From 0 to 49: My Journey in 7 Year Blocks

0 – 7 on the way to 49: A couple of weeks ago I woke up realizing I was turning 49 in less than a month. No, I’m not worried about getting older, I was pumped because I was turning 49 and how cool it was to be a prime number. Oops, about three seconds later I realized that 49 is not a prime number and that neat phenomena wasn’t going to happen until I turn 53. However, the fact that 49 can be divided equally into 7 equal parts of 7 led me to realize that, with some minor overlap, my life has really worked well in the 7-year increments. So, to appease my own curiosity and to cathartically get it out, I decided to write about each of my 7-year segments leading up to turning 49.

Today will be pretty simple. I am going from 0 to 7. I know I was born in the Winter Haven Hospital. That is where it happened back in 1972. Yes, for those of us who have been in and around the Winter Haven area for many years we know that the Regency is where the youth of the area come into existence these days, but many years ago we were born in the same place where the emergencies went, surgeries took place, and where those on the 5th floor hung out. I do not know all the details, nor do I really care, but I know that we lived in Winter Haven, Auburndale, and Lake Alfred. None of that really matters because for an infant there is no recollection. Memories are super hazy, especially at this point in life. Even though these years do not have a lot of lasting memories, there are many things that happened or were happening that have shaped me to this day. My parents were athletes and that was engrained at an early age. I walked, learned how to ride my Evil Knievel bicycle, and gained the hand-eye coordination that was obviously handed down from my mom and dad. There are also a few things that happened at that early age that still matter to me today. The first is my desire for education and learning. My mom was a teacher, and that attitude was put in my brain at an incredibly early age. Learning was something that just was expected, and for sure took place, even at this early age. The second is my love of racing. My dad and granddaddy raced in the SCCA. We drove to the track on Friday and came home late on Sunday. Many times, I would be sleeping on the floorboard of the car, the bed of the Grey Ghost, or some other vehicle to get us to and from the track. I guess the third would be traveling. This goes back to the racing and family trips. To this day I still really do not like being at home. The road is my home. Oh wow, I’m starting to sound like a Metallica song. A fourth thing that occurred at an early age that still sticks with me today is business, probably more about family business. My grandparents owned an aluminum company called Central Florida Aluminum in Lake Alfred and I remember spending many hours in the paneled office and super big warehouse. Oh yeah, it was also the race shop. The last thing, which I have already touched on a little bit was my love for athletics. Little league was a big thing in Lake Alfred. I played baseball, youth soccer in Winter Haven, and rode my bicycle around the neighborhood. All of these shaped me in the years to come.

There were probably some things that also shaped me, although I would not realize it until much later in life. My mom dressed me in completely matching outfits from an incredibly young age. To this day I still have a thing for clothes. I hated walking on the grass as a kid. Currently, I have the softest feet and barely ever walk barefooted. My poor feet just cannot handle it. I do not mind getting dirty to do work but must clean up immediately after because I just cannot handle the grime on me. I like a good party and there was a time when I did not know how to stop when it started. Like many people I love and cherish, the learned behavior can also be changed later in life. Lastly, many people find this a negative, but it has served me well, and caused me much angst throughout the years; take care of yourself and do what makes you happy. Once that is complete, take care of your community by serving it, sponsoring it, and supplying jobs in it. The first part is what causes people, whether that be friends or family, the most trouble.

The first seven years were rather good, what of it I can remember. In the horse world they call this the imprinting time, it does not last as long as it does in humans, but I still have many of the same things inside me today. Tomorrow we go from 8-14! Photo credit goes to Alex Hockett for the baby, Ryan Fields for the building blocks, and Liz Fitch for the MGB

121

Well, tonight the blog is a bit different. More information than opining. I think I will sprinkle in some opinion because I surely cannot get by without doing so. First things first though. Tonight, was the Chamber of Commerce after hours. As much as I hate interacting, I really enjoy the conversations. At some point there will be a big right hook, a Gary Vaynerchuk reference, with the blog tonight. It is funny how it is important to meet the people who can affect your business or dreams in situations that are comfortable to them. Really though, I truly believe that many of the people are as uncomfortable as I am at these events but we all muscle through.

