Erich Bell: “I’ve seen first-hand what happens when a business operates with honesty and communication, and what happens when they don’t. I believe in sharing the wealth and successes of the company with the people who work there. As a leader, you want to set an expectation for greatness. And that starts by modeling and leading that behavior.”
Amy Chronis: “Persistence and tenacity. The ability as a leader to persist and never give up is essential to making things happen. Combined with work ethic. As a leader you have to model to your team that you’re not going to give up. You keep striving to find workable solutions.”
Frank A. Bennack, Jr.: “Excellence is something that you must continuously strive for. Excellence is about being a little better than those with whom you compete and recognizing that mediocre is not a rewarding outcome. We are human, so we won’t always win every time, but if our target is excellence and we put in the work, we can achieve excellence more often that we think.”
Stephanie Stare: “Own your destiny. It’s important to network and build relationships, but at the end of the day, if you want something, you have to make it happen for yourself. Don’t expect it to come from someone else. I feel that is what differentiates people. You can’t wait for the opportunity to be given to you; you have to go after it. You need to advocate for yourself, especially at a large company. Be vocal about what you want next and be your own greatest champion.”
Michael Kmetz: “Giving back to my community is something I feel obligated to do after finding some early success. As Gerald Smith said, ‘You are blessed to be a blessing.’ I could not agree more. It is so inspiring to see TBHF alumni and legends be generous with their resources and time.”
Rob C. Holmes: “Excellence is something you commit to every day. To be excellent in business, you must act with transparency, candor, and discipline. You must be accountable to one another, clients, communities, and stakeholders.”
LaRhesa Moon: “One of the key things I learned, and maybe the hard way, was that it’s a marathon not a sprint. I have a high sense of urgency, a really strong work ethic, and very ambitious goals.”
Hazem Elshorbagy: “I like to think of excellence as a culture. Excellence is the sum of satisfaction of all business stakeholders. The more happy customers, investors and employees the business has, the better it is doing.”
Gary Kelly: “You just have to do three things: be prepared for tough times; be resilient in those times; and maintain a deep belief that you will find a way to fight your way through.”
Daniel Peavy: “I also try to cultivate as many mentors and advisors as I can. When I’m having tough days, when I’m having good days, when I just want to bounce an idea off someone, those mentors have always come through for me. Whether it’s a sentence of encouragement or an insight they can provide – that has been extremely valuable for every crisis, challenge, and good time that I’ve come through.”
