Episode 696 - Two Sides of The Cat

In this episode, Phil shares the power of curiosity. Discover how maintaining a high sense of curiosity can drive success and foster stronger relationships. Hear a heartwarming story about his grandfather's unique way of referring to everyday objects, and how this inspired Phil to challenge a group of new hires to be curious. Phil encourages you to invest time in nurturing your curiosity and see the incredible return on investment. 

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Transcript

Top performers in every field surround themselves with those who inspire them, who seek to build them up, and who push them to reach beyond their current limits. I am Phil Buchanan, executive chairman of Cannon Financial Institute. I designed Monday Morning Mojo to provide you with a weekly spark, a push and motivational insight to live your best life.

Thanks for joining. Good Monday morning. It is Phil here with episode 696 of Monday Morning Mojo. I've been on the road quite a bit over the last couple of weeks, and I have spun this country from north to south. I've been in South Florida and I've been in Fargo, North Dakota. I have seen temperatures in the twenties.

And I've seen temperatures reach almost 90 degrees. It is no wonder at this time of year that my sinuses tend to act up. But I am glad to be with you this morning. My maternal grandfather was a wonderful man. He was born in the early part of the 20th century, so he came of age during the Great Depression that turned him into a very frugal individual who was very self-reliant.

He could do almost anything with his hand. That included building the house that he and my grandmother lived in, working on car engines, small engines. It really didn't matter. He also was great at growing gardens. We always had fresh vegetables every, every summer, but one of the. Funniest things I remember about my grandfather was he had a very unique language pattern as he referred to most objects, not by their functional use, but by the original brand of that object that he owned.

For example, he referred to his refrigerator as the Frigidaire. Now, of course, Frigidaire is a manufacturer of refrigerators and evidently the first refrigerator that my grandfather ever bought was, well, you guessed it, a Frigidaire. Now, that was somewhat. Confusing to me as a young child because he had replaced his original refrigerator with a Kenmore model, but he still referred to it as the Frigidaire.

He called his lawnmower the snapper. He referred to his toaster as the Sunbeam and his car. Well, that was the Chevrolet. Now, while staying with him one day in the summer. My small transistor radio stopped working. I handed it to him and he removed the battery cover. He took out the nine volt battery and did something that I'd never seen.

He stuck both of the poles to his tongue and he pronounced the vac is dead now. I was confused as he headed to his cabinet where he kept replacement batteries and he came back with with a battery. It was made by, well, you already guessed it, vac. I picked up the old battery and saw a black cat on the logo.

I evidently put that old battery in my pocket because that evening I showed it to my dad and asked him about the CAT logo. He said that they used that to promote that their batteries were long lasting like a cat. It has nine lives. I remember looking at my dad and asking the questions, cats have nine lives.

My dad just laughed and said, no, that's just an old wive's tale, old wive's tale. I thought to myself, what does that mean? But at that point in time, I wasn't asking any more questions. So Frigidaire, Sunbeam, snapper Chevrolet Cats with nine lives. Old wives tales. It's amazing that I even made it to adulthood.

Now, I recalled this story recently when I was speaking at a new hire group for a wealth management organization. In my comments, I challenged the group to always maintain a high sense of curiosity. I shared that it's been my experience that successful leaders tend to be very curious people. They seek to understand the various issues and components and competitive threats that impact their business.

Now during the q and a session, one of the participants asked about my comment on curiosity and shared that his grandfather had admonished him as a young child. That curiosity killed the cat. Well, there we go. We've got another adage. The room fell into laughter, as did I. My quick response was, well, I think that the cat in question stuck their nose where it didn't belong, and that's not the kind of curiosity that we're describing.

I said, when it comes to your profession, the curious. Now, later that night, my own curiosity got the best of me and led me to research the phrase curiosity, kill the cat. It turns out that that phrase originated with a play in 1598, and obviously that adage has stuck around for almost 500 years now. The premise is based on not meddling in issues that are none of your business.

So my response of the cat sticking in their nose where it didn't belong kind of played out. But as I said to them, and as I'll share with you, for your business, for your profession, curiosity is a very positive trait. But also just like a cat with nine lives, you need to be agile. If curiosity ever leads you down a path that is not the right path to be on.

But again, that's part of the growth and the learning experience. Curious people are lifelong learners. They're constantly growing their ability. To be ever relevant. I'm sure the original leaders of companies like, well, Frigidaire Snapper, Sunbeam Chevrolet, and vac, I'm sure that they were very curious people because they helped to establish their brand and the products that fell under those brands in a way that was universal to my grandfather, and I'm sure it was to many others as well.

So the next time somebody says, eh, curiosity kill the cat. Be mindful that that came from a play almost 500 years ago, and the fact of the matter is today the most curious people are the ones leading the way. Monday Morning Mojo is production of Cannon Financial Institute, executive producer of Monday Morning Mojo is Sarah Jones. Editing and mixing is done by Danny Brunner. Until next time, I'm Phil Buchanan reminding you to be a force for good. Have a great week and thanks for being part of the Mojo community.