Our office at The Jeffcoat Firm is on the 5th floor. A few years ago I decided I was going to start taking the stairs.
March Madness recently finished. It made me think back to 2021 as I watched Appalachian State win their conference in basketball for the first time in 21 years. They were headed to the NCAA Tournament. It was a VERY big deal for App State.
There was something else that I saw about that win that really stood out to me. Their motto or mantra was #TakeTheStairs. After huffing and puffing my way up and down five flights of stairs (especially when I first started) each day, I wanted to see what they meant by that!
App State’s coach is a guy named Dustin Kerns who started out as a student manager at Clemson and worked his way up the ranks the hard way. After graduating, he landed a job as director of basketball operations at Tennessee Tech, moved over to Tennessee, and has worked his way up with stops at Wofford and Presbyterian, before finally being named head coach in Boone just 2 years ago.
When he got the head job, he was asked about how he would approach his work. Here is what he said:
“We live in an escalator world where we want it easy, quick, and fast or take some magic pill. When you ‘take the stairs’ you develop a mentality and attitude of self-discipline, sacrifice and hard work. Winning isn’t easy, winning isn’t ordinary so winning requires us to do things that ordinary people don’t do. It isn’t about doing things the hardest way possible, but it is about doing the hardest things as soon as possible to get where you want to be. That mindset will become a habit and contagious and good habits are just as hard to break as bad ones.”
There is a ton of wisdom there about what it takes for each of us to be good at what we do. We work every day to help people here in South Carolina. I am blown away by our team who are always “taking the stairs” each day for our clients. I am very lucky to work with such incredible folks and am proud of the important work we’re doing.
