Four game-changing people I’ve known in the golf industry

When a person works in one industry for more than 50 years, they get to know and work with a great variety of people. When that industry is golf, it becomes magical due to the creativity, kindness, and warm personal support. Having worked in this industry for a lifetime, serving more than a dozen organizations in several career-changing roles, I have known amazing numbers of extraordinary men and women. These people were different because they were authentic, unique in how they approached both work and life. Because this is a short read, normally offering three thoughts for investigation, I will only get to scratch the pages of my Rolodex to provide stories on just a few game-changers from my life in golf.

This post highlights four people I have worked with, worked for, or have done business with through the years. The point of this post is not only to present a few interesting tales but to suggest you too may have many unique, hard-working people within your community. People you may want to step back and acknowledge for what they mean to your business. It took me until the time I began writing books to recognize the four people described here. This post is hoping you may do it quicker. Here are four very impressive people who touched a part of my career:

My first boss: He was a PGA Golf Professional from the old school. He played in three U.S. Opens. He taught a President of the United States, the one who served during Camelot, how to play the game. For me, he was my encyclopedia of the business and the game. He had stories; man, did he have stories. For seven years he taught me club repair, how to fit equipment, how to sell, and how to play better golf. He was a tough, self-made man from Boston. He taught his entire team about taking care of customers. I saw him talk people out of purchasing golf clubs they did not need on many occasions. And he owned the business! He was the right person for my career coming out of school.

The woman in HR with the unforgettable accent: Twenty years later I found myself working for a great international brand of practice centers. Not the one we all know today. This woman was tough, direct, and always straight to the point. This was a different type of organization for me. By observing her methods, presentation, and sheer grit, I learned how to manage in this larger, very significant role. For me she opened up a way to appreciate people and how they worked. She taught me how to construct a good e-mail (not an easy…