All leadership is temporary. No matter how important you are, someone will eventually be filling your seat. As a result, we are all interim leaders. But Walter Orthmann from Brazil recently challenged this long-held leadership belief.
A Historic Tenure
The May 5th edition of Morning Brew tells the story of Orthmann, who at 100-years-old and 84 years at Industrias Renaux S.A., finally retired as the company’s sales manager!!! Orthmann holds the Guiness World Record for the longest career with a single company.
Orthmann started as a shipping assistant in 1938 at 15 years of age. To give you some sense of how long ago 1938 is, the following are some of the notable things which happened that year:
- The March of Dimes was founded.
- Mass panic broke out in the Eastern United States as Orson Welles performed his War Of The Worlds radio broadcast.
- Nuclear fission was discovered.
- Under Adolf Hitler’s direction, Germany invaded Poland.
- Germany began its persecution of the Jewish people.
- Superman #1 appeared in Action Comics.
- The ballpoint pen was invented.
- Jimmie Fox won the MLB Most Valuable Player Award.
And Walter Orthmann went to work for Industrias Renaux S.A.
Practical Advice
What was the secret to his longevity? Obviously he possessed uncommon people skills, the ability to change, and the occupational stamina to consistently hit goals and objectives over an extended period of time. But when asked Orthmann said, “I don’t do much planning, nor care much about tomorrow. All I care about is that tomorrow will be another day in which I will wake up, get up, exercise, and go to work; you need to get busy with the present, not the past or the future. Here and now is what counts. So, let’s go to work!”
Perhaps the secret to longevity is not as complex as we would like to think. Maybe the secret to longevity is developing a short-term memory and the ability to stay in the moment focusing on the here and now.
Leadership Lessons
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was once asked, “With all that you have accomplished in your career, what are some of the things left you still want to accomplish?” Belichick answered, “I’d like to go out and have a good practice today. That would be on the list right now.” Belichick is the embodiment of staying in the moment and focusing on the here and now.
High-performance expert Alan Stein Jr. said of mental skills coach Graham Betchart in his new book Sustain Your Game, “Great players, he explained, let go of the play that just happened and never worry about what might happen; they simply focus on what is.” It is today that matters, not yesterday nor tomorrow.
Personal Application
Father Time is still undefeated but Walter Orthmann took him into multiple overtimes. For 84 years he focused on waking up, getting up, exercising, and going to work, and Orthmann did so with a historic level of success. Maybe we should follow his example.
As a point of comparison, I need to work 64 more years at my company to tie Orthmann’s record. This would have me retiring at the ripe-old age of 120. The only way this is going to happen is for me to focus on the here and now and wake up, get up, exercise, and go to work one day at a time, starting today.
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Therefore, the fundamentals of leadership are more important than ever. The quotes in this book deal with the basics of leadership. If you want to be the best leader you can possibly be, click HERE or on the image provided to download this FREE resource. The lessons learned from last year, if applied, will sustain you for years to come.