40-Day Series: Thank You Jerry Leeper

A bit of a different twist with this entry..I am going to talk about someone from my junior high/high school days. You may think this is a stretch to connect this experience to making business personal. Bear with me, I'm optimistic you'll understand the connection.

Jerry Leeper was my band and orchestra teacher in 8th grade. We had heard horror stories in the 7th grade which was in a completely different building miles away from the junior high. With the way the first few weeks of 8th grade band started I had no doubt why the stories existed. Mr. Leeper was loud, demanding, and had no tolerance for excuses. He was the first teacher for all of us that set expectations and made sure at you met them. As you can imagine the attrition rate was high that first quarter but if you held on and stuck with it you wouldn't be disappointed.

The junior high band ALWAYS sounded better than the high school band. We would win top awards, get invited to cool places, and would work our butt off to be better than any other band in the area. Mr. Leeper would push and drive us to improve our musical ability with challenging scores and intense practice sessions. He would tell us we only shortchange ourselves if we cut corners. He demanded we be the best we could be as trying to be anything else was simply being lazy.

It may sound like he was this tough mean old guy, and I would be lying if I didn't say there wasn't days when we thought he was a bit scary but I can tell you he really was one of the nicest caring teachers in the district. He pushed because he cared. He challenged us because he knew we had it in us. He was demanding because he wanted us to know the accomplishment that comes from giving it everything we had.

A true testament to the respect we had for him was years later when Mr. Holland's Opus came out and everyone one of us who kept in touch thought of Mr. Leeper immediately when we watched the movie. He was our Mr. Holland, he made his business of teaching personal. He would spend countless hours staying late helping us practice both as a class and individually. He would become a private instructor teaching me the oboe. He taught me that to become great was only possible through practice, discipline and dedication. To respect yourself was to respect your craft...take it seriously, reach for the high bar and be the best you can be..no more no less.

Golden Nugget: Being the best you can be requires practice, discipline & dedication

Be who you are and learn to be better,
Lisa