Stacey Lauren reflects on attending a former employee's funeral, where his company safety vest was displayed and his work ethic was central to the eulogy. She argues that you control how you respond to your circumstances and the pride you take in what you do.
I do really believe 100% from every part of me that everyone has the capacity to be able to do the things that they want and not to be held back by the mental baggage that's in our head that we want to push through.
Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. In each episode, we get down and personal with people who go after the things they want to make all their wildest dreams come true. Join us as we unveil and dissect a formula for what it takes to do the thing. Here is your host, Stacy Lauren.
Something that's really relevant for me today is just the. The fascination with how each person really makes their own experience. A few months before I exited my business, I went to an employee's funeral. One of our field staff had passed away. And I remember sitting there and looking at the altar, and the first thing that struck me was he had his. His family had put his safety vest from our company in a really pristine way. And. And then as they read the. Oh, and then as I looked at the eulogy card, I got to see, like, the majority of his eulogy card was about how important his work was to him and how much his family respected and admired the person he was and talked repeatedly about his work ethic and just what an amazing example he was to them. And I remember just, like, having this moment where I didn't realize how much the work that we had offered people could impact them. I know that was one of our mission statements, was like creating opportunities for a lifetime for people, but you can sort of get lost in it sometimes. And seeing that, I think, in black and white and being able to just really resonate with the fact that, number one, like, the business that I helped create could impact someone in that way where they felt so proud that their family felt like they could display that in such a proud manner just made me feel just overcome with so many emotions and seeing that the ripple that we do each day can really make a difference. And I'm not saying this to say, oh, my gosh, I built this great company and I helped all these people. I'm not saying that because of that reason. I'm saying that because you don't know what you've done in your life and the impact that you could be having on people and the ripples that could come just even from a mere interaction with someone and what that could do for someone. And then the other thing that's really coming to my mind today as I think back about this day and the funeral and being able to witness everything that happened is truly how much each person can make their own experience. This is a guy that he worked for us full time, but we put him on different jobs, like temporary jobs. So he was like at a job, two days here, a week there, a month there. But then he worked for my company full time. There's some people that would come work for us and not respect the job because they would say it was just a day laborer position, it was doing construction cleanup. There's other people that look at the job and they take it and they talk to their family about it. And that's what this guy did, right? Like, he. In order for his family to have that experience and being able to present and talk about his work in that way, I'm just imagining this guy came home proud every day, like getting to have that opportunity for himself and really honoring that experience. And I'm just picturing him versus another person who might be just saying, oh, I can't wait to leave this job, or this is the worst job ever. Why are they sending me to new places every day? Instead, this guy took it as a new opportunity to show his work ethic at each job. And I mean, he proved it while he worked for us. He did such an unbelievable job, you know, like, he advanced and definitely took each opportunity in such a way that it exemplified, you know, hard work and work ethic. But I'm just thinking how another person might not have. Might not take it that same way. They might be going home and complaining and things like that. Again, I'm not saying this to relate it back to my business. I'm no longer there. But I'm saying it to say, like, whatever your experience is in life, you know, take it and run with it and see what's good about it. And if you don't like something and it's not changeable, then change it like the situation isn't changeable, then do something different. You know, I feel like there's so much in this story of being able to just make the experience what you want out of it. And if you are going to complain about it, then do something different. But I just really am honoring this moment right now as I'm thinking back and just imagining how different two people can make a situation doing the same thing. And I know for me, I want to be the person that's making the best of each situation. And if it is something that I'm not happy doing, then I'm going to look to change it. So that's kind of what's coming to my mind today so I just wanted to share it with you guys. And again, if the sound quality is poor, please accept the fact that in order for me to do these reflections and share what's relevant, it just has to happen real time and not with my normal mic studio situation. So anyway, I appreciate you all listening and do the Thing. Do whatever that thing is to you. Find your passion, find your joy, find what you'd like to do and do it.
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