Friday, December 09, 2005

Upstairs v. Downstairs Final

These last four categories are post-graduation categories. Kind of a what-have-you-done-with –your-life-since-college group of categories.

Category #13 Fatherhood
How do you judge this category? Do you count up who has more children? Because the Nabrotzky’s both have like 5 kids each. Do you count up who has more boys? Cause Ted is 2 for 2. No, I think you count up who is raising their family the best. And then you’ve got to give it to Shane and Bret. Let’s be honest here. Arizona, Utah, Colorado, all good states. But California is the shiznit. That’s the state. That is THE state. There is no better. California. And we all know when we say California, we mean southern California. This northern California stuff is lame. Shane and Bret are rearing their children properly in the golden state. I’m not taking anything away from the other Hotel California fathers, but Shane and Bret know how to “rear”. Winner Upstairs. And not just winner but a 2-point winner.

Category #14 Career
Lawyers, dentists, doctors, financial analysts. Who has the best career? CP+B? AGEdwards? Utah Regional Medical Center? Who works for the best company? Real Estate? Law? Chiropractic? What is the best industry? No argument. Upstairs wins for sure. Answers to these three questions are simple: Puppy. Hillboy. Equinox. Multi-Level Marketing. The perfect gig. You work very few hours – only the hours you want. You are essentially your own boss. You get others involved and “working” for you. And make millions. Too bad they didn’t stick with it; they would’ve been retired by now. Basking in the sun on their own private island sipping expensive, non-alcoholic fruity drinks with a little umbrellas. Touring the globe, playing rounds of golf at only the most upscale clubs. But for a while they tasted that success and for that they’ve earned the win for Upstairs.

Category #15 Entrepreneurship
This is a gutsy category. It takes risk, hardwork, lots of time, energy and a big part of your heart and soul to organize and manage business ventures. Have any of us excelled here? Teddy had a little run with his wooden pens. But Dave Nabrotzky took it the top. Dave became CEO. Who would have thought one of use would be CEO at such a young age. Chief Operating Officer. That’s a big title. The CEO at my company is a 54 year-old, 25 year veteran of the advertising industry. But right here among our very own peers at the Hotel, we have a bonafide CEO. CFO? CMO?? Not even close. The buck starts and stops with the CEO. Dave, you are the man. Winner Downstairs.

Category #16 Making the World a Better Place
When I look back at our time in Provo and ask myself, did we make BYU and Provo a better place? I think we did. But, it wasn’t one of us as an individual that totally stood out – it was our collective unit. Adding up all the points, it appears it’s an 8-8 tie. Pretty equal. That’s because we were bigger as a whole. Upstairs alone wasn’t enough, Downstairs alone fell short. The Hotel California house. The glowing blue lights. The pride in answering the question, ‘where do you live?’ The sign didn’t make us though The sign didn’t give us our power. Look at what we did at Raintree. Look at what we did at Castille. We killed those places.

Are you making your mark where you are? Are you making Chandler, Arizona a better place? Are you making the people of McAllen, Texas better people? Are you making the relationships in Arvada, Colorado better relationships? Are we making the world a better place?

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