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NO WAY!
By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, November
2, 2026
Note: The title was taken
from a song called “No Way” by Whiskey Hollow Music. They nailed it!
This Nugget originated from the song
and video at the link below. You might understand this Nugget better if you
play the video and listen—really LISTEN—to the lyrics of the song FIRST!
It nails the message and gives you a visual perspective of what the remainder
of this Nugget is all about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgjGdVOzXYw&list=PLax5WWroqrd4&index=3
We went out for breakfast on this
beautiful Sunday morning, and we were seated waiting for our meals when I could
not help but notice the patrons coming into the restaurant. You had to ask
yourself, WHAT were some of these people thinking when they got dressed
and walked out of their homes?
Let me give you an example. One lady, in
her late twenties or early thirties and obviously overweight, was wearing
skintight leggings and what amounted to a skintight halter top. Between the
bottom of her top and the waistband of her leggings was a pronounced roll of
skin that was trying to escape. She looked like a sausage about to burst!
Why would someone deliberately dress
like that in public in 2026? Surely, she had to realize what she looked like!
Her partner, about the same age,
looked more like a lumberjack from the mountains of the Far West, with long,
unkempt hair, a long beard, jeans, and a T-shirt that didn't look as though it
had been washed in days, if not weeks.
This couple was NOT alone! They
simply took their place among thousands of other people their age who look the
same.
The lyrics to “No Way” take me
back to America in the 1950s. I know that because I LIVED those years as
a kid growing up in Ohio.
We dressed like our friends, too. The
difference? We cared about what we looked like! We had haircuts, clean plaid
shirts, jeans (one constant that has survived the generations), and Converse
tennis shoes.
Those shoes were a rite of passage for us kids in the 50s.
They were priceless if you had a pair!
We all had bicycles and we rode them
all over town, sometimes miles away from home. I often joke that if my parents
were raising us in 2026 and allowed us to do the things they permitted us to do
in 1955, some neighbor would report them to the local police and they would be
arrested!
Different days. Different times. Different rules.
If you sense a LIFE LESSON
coming, you would be sensing correctly. That is precisely the purpose of this
Nugget.
I formed my beliefs, values, and
character during the 1950s. We kids knew what was considered acceptable
behavior back then, just as today's kids have their own ideas about what is
acceptable today. I can assure you that the difference between those two eras’
beliefs are worlds apart!
We also understood the value of money,
well sort of. Something that cost 99 cents was considered a purchase of value.
Even the pennies lying on the streets and sidewalks were worth picking up. They
might not have meant much to an adult, but when you collected 99 of them, you
had GOLD as a kid growing up in the 1950s!
The song and video also show a kid
working, a kid who would obviously be considered underage for many jobs in
2026. In the 50s, working as a kid was not unusual. I had my first paying job
at the age of 13, earning 60 cents an hour as a stockboy in the corner drug
store.
I can honestly say that I worked from age 13 until I fully
retired on December 31, 2012. That is well over 50 YEARS of employment!
There is, however, one important life
lesson I was never taught, nor did I ever learn on my own until much later in
life. That lesson was the value of COMPOUND INTEREST! Alfred Einstein said,
"Compound interest
is the eighth wonder of the world.
He who
understands it, earns it; he who doesn't, pays it."
As I stated, it is
something I unfortunately learned much later in life, if only someone had told
me when I was a kid!
I saved my 60-cent-an-hour earnings,
and when I had accumulated enough money, I bought my dad a gasoline-powered
lawn mower. Until that mower arrived, he and I had been cutting the grass with
an old-fashioned manual push mower.
Several years later, I remember saving
enough money to buy him a brand-new set of Spalding Executive golf clubs. “Executive”
was the model’s name. Until then, he and I had played with a mismatched
collection of golf clubs from different manufacturers, but we played whenever
we could.
Herein lies the failed life lesson!
I was saving money, but I was not
saving it for MYSELF or my FUTURE. I was as happy as a pig in
you-know-what buying things for my family that they either did not have or
needed to replace. I loved being able to provide those things for them.
But I never learned the importance of
saving for my own future. That was a lesson I learned FAR too late in
life!
Today is November 1, 2026, as I sit at
my computer keyboard. Think about that for a moment. We did not have computers
on our desks in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, or even the 80s. Look how much the world
has changed!
