Elegant Respect & Citizenship In Atlanta Hartsfield

A wonderfully moving moment just happened in just the right way and at just the right time in the middle of the bustle and blindness in Atlanta's Hartsfield airport, one of the busiest on the planet.  As my wife was in the middle of it a group of maybe 150 military men and women approached and as Rena explained it everyone was completely tuned in to their own little worlds found in our handhelds and the "social comfort for 1" better known as our favorite coffee drink from Starbucks or some imposter.  What happened next was absolutely astonishing and filled everyone there's heart in the most unexpected and spontaneous of ways. The dynamic energy and commitment to this great nation of ours was felt with a palpability to the point that everyone immediately stopped what they were doing looked up and applauded with an intensity and unity that's rare to experience outside of a concert or sporting event and neither of those carries even close to the same gravity of what was unfolding in the airport monday.  This is what it's all about to me when we speak and think of what respect and citizenship are and the immeasurable value they carry in bonding us all together as Americans.

There's a constant theme that keeps revealing itself to me in recent days and weeks that the way to truly live life to the highest potential of our God-given gifts and happiness and to the happiness of those we touch is to keep ourselves shining in gratitude, giving to others we can assist with in finding their success and generating an uplifting positive energy that becomes an affliction everyone's after.  This is the way I've come to see with a crystalizing clarity.  This is an engine from which respect and citizenship rule the road with a speed and precision that's unsurpassable.  With it we move our days, our homes, our towns, our cities, our states and our very nation with coordination, synchronicity and success.  Without it we gum up the works, everything's a task, little really gets done and discord is the uneasy result leaving harmony and meaning in the dust.

Yes, it's that big, in fact it's vital to our very future well-being that we all play our part in living respect and citizenship.  Do it in your own way yet let others see and by all means let others receive all the good inside you.  Who is the last person you said thank you to?  Ever wonder what it's like to make a perfect stranger's day perfect?  Live your own "Hartsfield moment," after all what do we all have to gain from you?

gary c. rettinger

Living Inside the 6 Pillars With Entrepreneur & Humanitarian Jim Bailey

Always ready with a smile!

Entrepreneur & Humanitarian Jim Bailey

It's an exceptional person with the character and fortitude to both at once understand and then lead the way in life with the foundation of trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship.  That's quite a bevy of accountability to one's self and to all those around us like say your wife and your 6 daughters and a company full of dedicated employees, isn't it?  Yet, there's a silver lining that most surely leads one onto a primrose path as it's said. Maybe that's better seen as your personal avenue paved in gold.  And this is exactly where Jim Bailey's in effect chosen to be from a "decision" that was thrust upon him at an early age when fate stepped in and taking over for his father found Jim abandoning his path and giving everything he had to help his family at it's greatest time of need with their now century-old company Bailey Publishing.  Both his commitment and the clear foundation that had already been 64 years in the making when Jim came aboard 36 years ago have proven to find Bailey Publishing (the Daily Record - http://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/) as a strong and well-anchored local company to this day.  That's come from Jim's leadership and the wealth of talent he's been so fortunate to have throughout the years. "You don't become successful unless you have people around you who you respect and trust" says Jim.  Respect and trust of course are 2 of the 6 pillars for which Character Counts! is founded upon and for which Jim speaks of front and center as to the core of his and Bailey Publishing's success. 

It flows from there as to why Jim believes heavily in the mission of Character Counts!.  "I get a great deal of pleasure out of seeing other people succeed" says Jim which is the very essence of what it's all about in life.   Jim looks for ways every day to help people in some way believing that's what goodwill is all about.  In other words as the time-tested tenet in life says so quickly and accurately you get what you give so why not give a lot? 

As for the pillar of responsibility that's every bit as much of primary importance to Jim as he speaks of the vital necessity of "managing expectations" and taking tremendous care in meeting those expectations at home, in his heavily-active business life leading his company and sitting on the boards of a number of organizations and of course with his focused humanitarian efforts just the same.  It's this attention to not passing the buck so-to-speak that keeps Jim eagle-eyed and resolved to go to every extra measure to deliver to his clients, to the team that makes up his company and to the noble mission undertaken every day with Character Counts!.

Citizenship offered it's hand yet again to Jim in needing his expertise and care just this week and as a result we'll all see and enjoy a time-honored and happily-lighted tradition on the river once again this holiday season.  Jim's a leader simply because he's stepped in, stepped up and given his family, his company Bailey Publishing, Jacksonville and Character Counts! his all.  Let inspiration take hold within each and every one of us and find your "inner-Jim" as we walk toward a better and brighter today and tomorrow just the same.


11/09/11
gary c. rettinger