Then I pulled out the cards with the vacations on them. I’d kept the week at a spa, which I planned to give to my parents. I’d also held onto the one for a stay at a ranch. That left vacations to two different resorts in Italy and one in Hawaii. Once the cards had been passed around, I continued.
“I’ve been asked not to cause a stir that might overtax the resources we have for crowd control. I had a long talk with someone I respect, and they suggested that I should embrace my celebrity.
“What I’d suggest is for the Saturday games, we start doing something big where the city, school, and Booster Club would all share in the work. In turn, they would share the money such events would generate.
“I expect we could do something that rivals the Washington fundraiser last year but plan it much better,” I said.
“They’d planned for a couple thousand people, and over twenty thousand showed up. It was a disaster, but we survived it,” Mrs. Sullivan said.
“If we plan for that many, we should be able to accommodate them. Their biggest problems were traffic, parking, restrooms, and not enough food. If we know to expect a large crowd going in, we should be okay,” Mr. Sullivan added.
“We regularly have about half that number at football games. We would need to figure out where to park more cars. Even if we park them on the practice fields, I’m not sure it’ll be enough,” Vice Principal Palm said.
“Could you park them at the other schools and provide shuttle service back and forth?” Grandma Dawson asked.
At that point, I sat back and took it in. This was what Grace had been talking about. Leadership meant setting the direction, and then you turned it over to the competent managers to execute. Not that this group would consider me their leader.
I had one of those life-lesson epiphanies. Leadership didn’t necessarily mean I had to be in charge. Some thought or comment I made might set the tone and direction. But it was freeing to recognize that it didn’t mean I had to take on the responsibility of shepherding everything through to completion.
That had been my biggest stumbling block when it came to my businesses. We employed a lot of people, and I didn’t want the burden of knowing my decisions could harm them somehow.
In the back of my mind, I worried I might make some rookie mistake, and everyone would pay for it. Yes, my dad and Caryn—well, now Scarlet—were there to save me from myself. Nevertheless, I had been making the mental mistake of thinking I was responsible if something went wrong. I’d been putting a mental ‘the buck stops here’ sign on my virtual desk.
I’d been thinking that way, even though I’d already given up full control of my companies. And that was despite recognizing I had smart, seasoned people in charge who’d been doing most of this stuff for years.
My realization that I could let go of that misguided need to control freed me. I didn’t have to figure out
By the end of the meeting, the group decided we wouldn’t try to do an event this weekend. Everyone needed time to plan. My only further input was that whatever I was going to be associated with had to be family friendly. That shot down the idea of a beer tent.
◊◊◊
Manaia dropped me off at the house. I found my Mom and Dad in the kitchen, eating cheesecake.
“I didn’t realize cheesecake was on your diet,” I teased Dad.
“I told you we shouldn’t have saved him a piece,” Dad fired back.
“Have you eaten?” Mom asked.
“Yeah, Grandma Dawson, Manaia, and I stopped at Granny’s West.”
“How’d your meeting go?” Dad asked.
I caught them up on the plan to raise money to get the city out of debt.
“That sounds like something your granddad would have done. He was big on practical politics,” Dad said.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“He knew how to cut through the BS and come up with a workable solution. Most politicians try to finagle something extra or add conditions just to make them look good. It’s why nothing seems to get done,” Mom said.
“What you just saw was the private and public sectors working together to do something that made sense for everyone. It’s kind of a big deal, if you think about it,” she added.
“Your mom is right,” Dad said to earn brownie points, I was sure. “Politicians too often have a need to ‘win.’ If you watch the news about any negotiation, they talk about winners and losers. Too many times, there is no consideration of how it will affect the people who elected them. It’s all about winning.
“Your grandfather was about the results, not trying to make the other side look bad. It was why everyone turned to him whenever they wanted to get something done.”
“Did you give away everything left in the swag bag?” Mom asked.
“I offered them the trips to Italy and the one to Hawaii.”
“So, I take it you’re keeping the trip to the ranch?” Mom said.
