to terminate the problem. Now, there's always time to terminate. Don't get me wrong, there's always a time when you need to just cut and run. But that needs to be a last effort. That literally needs to be. After you've tried everything within your power, literally everything within your power to keep a client, then you cut them. But you've got to do everything. So do everything you can to keep them. Don't be so quick to run. And here's what happens, Number six. What happens is, if you do that and you can turn the situation around, even your worst critics can become your biggest fans. Even your worst critics can become your biggest fans. I think of LBJ after he became president, after the death of one of our most beloved presidents. Okay? He did everything he could to try to retain the Kennedy family. He did everything he could to keep members of his staff on board with him. He didn't just go in and cut. It took him a while to change the curtains in the Oval Office. He did everything he could to keep them. JFK had some incredibly large critics. LBJ had some incredibly large critics. And what LBJ did so well was he found the common ground of his critics and he met them there. He let them focus on something where they could get a win, and that win united them. Okay? So when you look at number six, even your worst critics can become your biggest fans. If you can help your critics get a win, if you can help them be successful, and you were the reason why they were successful, you will move them from the critic side to the fan side. And what I've learned in my own business is I've learned that sometimes my big critics who come against me, who are upset with me because I didn't do one thing or another or I didn't provide, you know, as much value to them as they thought that I should. When I take myself out of defensive mode and put myself into learning mode and say, hey, what can I do to help these folks? And I begin to help them, what I've learned about those folks is they actually become my biggest fans. I have a friend in life. His name is Dana, Dana Rutledge. And when I was in church work, I used to do music there for a little while. And Dana for a while was my biggest critic. I mean, I couldn't do anything right. Have you ever had somebody in your life where you just couldn't do anything right? Even your successes were failures? Well, this was Dana at first. And Dana and I, we had an incredible time with each other, just literally fighting. I dreaded going into music practice if I knew he was going to be there. He probably dreaded seeing me. I mean, we did not like each other. But I don't know how this worked. I'll give him credit for it, but somewhere along the line, he and I figured out how to resolve our differences. And Dana and I have moved from being enemies to being best friends. Dana is. He's in his mid to late 60s. You know, I'm in my early 40s, but that age gap doesn't mean anything, you know, because we are really good friends. We went on not just to be good friends, we went on. I helped him start a business, and when he was retired from the post office, I helped him start a business that helped them be incredibly successful working with kids and creating kids sports programs. He and I went on to do a musical together where we co directed A Christmas Carol. So just because they're an enemy now doesn't mean they have to be an enemy forever. A good leader. If you can get your critic a win and you're responsible for that win, you'll find that they come onto your side and then now they will become your biggest cheerleader. Some of the biggest cheerleaders that I have, like on social media, are people that not too long ago weren't big fans of me. But because we stuck around, we didn't cut ties, we did our best to try to get them a win. They became my biggest fan. Now, finally, number seven, the seventh thing that we can learn from the JFK assassination is this. You need to memorialize a mistake. Learn from it. Move on, be better. Memorialize it. Learn from it. Move on, be better. You know, this happened in 1963. And behind me, you can see the. You can see some of the memorial. You can see some of the memorial here at Daley Plaza. If I turn my camera around, right past those trees, there's a fountain. I don't know if you can see it. There's a fountain and a little flame that memorializes the tragedy. There's more memorials right there. There's more right there. You'll see some there. And then, of course, all behind me, right here in Dealey Plaza, you see memorials to our president, John F. Kennedy, right here on this grassy knoll. This is a very famous piece of grass in American history. You'll see right over here, if I can get here, you can see a plaque. And I'm going to read this plaque. It says, we in this country, in this generation, are by destiny rather than by choice, the watchmen on the walls of world freedom. We ask, therefore, that we may be worthy of our power and responsibility, that we may exercise our strength with wisdom and restraint, and that we may achieve in our time and for all time, the ancient vision of peace on earth, good will toward men. That must always be our goal, he said, and the righteousness of our cause must always underline our strength. For it was written long ago, except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh, but in vain. John Fitzgerald Kennedy, jfk. And we go on and we say it's an expert from the speech that President Kennedy was going to deliver at the Dallas trademark on November 22, 1973. 1963. See, he never got there. He never got there. But what we've done is we memorialized this event. Here's what happens, okay? Right now in the United States, Donald Trump is our president, and he surrounded himself with Secret Service. Guess is that every day when the Secret Service get together to understand what they're going to be doing that day for our President, they don't stop and say, oh, yeah, but you remember that one time back in 1963 when, you know, we had a president shot? No, they don't do that. They don't point fingers to the past. They memorialize the past. They put a marker in the ground and say, that day is over. We're not going to dwell on it anymore. We are going to move on. We're going to get past it. And so what they do is they memorialize it, but then they learn from it. They ask themselves the question, what can I learn from this tragedy? What can I learn? How can it help me? So they learn from it. Then they move on. They dust themselves off and they say, wow, what a terrible day. And they move on. But here's the best part. They become better. And those of you who can say, hey, listen, I screwed up in the past, I messed up with a client, or I messed up with my leadership, or I didn't lead that organization the way that I should, or I made too hasty of a decision or whatever, okay, put the marker in the ground and say, I'm moving on. That was yesterday. My past will not define me. I am moving on. Baby, that was yesterday. Yeah, I got a gravestone or I got a marker that says that I messed up yesterday. That was there. But I'm moving on. And I'm going to learn from it. What can I learn from this? Okay. And I'm going to move on after I learn from it. But the most important thing is I'm going to be better. And when you're better as a leader, amazing things can happen. So what can we learn from jfk? Let me recap. Number one, we learned that we assume the best about all people, but we prepare for the worst. Number two, we surround ourselves with people who have our best interest in mind. But we understand that every once in a while, you're going to have one of your best people turn on you. It's okay, let them go. Number three, when chaos erupts, a situation needs a leader, not a finger pointer. Why? Because conspiracy and finger pointing only cause more confusion. And a good leader, you know, they. They understand that there's a lesson to be learned in every criticism, even if the criticism isn't merited. They understand that they have to be a voice of reason. They have to understand that they have to take responsibility. And they have to understand that they're the ones who implement the contingency plan. Number four, no matter what it costs, you need to preserve your reputation. Because in the end, that's all you got. Okay. In the end, that's all you got. Number five, do everything you can to keep a client or to keep someone who's criticizing you. Don't be so quick to run. But know when you have to cut ties. But you'll only cut ties after you've done everything. You've exhausted every possibility of being able to keep them. Finally. Or, number six, even your worst critics. Critics can become your biggest fans. Even your worst critics can become your biggest fans. So get the person who's criticizing you. Get them a win. And watch them take the energy that they were using to criticize you. Watch them take that energy and turn it around and help you and finally, number seven, memorialize your mistake. Learn from it. Move on and be better. Well, guys, thanks for listening to me. I've been coming to you live from the grassy knoll right here at the place where we memorialize John F. Kennedy. Because a tragedy happened in our country and right here on this particular road. And I hope that just as we've seen those images of the motorcade coming down this road and a tragedy in American history happening, our country is better. Our country is better because we learn from it. And I hope that you learn from your mistakes as well. God bless you guys. Love you. Appreciate you. And I'll see you next time on our training.