Hi Everyone,

Happy Friday! Thanks for spending part of it reading The Lake Street Journal.

This week we’re talking about Jerry Jones’ greatest accomplishment, changing history, and mistakes. Let's get into it.

That’s Your Glory

My son was born last Friday, so I've been spending a lot of time with him on the couch. We've been watching Landman, which I chalked up to unproductive relaxation time. But then I saw one of the most beautiful television scenes I've ever watched. And I realized it applied to this newsletter.

If you haven't seen the show, Landman is about the Texas oil business. In this particular scene, Monty, the owner of an oil company, is laying in a hospital bed after having his fifth heart attack. An older friend is sitting by his bedside, offering him some advice.

That friend is Jerry Jones, owner of the Dallas Cowboys, and he's playing himself. Of course, it's a fictional show, but I think the monologue Jones delivers is pretty true to real life. Here it is:

"I made my mind up a long time ago that I was gonna work with my kids. They're involved in everything. So when I got the Cowboys, I got it so that we could all work together. I thought I was doing it for them, but the one that got the most out of it was me.

You're gonna be laying here some time in the future, and this room's gonna be full with your business associates and people you worked with all your life. And more than likely, your children and family are going to be there because they're your children and your family. But you could have them there because they're the people you spent your life with. You worked with. You fell down with. You got up with. Not just Thanksgiving and Christmas. That's who you want to be with. So when that time comes, it's a celebration of your life, and you're not wishing you'd spent a little more time seeing a few more suns come up.

That's that trick. That's the trick. Cause that's gonna be your glory.

I'm pretty proud of them Cowboys. And I'm pretty proud of the stuff we've done in oil and gas. But it pales in comparison to how proud I am to have lived my life working with my kids. You got a chance to do something about that. I hope you will."

Watching that scene reminded me of a valuable lesson. Maybe the most valuable lesson. No matter how big or important we are as leaders, the most important team we'll ever lead is our family. The best example we can set is the one we set at home. The people we'll most enjoy developing are the ones we tuck in at night.

Don't get me wrong. Leading a team, or a company, or a country, those things are all important. But the lessons we learn from history's greatest leaders don't just apply professionally. They apply at home too. And home is where you'll get the biggest return on your investment.

Just like Jerry Jones said. That's the trick. That's gonna be your glory.

History Isn't Static

I've said it before and I'll keep saying it as long as I have a pulse. Great leaders study history.

As someone who studies history, it's important to understand the main point of this article: history changes. The facts of history remain the same, of course, but the perception of those facts can change drastically.

For example, in the year 2000, Ulysses S. Grant was ranked 33rd out of 41 presidents. By 2021, his ranking had improved to 20th out of 44 presidents. The big difference? Ron Chernow's biography of Grant, which was published in 2017.

As my friend Jack writes in this piece,

"Grant became a bestseller after its publication, completely reshaping the way we as a people view the man. The facts didn’t change but our perception did because a historian brought a new, derivative piece of work to the historical conversation."

I highly recommend reading the full piece (the story is fascinating) and checking out the rest of Jack's work. He has some pretty deep insights that are well beyond his years.

Getting Better at Getting Better

I've been hooked on Ravi Gupta's blog lately. It's great for leaders or anyone who appreciates useful perspectives on life.

This one was about making mistakes. It wasn't the typical business bullshit about mistakes being a good thing. It was about mistakes being inevitable as a leader and how to deal with them productively—by admitting them and learning from them. I liked this part the best:

"The second benefit is counterintuitive. The experience of making, admitting, and ultimately fixing big mistakes makes us more bold. We learn that the world doesn’t end very often. We learn that our organizations are more resilient than we think. We learn that we are more resilient than we think. So we try bigger and bolder things and don’t wait so long the next time before calling them failures. We get better at dealing with the ego and identity blows that come from admitting our mistakes. This starts to build on itself." 

This guy has been in the trenches as an operator and investor for a long time. If you enjoy this piece, you'll find lots of other gold on his website.

Workout of the Week

This was a fun one, but dang it was humbling. I came in four minutes over my goal time, and I did step up burpees the whole time. Here's a short video of my final round. I spent a lot of time staring at the floor...

“Uncomfortably Numb”

20-15-10

• Wallballs (20# ball to 10' target)

• Toes to Bar

• Dumbbell Snatches (50)

• Burpees

*Row 30 cals after each round

The workout is three rounds. You do 20 reps of each movement in the first round, then row 30 calories. Then 15 of everything, etc.

Goal < 15 mins, My time: 19:04

Quote of the Week

“It never gets easier. You just go faster.” - Greg LeMond

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Talk soon,

Joe