I know that my mind was shaped, some
might even say BRAINWASHED, by the environment in which I grew up during
the 1950s. My beliefs and values were formed by what I saw, heard, experienced,
and was taught during those formative years.
Now, think about YOURSELF!
What was the world like when YOU
were between 10 and 14 years old? That was the period when YOU were
forming your beliefs, developing your character, and deciding what was right,
wrong, acceptable, and unacceptable.
You and God only know what was
happening in the world around YOU while your attitudes and values were
being formed.
I found myself wondering what the
world was like when that young woman with the protruding belly was 14 years old.
What was happening in HER environment that might have influenced her to
believe that the way she dressed in public was perfectly acceptable in 2026 yet
was unacceptable to someone who grew up in the 50s?
She and I were raised in two different
worlds. We were 14 years old in two different eras, and I have absolutely no
doubt that those differences shaped how we see the world today.
THAT is the singular point of this Nugget!
Let us take this a step further.
Suppose that young woman had a job
selling TWIDGETS and I happened to be a customer looking for one. But I
was NOT interested in just ANY twidget. I was looking for a very
specific twidget, and she was going to have to do some selling to convince me
that hers was the one I needed.
If she showed up dressed the same way
she was dressed when she went out to breakfast, can you see where I might be
inclined to shy away from buying anything from her, let alone that special
twidget?
Now, replace the word TWIDGET
with anything YOU might be selling or anything you want someone else to
buy. It could be an idea, a new product, a vacation destination, a car, a
house, or just anything else you can imagine.
Can you see that when you are dealing
with someone from a different generation, you may have a HUGE hurdle to bridge
that has absolutely nothing to do with the product or service you are offering
and EVERYTHING to do with the impression, or vibe, YOU are giving
off?
As a real estate broker and trainer
for more than 33 years, this was a lesson I tried to teach every real estate
agent who would listen.
When working with a probable buyer or
seller, I taught that you first had to learn to understand that person. You had
to adapt to the way they think, the way they communicate, and even the way they
present themselves to the world.
How do you accomplish that?
I could easily teach an entire course
on the subject, and I have done so in the past. The first thing you must become
is an expert at becoming an effective LISTENER!
The famous motivational speaker and trainer Zig Ziglar
often said:
“You have TWO ears and only ONE mouth.
You do the math!”
Before you can call yourself a salesperson (or a successful
REALTOR®), you must first learn how to listen!
I do not mean simply hearing the words
coming out of someone's mouth. I mean HEARING, UNDERSTANDING, and
RETAINING what your prospective buyer or seller is telling you.
They will tell you what they want if you learn how to get
them to talk and, more importantly, YOU LISTEN!
But...and this is one of the biggest
unknown BUTTS in all sales...you must also discover the invisible wall
that can exist between people of different generations.
Back to the song!
You may be the most professional
person in the world at age SIXTY, but when you are talking with someone
who is THIRTY, could there already be an invisible wall between the two
of you?
Remember the lyrics to “NO WAY!”
THERE ABSOLUTELY COULD BE!
And if YOU are doing all the
talking, there is NO WAY you will ever identify that invisible obstacle!
You must not only get other people
talking while you listen, but you must also try to understand what they
experienced growing up, what influenced their beliefs, and why they hold
certain values so dearly.
You must be willing to understand their world before
expecting them to understand yours.
YOU MUST LEARN TO SPEAK THEIR LANGUAGE!
It is amazing what you can learn
simply by listening. That includes listening to the lyrics of “NO WAY”
and watching the accompanying video.
This song and video provide one of
life's most valuable lessons IF you want to learn how to communicate and
have a good relationship with people who think and act differently from the way
YOU think and act.
Sometimes, it may be worth modifying
your own beliefs to better understand someone else. At other times, your
beliefs should stand the test of time and NEVER change, particularly
when changing them would mean abandoning something you KNOW to be true.
The lesson is not that one generation
is right and another is wrong. The lesson is that we were all shaped by the
world in which we grew up. If YOU want to communicate with someone whose
world was different from yours, you had better learn to understand that world FIRST!
And sometimes, that begins with simply SHUTTING UP
and LISTENING!
