In October of ’06, my good friend Jackie Freiberg spoke in Richmond at the eighth annual Leadership Metro Richmond Fall Seminar. Jackie and her husband, Kevin, are the authors of the best-selling Nuts! Southwest Airlines’ Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success and GUTS! Her presentation was phenomenal and very thought provoking. One of the points she made was that on every tombstone there is a birth date and date of death. In between is a dash. She then asked the audience what was the most important part of that date. The answer? The dash.

If you think about it, we have no control over either of those dates, but the one thing we do have control over is the dash in between those dates. This dash represents your life, and my question to you is how will you spend your dash? When you look back on your life, will you be pleased with what you’ve accomplished and how you spent your time? Will you be pleased with the impact you’ve had on others? And your community? Will you be happy with the person you’ve become? And can you, without hesitation, say, “I made a difference”?

Dash to the Front

I’ve always felt that if you believe in yourself, your abilities and your God-given talents, you will make a difference. When you make things happen you feel good about yourself. You choose to be a part of the solution as opposed to a part of the problem. In your mind, there is no such thing as a half-empty glass. The glass is always half-full, and the words status quo do not exist in your vocabulary. You know that you can always do better and your goal is to raise the bar every day.

Dash and Be Different

Making a difference is all about daring to be different, trying new things, coloring outside the lines, thinking outside the box (what box?) and adapting to the world you live in. Change for the sake of change is absolutely worthless, but change with a purpose in mind is essential to how pleased you’ll be with your dash. Your dash can have a great impact on the “dashes” of others and help them soar to heights they never thought attainable.

Dash Off a Note

In today’s world, one of the most powerful and under-underutilized tools has gone the way of the dinosaur. That tool is a handwritten note. People love to get handwritten notes. They might throw away a typed note or discard an e-mail that has been printed. However, the one thing they will save is a note that you’ve penned. The note doesn’t have to be lengthy or an epistle. It just needs to come from the heart. It can be as simple as “Thank you for all that you do. You make a difference!” These are 11 simple words that are as powerful as any you’ll find in a dictionary or thesaurus.

I played football, basketball, baseball, volleyball and ran track. One of the events in track that I loved was the 100 yard dash, and I participated in many meets. Sometimes I won and sometimes I lost, but I remember vividly the euphoric feeling I experienced when I won the race. Make sure that your dash is a winning one. If you do, you’ll be happy with your legacy and what you’ve accomplished.