Tonight’s event was hosted by Webber International University and was at their new Alumni Center. It seemed that the turnout was a little light, but it was nice to see some familiar faces from my time at Webber and from some of the business leaders in the Lake Wales area. It was nice to catch up with the bank executive, the insurance boss, the community college center director, the president of a university, the director of alumni, a candidate for the state senate, a few professors, a cool softball player, two professors of accounting, the dean of student life, a Captain in the Sheriff’s Department, and the vice president of institutional effectiveness and research.

Webber was a part of my life for a long period of time. The first time I was on the campus was when I was 12 years old. I have been a part of some great dinners when the school was the mecca for the wealthiest of the wealthy. I have been around when they didn’t mow the grass and there were only 250 students. Tonight, I learned there were over 600 students and when all is said and done they are aiming for 1200. We all need goals. My dad was an integral part of the college for 35 years and I believe the school has shaped many of the traits I carry forward today. I have seen at least three presidents and watched the school transform. Heck, I still have a pair of shorts, some shirts, and a few hats that still have Webber College on the logo. Oh yeah, they are still the warriors but with the hubbub from Native Americans they have even lost the Caloosa Tribe reference and gone with a more Nordic warrior. At least they haven’t complained yet.

If you have made it through the first three paragraphs I will get to the meat of this now. A few months ago, we came into some money from a 50/50 drawing. This winning drew the attention of my mother in law, Ruthie, and she thought it would be great to give some bikes to kids who might really want one and couldn’t afford one. Ken, my father in law, and I thought this was cool. We are a Century 21 franchise, so we thought giving 21 bikes would be a cool thing. Ruthie, who is always thinking bigger, remembered that Century 21 had recently updated their branding and started using the 121% as part of their branding. She thought that we should just go all in and go for 121 bikes for kids in our area. Oh boy, there is nothing like a bit of pressure to make something happen.

Okay, it is early September and of course, we are striving to raise the funding to give 121 bikes to kids in elementary school and middle school who really want a bike but truly cannot afford to get one. We are going to partner with the Lake Wales Police Department and the Polk County Sherriff Department to distribute these bikes to those who deserve them and want them. This is a straight-up request from the community in this area to help us out. We will be giving 121 bikes to kids in this area. If you can help us with this journey, we will give you the credit you deserve. We will honor you on our social media, and let the community know who made this possible. If you want to donate a bike versus the cash that is fine. Walmart will be the store that is handling the bikes and putting them together. Each of the local law enforcement agencies will be handling the distribution of the bikes. We are truly a ragtag group but with the communities’ support or digging deep into our own pockets, 121 kids in the Polk County area will have a new bike to ride around this coming Christmas. If you are interested at all, please call me at 863-326-3009 or email me at treyheath@hotmail.com. Yes, I got that email address when Hotmail started.

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Dreaming Just Ain't Execution

Is it just me or do we all have dreams that dangle from our daily thoughts? This past year has caused me to reflect immensely on what I like, what I want to do, and how I want to go about doing them. Don’t get me wrong, some are outlandish and a bit out there, but others are things that, I think, more people than not would also enjoy doing or having. Dreams can be fun, frustrating, or driving. Most of society has them but the execution seems to be the kicker.

This thought stream is personal. I am sure that most people just plow through what they want with no problem and laugh or scoff at those who struggle to reach the finish line of their personal picture. Others will say that the dream isn’t big enough and your why isn’t concrete enough. Well, that sucks. What happens when the dreams dancing around in your head don’t match the why? Is it as simple as: it is your dream and your why and that is all that matters? These are the conundrums that rattle around in my grey matter.
Curiosity is one of the traits that I like best about me. It is also one of my dreams to learn more about people and what makes them who they are. I want to know why they chose the career they did, what makes them tick, passions they may have, flaws they work on, and their reason or reasons why. I don’t feel like I am the only one that has this curiosity about the people around me. Why do I want to do this? Simple; I am curious, and I might learn something to better myself or someone else that I care about. I also want to share what I find with others.
There are some things I need to figure out. Will they be long-form interviews, will it be video, and do I really care if anybody else sees it? There are so many things that excite me about this and in that same breath many that make me incredibly nervous. The dream of doing more comes with the fear of ridicule, being made fun of, not being as good as you think you can be, and then the worst is, what happens if it goes really well?

