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Jan. 6, 2024
Attitude Is Everything
This episode is a tribute to the legacy of leadership, a man whose positive attitude was a beacon to those he met. Montie Box was an influential figure, who taught that success in leadership is as much about uplifting others as it is about reaching personal goals. Montie's story is not just his own, it's a testament to the power of attitude and the profound effect one person's outlook can have on the world around them.
The legacy of Montie Box, 93-years-old, overflowed a funeral home with those he impacted. This is a call to lead with intentionality, embracing each day as an opportunity to better ourselves and, by extension, those whose lives we touch. Join me on this reflective journey where we honor the powerful legacies that shape us and the courage it takes to forge our own.
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Transcript
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Welcome to courageous leadership with Travis Yates, where leaders find the insights, advice and encouragement they need to lead courageously.
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Welcome back to the show.
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I'm so honored that you're spending a few minutes with us Now.
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We had an episode scheduled for next week.
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In fact, our next several weeks are scheduled out with some great guests.
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I wasn't going to put anything out this weekend, but I was inspired this morning and I wanted to pass along my thoughts to you because this really impacted me.
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I want you to ask yourself how important is attitude to you?
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And when I got to thinking about that, the people that I can pinpoint that made a distinct difference in my life.
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They had great attitudes.
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They were always encouraging.
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When you were around them, you felt like you could be a better person being around them.
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They were magnetic.
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They attracted people that wanted to be around them, and it was all about attitude.
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You know, charisma has nothing to do with appearance.
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It has to do with the fact that people are attracted to be around you.
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It's about attitudes, about personality and it's about all that.
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But when it comes to attitude, as leaders, we control all of that, and especially the last several years, law enforcement's endured.
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It's been very easy to lose that good attitude, and I have been very blessed throughout my career to be around men and women, both inside the profession and outside the profession that had a great attitude, and one of those men's name is Monnie Box.
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Now, most of you probably all of you have never heard of Monnie Box, but if you lived in the state that he was in, a lot of people had heard of Monnie Box.
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I went to Montie Box's funeral this morning and Montie is a relative of my wife.
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I've been around him for many years and every time I was around him I liked being around him.
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But until the day I didn't know why and I want to explain that to you Like every time I saw him in a room at a holiday or at a family event, I would just go right over to him and just start talking to him and have the best time.
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And I didn't really put two and two together for a long time about the leadership qualities.
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That is because Monnie certainly has more leadership qualities than I can cover today A very successful businessman, a successful family man, one of the guys that you probably know of you, where everything they touch turns great, and that may or may not be true, but for him, a lot of things he was involved in were very, very successful.
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But at his funeral, this is what was talked about, the ongoing theme about money, and this was the quote I heard.
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I want to pass it on to you.
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And the quote is this attitude is everything.
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Attitude is everything.
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And they use that to describe money box.
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And I thought to myself that's it.
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That's why, every time I was around that guy, I felt better, I wanted to do better, I wanted to do things to impress him.
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And he's not even a relative of mine, and that is, if you could bottle that up, you could be a you know who knows how many millions you would have.
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I mean, it's just really amazing of what attitude does.
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And I want to just give you a quick recap of the traits of money and we heard a lot about them the day.
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And listen, I've been to hundreds of funerals.
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I was in an honor guard for a decade and I've been to you name the funeral, you name the type of funeral.
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I've thrown dirt on top of caskets.
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I've.
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You know, you name it.
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I'm in the South, so I've been to all kinds of funerals and there are funerals where they're kind of legitimate, right, but then there are funerals where you know they're just talking people up because it's a funeral.
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And hey, I'm not downplaying that that's a good thing to do at people's funeral, but this funeral was legit Like there were so many great things to say that were legitimate you couldn't even get to them all.
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But I last saw money at my retirement party.
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It was just a few months ago and I wanted to invite specific people to that party that had made a strong impact on my life and there were because I wanted it to really be meaningful.
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I've been to a lot of these things where you know people wouldn't even talk to you during when you work there.
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They're coming to your retirement party but Monty I didn't work with Monty, but I'd known Monty for so long and he had impacted me so long, always encouraging.
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I wanted him there and I, quite frankly, didn't know if he was gonna be there.
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He was in poor health.
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Montie Box was 93 years old.
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He was born during the Great Depression, which shaped really his life and became highly, highly successful as a realtor and businessman and but he showed up.
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It was the last time I saw him and, as usual, even though he was frail and he was in obviously poor health, he committed and he showed up and he said obviously positive things to me a great attitude and it was such an honor.
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And I didn't know it'd be the last time I saw him, but I knew at the time my impression was he sacrificed to be there because he certainly didn't feel well.
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You know he didn't.
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You know you could just tell that he was struggling a little bit.
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But, man, you never could tell it from his attitude.
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And I wonder how many of us could do the same right, how many of us could fight through adversity and still be positive.
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And obviously Montie Box knew that was his legacy.
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He knew his life was coming near and in and he knew his legacy was what he did for other people.
