BROADCASTS.com

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWelcome to Episode 17 of Navigating the Fustercluck\u2014a podcast full of snackable insights to help you steer thru the topsy/turvy world of creativity and marketing.My name is Wegs, like eggs with a W, joining you from Deaf Mule Studios in Dallas, and no matter what kind of content creator you may be, we\u2019re here to talk about resilience.Now before we do, I must admit that our last show was stuffed with quotes. Like 10-pounds worth of quotes in a 5-pound bag. Quotes were practically wallpapering the room.Please don\u2019t get me wrong, I love quotes, but that was too many. Way too many.This episode, I guess I owe you some words of my own\u2026Here\u2019s to the future!Actually, those aren\u2019t my words. And this is not my story. But it\u2019s a story that deserves to be told, and I\u2019m a pretty good choice to tell it. If you\u2019ve joined Navigating the Fustercluck at all, you may have noticed that every episode ends with these very words:Here\u2019s to the future!That sign-off is a tribute to a friend of mine mentioned in an earlier show. An unlikely friend that I\u2019d like to tell you a bit more about. Someone who\u2019s story would make a great book. That someone was Arnold Penney. When he died at age 92, he was literally my oldest friend.Among the many lessons he left me, Arnie was easily the most resilient person I\u2019ve ever known. Knock him down 7 times, and he\u2019d spring back up 8 times.Arnie and I met back when I was Director of Marketing for the Houston Rockets basketball team. Arnie & his wife, Dier, were season ticketholders. But like me, they were from the Midwest. I hail from the Milwaukee-area; they were from Detroit.At a meeting of season ticket holders, Arnie grilled me pretty hard over some things he wasn\u2019t happy about the customer service he was experiencing. Honestly, he was right about most of them. Fortunately, I managed to hang in there. Because he turned out to be even tougher than I could ever have imagined.Afterwards, Arnie approached me to say that while he wasn\u2019t giving me a free pass, he appreciated how straightforward I was. He was willing to give me a chance. From there, our relationship just kept growing.In fact, we even cast Arnie and Dier in a commercial with 7\u20196\u201d center, Yao Ming, from China. They became known all over our arena, and even out and about on the town. Arnie was close to 80 back then.One time we went out for some beers, and I noticed some chains around his neck. Arnie, what are those all about?He then pulled up 3 sets of dog tags. One set were his from WWII.The other two were like nothing I\u2019d ever seen before. They were like art. They were beautiful. What struck me most on these oval medallions was the amazing calligraphy. Turns out that the tags were Japanese.You see, Arnie was a scout for the American troops in Japan. He\u2019d go out miles ahead from his band of brothers to spy on the enemy. Twice he came face-to-face, mano-o-mano with Japanese soldiers. Both times, in hand-to-hand combat, Arnie came out ahead. Then he told me why he took the dog tags of his fallen foes.Wegs, I wear these tags every day. But understand this: I don\u2019t wear them as trophies, I wear them out of respect. Every morning I wake up and say a prayer for their souls. Then I curse the old men who sent boys to do things no one should have to do or see. This guy was a true warrior. An honorable man. All he wanted to do was help get his buddies home and see his family again. Arnie survived with his body and soul intact. Although from time-to-time, until the day he died, nightmares would pay him a visit.But he was resilient. He persevered.One thing I noticed right away was that Arnie had some small scars on his face. I assumed they came from the war, actually, he got them afterwards in the \u201870\u2019s. You see, Dier was African-American and Arnie was white. A pretty bold move in Detroit back then.Things were sometimes said to them. Terrible things.