The Tail of the Pony - Part 1

Long ago, when I was in High School, I wanted to grow my hair long. I loved rock and roll music and all the rock stars had long hair, and they got all the girls, right? But… I was young, it was the 70’s, and at our High School they wouldn’t let boys have hair below their collar. For that matter, girls couldn’t have skirts above their knees either. Times were tough back then!

Later, when I in my 20’s and started working for a living, I was old enough to wear my hair anyway I wanted. But…people judged you if you had long hair. They thought you were either a hippie or a bum. So I held off my desire to have long hair in an effort to fit in. I cared a lot about what people thought.

When I hit my late 30’s, everything in my life changed. I met and married a woman who inspired me to greatness. Not that I am great, but she definitely helped me achieve so many great goals in life that I never thought I could achieve. The first thing she did was encourage me to quit caring so much about what other people thought. She helped me realize that it wasn’t how I looked that mattered. It was who I was as a person, my character, work ethic, and morals that mattered.  

So I grew a long blond ponytail, but always kept my hair neat and clean and tied back when I was working. Unfortunately, I did occasionally get funny looks from people, and since I was a business owner who often called on some of the largest corporations in So Cal, I sometimes did have trouble getting my foot in the door. But… with my wife’s encouragement, and her help running the business, we enjoyed tremendous success, opening five branches, and winning dozens of industry awards. But even more important than awards, were the life lessons I learned along the way, especially about judging people, which served me well this past weekend. Let me explain…

A Light Pole fell at a Marriot Hotel in Anaheim Friday and caused a lot of damage. So, I had an emergency call over the weekend to do a Pole Inspection. As I was working, I caught sight of someone watching me. She appeared to be a short, older woman, probably one of the housekeepers because of her Hotel uniform and name tag. I kept working when I heard her ask, “Hey Mister, what are you doing?” My first thought was to ignore her. But then I remembered the ponytail thing, so I stood up and politely responded, explaining how I was checking Light Poles for rust. She asked me several insightful questions and explained that she had noticed there was a problem with the poles rusting a few months ago, and was really glad I was there. She then explained that she is the Senior Service Manager for Marriot and has been with for Marriot for over twenty years. Wow! If I had judged her based on her look, I would have a made a huge mistake. I am so glad I haven’t forgotten the lesson about how judging people based on looks only creates problems for them and me!

A man who trims himself to suit everybody else, 

will soon whittle himself away.

~ Poor Richard’s Philosophy