I learned from an Episcopal Academy parent that Todd Carmichael, Founder and CEO of La Colombe Coffee, would be a great speaker for our community to hear, particularly as it relates to a different way of making decisions. I invited him to come and speak. He got off to a right start by bringing me a box of different kinds of his gourmet coffee. He knew that I love coffee!
Todd is a businessman, adventurer, an agent of social justice, and a modern-day guy who seems to be more like Indiana Jones than the more traditional successful businessman. He is the first American to complete a solo trek across Antarctica to the South Pole with no assistance capturing the World Speed Record in a total time of 39 days, 7 hours, and 49 minutes.
He had the community in rapt attention as he described his many adventures exhibiting a model for how to live every moment of your life with gusto. He included the reason that I brought him in, namely how he made decisions then on the ice as well as the business world, his personal life, and as a champion of social justice.
He said everyone sets goals at some time in their life. It is obvious he wanted to arrive safely at the South Pole. But he indicated that no one thinks about setting a key specific mark of when to stop or change course. People tend to barrel forward without thinking when a change of direction is what is needed. Changing and clarifying the new direction can be more important than anything in reaching the ultimate goal.
His wife, Lauren Hart, sung the National Anthem before Flyers games. She had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. They agreed that he should go ahead with his quest to set a land record to reach the South Pole walking across Antarctica. There were several reasons that he identified that he would stop and change course or come home. He contacted Lauren every night by cell phone. If her cancer returned, he would immediately come home.
Factoring in specific items for when we would change course means we would no longer move forward in a period of “drift”. You don’t wait long with no change to have clearer expectations to reset to get to the identified goal.
The Black Lives Matter Movement needs to ask themselves what they want in specific terms. They have the world’s awareness, but what do you want with specific demands that can be addressed at a national level to get a win for the movement and the nation to talk and negotiate. We want justice is just too general. What does that look like in specific terms. That is what John Lewis did that ultimately led to the Civil Rights Act.
The approach to saving lives in the Pandemic needs to be approached differently. We are just drifting through a daily progression of data and increased death. We need a negotiation where national leaders say when we reach X, we need to change course such as required masks, social distance requirements, and hand washing and limiting the number of people who could gather together. It has to be the law of the land. PUT TEETH IN THE COURSE CHANGE. This should have happened long ago. Covid 19 is not going to just go away!
If you love the taste of coffee, check out La Colombe. After his address many members of the community told me that they never thought about decision making the Carmichael Way. Time for our leaders “to be like Todd.”. The stakes are higher and more perilous than a land record trek to the South Pole
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