Putting on the brave face, faking it until you make it, and all the other bullshit phrases are just that. Sucking, practicing, grinding it out, putting in the hard work, and crafting your skills are simply what it takes. Well shoot, that seems easy enough. I did it when I raced BMX and again while playing tennis. For some reason, the work necessary to succeed in sport just hasn’t translated to my dreams in business. Thanks for reading and I hope chasing your dreams comes easier to you than it has for me.
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As Summer Closes the Fun is Just Beginning

Oh boy, the unofficial last holiday of summer is upon us. Labor Day has come to be known as the end of summer and leads us into the fall. Cooler mornings, crisp evenings, the US Open, and the start of college football. For us in Florida, most of this is true. The cool mornings and crisp evenings are a bit off, but nonetheless, fall is right around the corner. What does all this mean as the dog days of summer leave us?

There are a lot of fun things coming up. If you have kids, you have about a month to prepare for the fall festival season. Right after that comes the Halloween experience. For some it is meandering around the neighborhood, or maybe someone else’s better neighborhood, or hitting up the local trunk-or-treat. High School volleyball is in season and the high school football teams are deep in their seasons. College football teams and their mass amounts of alumni and ravenous fans are clamoring for tickets to the big conference games, and hunting seasons take up the other free times.

Yes, there is more. As soon as Halloween comes and goes the focus becomes turkey with all the trimmings. Thanksgiving, the holiday where families overindulge, watch a parade, then pretend to watch football while sleeping the afternoon away. Sometimes, we even eat leftovers in the evening and we don’t skip the second piece of the pie.

There are many other things that make the fall a great season. The leaves in the mountains and up north begin to change. I think about driving a sports car through a winding road and the leaves twirling up behind me. Wearing a sweater and looking appropriate, drinking a hot chocolate around a campfire during an evening gathering, and having a few pints at an Oktoberfest. I think fall and spring may be the best two seasons of a year. Summer is pretty awesome but that is because there are just some incredible sporting events all over the world during that time. Fall is a fun time. That word, fun, is just going to stay close in my mind for a good period of time.

Enjoy the weekend, thank either Matthew Maguire or P.J. McGuire, yes there is an argument who started this holiday, for wanting to honor the unions with a day. It took awhile to make it a federal holiday, but it really doesn’t matter who started it. For many around the country, it is an extra day off to have some fun. For us in Polk County, it appears it is an extra day running around on the UTV, according to all the trailers I saw heading east this Friday afternoon. Have fun, enjoy the family, and realize that fall is right around the corner and the best or second-best season of the year is almost upon us.

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Still Trying to Figure Out What I Want This to Be

Have you ever seen someone and thought, “What makes them tick?” Well, I do and that is what I am hoping to do over the next few years. I would like to interview people that I find interesting and then share what I find. There are going to post about the former players, people who made a difference in my life, and then those I just find interesting.

If I can video the interviews I will figure out how to integrate them here. If not, I will make sure they are accessible. Others will be old-fashioned transcribed interviews, and others will be synopses of time spent observing the person.
The fun part for me is multiple types of people are intriguing. I have enjoyed having a wide variety of people cross my path during these 46 years and now I want to learn about them and share the insights that they may give.
That is all for tonight. The house is now filled with my lovely family, so I am going to enjoy the rest of the evening with them. As Grant Cardone says, “Be great because nothing else pays.”

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It is Raining: Are Things Growing or Stopping Your Plans?

It was a dark and stormy night in Babson Park. Oh wait, it is dark and stormy, but this isn’t a horror story. This is just a thought about time and the continual passing. Rains come, and rains go. Sometimes it rains a lot and then other times it seems that it will never rain. We get frustrated when it rains too much, most of the time it’s because we have things we want to do. Oh yeah, it stops raining and then we fuss because it is hot. It is hot because it is August and summer. For some reason, this reminded me of passing time.