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He did it his entire life.
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In fact.
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The quote from the minister was there's just too many accomplishments to discuss here.
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I wanna just give you, I wanna focus on some of the traits that I heard, and I know they're a factual because I've been around him.
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He was called charismatic.
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I already mentioned that.
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He seemed to know everybody very.
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You know, similar to you know that's what charismatic people are like.
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So he seemed to know everybody.
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A strong handshake, I think.
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I think if I was to teach one class in middle school today, it'd be to teach kids to shake hands the right way, right.
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And Montie certainly would look you in the eye and shake your hand very, very strongly and you knew it meant something.
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And Monty had a saying in business and the same was this you make a promise, you fulfill the promise, even if it takes your height off right, even if it hurts you to make the promise, the prices change or adjust to whatever.
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But that was the kind of man that he was very supportive, very positive, very encouraging, very generous, very honest.
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He had integrity, he stood by his work, he was very kind and really just an amazing example for any, any leader.
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This was a man that no new presidents He'd been at some of the best golf courses in the world he had.
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He was a guy that had money, but you didn't know he had money right, just Overall well-rounded.
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When you look at leadership and what that does to entire Communities and businesses and the people around you, that guy's the model for it and I can't get over the impact that his life had all the way till the day he died.
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This didn't change folks.
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It wasn't something they talked about, when you know, when money was in the real estate business Back in the day he did this and when he, when he knew people back, he did no to the day he died when he was around people.
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This was the projection he projected and for me that's extremely encouraging.
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I want to tell you about a personal story and I'm gonna let you get on with your weekend and I appreciate you for listening, because I do think the idea of attitude we could all use a lesson, including myself in this, but Probably about 18 months ago, so money would have been.
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You know, in his early 90s he was a passenger in a car and they were driving through my neighborhood, even though money wasn't full-time selling real estate.
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They would he, you know, I, he, he, he.
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He loved real estate, love homes, he loved commercial real estate, and he was driving by my neighborhood and he stopped and the car stopped.
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Money wasn't driving, the car stopped and money rolled his window down and we started talking once again, extremely energetic, extremely excited to see me I don't know if he was, but he sure seemed like it and he talked about the book I wrote the courageous police leader and and he said I'm gonna get that book, I want to get that book.
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I said, no money, I got one for you.
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So I ran back and I Gave him a book.
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I think I signed it.
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I hope I did.
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I gave him a note, I'm not sure I did.
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I gave him the book and and man, he was so thankful and grateful and I saw him, you know, a few weeks after that.
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He was excited.
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He said he read the book and he loved it and he thanked me so much for what I was doing.
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And this was just the kind of guy he was.
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You know, we're 40 years apart, but you were.
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It was like we were best friends and he built the community he was in and he was.
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This community he was in would not be what it was without him.
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He didn't see his job as a real estate agent as some is trying to make money.
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He saw it as trying to help people.
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They told stories of today about how he had forgiven rent and he was he'd like to help out young business owners with commercial real estate and leasing and he would do all he can for people.
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How people were walking in his office, no matter who they were, he'd buy something from them, whether it was Girl Scouts or somebody else.
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And all of you probably know somebody like this.
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Right, he would.
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He would randomly call people and just encourage him.
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All of you probably know somebody like this.
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But here's my question to you, my challenge to you are you like this To you?
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Is it?
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Does your attitude give off what other people's want to be around?
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I know I need to get better.
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I know I need to work on it.
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The power, though, that impacts me and I get it now was attitude.
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Yeah, he had a lot of knowledge.
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He grew up in the Great Depression he was in.
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He was a war veteran.
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He knew presidents.
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He told me a story one time how he was hanging out in Hawaii with Terry Bradshaw.
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You know, and he so.
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But none of that.
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What attacked me was the attitude.
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What could you do today to make someone's life better?
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Is it a phone call?
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Is it a text.
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Is it telling somebody you love them?
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Is it telling the people you work with that you appreciate them?
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When they think of you at your funeral, will they say attitude was everything.
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That's my hope for you, and I want to end with a prayer that Montie Box said every night before bed.
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This is what he said, and they played a video of him in a Bible study where he talked about this.
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He said I ask God every day to make me a better man.
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Wow, Wow.
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It's very amazing to me the impact one person can make Folks.
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I've been to your old people's funerals before.
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Maybe you have too.
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Do you know how many are there?
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Not many, because they've outlived pretty much everybody.
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But the fact that this man led his entire life to the day he died, he had influenced so many people.
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There were overflow rooms for a man that was 93 years old at a funeral.
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You are used to that with young people, but you don't see that with people that age.
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This should be your go Not to be this position or not to do this or not to do that.
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Your go should be as you wake up every day to go.
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You know what?
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I want my legacy to be so strong they can't find a church to fit people in.
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They want to honor that legacy.
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God bless you.
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Thank you for listening and just remember, lead on and stay courageous.
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Thank you for listening to Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates.
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We invite you to join other courageous leaders at TravisYates.
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org.
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