Hi everyone, it’s Tom Melton with Melton leadership. I get the chance every week to work with some of the best business and ministry leaders in the city of Denver. What I do is help them and their teams connect, to clarify, and to grow because everybody wants to get better.
Today, I want to share a couple ideas that I think will help us all be on that path to better. Most of us have probably familiar with the song “Cat’s In the Cradle” that Harry Chapin recorded it back in the 70s. It’s had a profound impact on those who have heard of it. It’s basically the story of a dad who didn’t have time for his son and now the son has grown up and he’s become just like his dad. It’s the story that says that “I wanted to do this and then basically I was too busy or something else came up”.
You know, when it comes to our companies and our organizations, I believe it’s a lot like that song in that when we want to get returns, substantial returns in the future, we can’t have those unless we make sizable investments in the past. And so we look at that and say what are the investments that we need to make. We all have stories also about businesses… they say that you know… for example, my son worked with Chipotle, the fast Mexican restaurant, biggest in the world. They started out with a single burrito out of a burrito stand right here in Denver, and it went from struggling along and Steve Ells, the CEO was trying to get people to invest in it, but no one did, and then finally McDonald’s invested in it, and became big and
is the biggest IPO in the history of the stock market. Huge gains.
Well the story we all have heard is, “Boy if I would have invested this thousand dollars in Chipotle back when it was first there, I would be a zillionaire today”. Well that story is that the same is that often when the opportunity is there, it’s
more costly because we don’t have the resources. So we pass it up and then we lament later, “If only I could have done that”.
I wonder as you’re looking at opportunities coming your way whether it’s relationally – is somebody in your company that you have not spent time with because you took him for granted and now they’ve left and they’ve gone on to do something else, or is it a business opportunity that had we done, that I knew it was a good investment, but I just didn’t want to put that kind of capital because I had so little.
I wonder what those are in your own business and in your own life.
We don’t want to be like the Cat’s in the Cradle. So in other words, big returns don’t happen in the future unless sizable investments are made in the present. So what are you willing to do in the present to ensure the future, if you will take a look at that and make those investments, I believe that you will be on the path to better.
Contact me to learn more about discerning the right time to invest.