How many times have we heard people complaining about things that are going to pass, have passed, or cannot be controlled by how much, or how little we complain about them? Yeah, me too. More than likely, it has been me as well. Time is awesome. It is here then gone. Unlike the lost dollar that can be earned back, stolen, or even scammed back, time is gone never to return. Events happen, and they are either good or bad 99% of the time. It is rare that an event is completely non-consequential.

For many years we have been told that each action has a consequence. Most of the time we think about the negative ones. Why is this? If each action has a consequence and 99% of our actions are either positive or negative, wouldn’t that mean that a positive action will have a consequence just the same? I truly think so. All of this goes to the negative mindset that most people have by default. It is simply easier to see the negative than to search for the positive. Don’t get me wrong; there are some bad things that occur and for the life of me I cannot find the positive at all. For other things though I think it is just easier to see the negative around us.

Many people walk around acting like bad stuff is happening all around them. I have asked many of them how their day is going. Rarely do I get told that they got shot, hit by a car, lost their house to a fire, were mugged leaving the store, and on and on. Most of the time they are fine. Yes, they are complaining because someone gave them bad service. That one irks me as well. For goodness sake, if you don’t want to do the job that you chose to do at the highest level then just quit. I know, you are making minimum wage, but I think you knew that when you were hired. Do a great job, put a smile on your face, and do your job, the one you were hired to do, the best you can do. Oops, I digressed but people complaining about having a job just isn’t what this country was founded upon.

Time is the one thing that we have, should cherish, and should maximize as it can never be replaced. I have wasted my fair share and do not speak from a pulpit above the fray. I speak because my daughter is getting to an age that she will create empty nest parents in a few years and I have missed a lot of time with her. Now she drives, has a full schedule, and is giving us the practice we need to prepare once the inevitable comes around. This timeframe that is now available is one that must be cherished when it can be and when there is separation the positive times will fill the void. For sure it could be sad, but really it is another happy moment.

Do me a favor, as you move around tomorrow, count how many good things happen, how many bad things, as told by your favorite media source, and then just how many moments really aren’t worth much at all. Unless you live on a medical television show I doubt the negative truly outweighs the positive. Have a great weekend and it appears you might need your slickers.

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Just Looking Beyond the Curve

Well, my blog took a bit of a vacation. Maybe a semi-retirement. Heck, it could have been pure laziness. Whatever the issue, there is a lot of stuff that bounces around in my head and this space allowed me the option of getting rid of it. Therapy is expensive but since I already pay for internet and have a working computer this seems way cheaper. I used this time to talk about great experiences I had, players that mattered, and they all mattered, and just random stuff that I saw or witnessed during my days out galivanting around. There are still over twenty players to write about, life has had some fun and interesting twists, and I just have a lot to say.

Since I left FSC many things are different. Many of my former players are making their way through their careers, others are knee deep in the next degree, some have gone the distance to acquire, or are acquiring terminal degrees, and others are still working on finding their passion while finishing up at FSC or another school that fit their needs. Our own family has gone through transitions as well. My daughter is now driving, today was the first time in sixteen years that Michelle or I didn’t have to arrange her transportation to school, and to add to that the Pod has chosen to go the dual enrollment route her last two years of high school. This is exciting and nerve-racking. When she graduates with her high school diploma she will also have her AA or be a semester from that goal. Not a bad option for kids these days. They can go to normal high school, do early admissions, dual enroll, or even do collegiate. There still are AP classes and the IB program. Dang, when I was in school we had DECA. Things sure do change.

The Beyond the Curve blog was something I just wanted to do to free my mind. The name is derived from racing jargon. Racers look through the curve. Your eyes take you where you need to go. Where the eyes go the vehicle follows. Brianna rides horses and her coach has told her to look through the corner. She uses this reference to aid the rider to look where she wants to go while going over the jump. As soon as she lands wherever her head is the horse heads that direction. The Beyond the Curve idea is useful for many things. In the real estate world, you never know what will be around the next curve. The blog is still going to be my thoughts, ramblings, praises for former players, and now stuff that makes real estate tick for me.

Tonight, I will close with this: Call your family, check in on a friend, and love your kids with all your heart. They are the ones that will be there when you need them. Have a great Tuesday and go make someone’s day special!

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