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Davis Young
- Apr 12, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#78)

What time should I expect my cake?

Today is my birthday. Effective right now - April 12, 2022 - I am officially 38-years-old. Hopefully, I have at least half a life still ahead of me. After all, 38 puts me right in the sweet spot of life. I’m in my prime. None of this old guy stuff for me. That’s for other people.

My daughter, Tracy, was asking me just the other day what I’ve learned in those 38 years? Tracy is now in her very late 50s. I guess that makes her older than her father. So what. I’ll find a way to explain it. My son, Denny, is also older than I am. We have an amazing family.

Back to what I’ve learned. One thing I’ve learned is that you need to be selective in how you apply creative math. It's o.k. for birthdays, but it is probably not a good thing to do when you file your taxes later this week. The IRS is not your friend. The first time I filed taxes as an adult, an accountant who worked for a friend returned my forms to review and sign. He had taken a $15 charitable contribution to the American Heart Association. And, another $10 or so to some hospital I had never heard of. I didn’t make those contributions and I made him re-do the forms. The last thing in the world I wanted was an envelope arriving from the United States Department of the Treasury for an audit. I might just be coming out of jail now at age 38.

When I graduated from college, I wanted to go to law school, but I also needed a job. Fortunately, my good wife had a nice father who owned a successful shoe store in Shaker Heights. He gave me a job. I was probably the only shoe clerk in Ohio with a journalism degree. For two years, I went to law school at night and fitted shoes during the day. I learned two lessons from that experience. Number one, I wasn't cut out to be a lawyer. Number two, I didn’t want to make a career out of dealing with other people’s smelly feet. But, I took a third invaluable lesson out the door of the shoe store and it was this. Take care of customers. Each one, every time. Respect them. Enjoy them. Get to know them. Be thankful for them. Customers always have choices. Never take them for granted. Nobody understood that better than my father-in-law. He was a great retail merchant and a really good guy who produced one great daughter.

And, so I entered the wonderful world of public relations where I became a real newbie to corporate Cleveland. I went to work for a terrific guy named Fred Walker, who had just recently started his own firm after being a partner in the then largest firm in town, Edward Howard & Co. He had a blue ribbon list of clients, and one of my jobs - rain or shine, ice or snow - was to hand-deliver news releases to the various media outlets in town. I would start at 1325 Superior Ave., where The Wall Street Journal had several reporters. Then I would hike over to see Jack Cleary, business editor of The Plain Dealer. There was no security presence back then. You just strolled up to Jack’s desk, and he would look up from his 60-pound manual typewriter to say hello. After that I would head to Bill Tanner, business editor of the late, great Cleveland Press. One of the lessons I learned from this circuit is that we needed better technology to distribute news releases. It can be real cold out there when one is just hoofing it. It’s been said that people with a job where they sit make more money than those who stand all day. I learned that people who own a firm make way more money than the rookie who is out walking in the cold.

The last thing I have learned is this. A lot of people who have come to use that newfangled email thing - which nobody had even dreamed about back in the day - don’t proofread before they hit SEND. Why would somebody put their good name on sloppy work? Why indeed? So, I try to proofread everything before you or anybody sees it. I’ll do that right now.

Oooooops! I see I said 38 where I should have said 83. My bad. But, no big deal. Just a simple rounding error, right? Another thing I’ve learned is that when you make an arithmetic error (to make a very bad pun) you need to stand up and be counted. And, so I will count slowly from one to 83, and then back down to one again as my penance.

Have a great birthday everyone..... when it’s your birthday. That’s what I plan to do today.

DY: In Just a Few Words is a blog that comes out when something needs to be said or every Tuesday - whichever comes first. Davis Young is a communications professional who adds 50+ years of experience and perspective to issues of the day. His emphasis in DY: In Just a Few Words will be humor (a touch of sarcasm here, a pinch of facetiousness there...). Once in a while, he will touch on something a bit more serious - but hopefully not too deep or depressing.

This blog is a product of DY Author & Speaker LLC. Feel free to quote content with attribution. Respond. Agree. Disagree. Share the content with your friends. Heck - even invite him as a speaker for your group! Enjoy!

Davis Young
- Apr 5, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#77)

Believe it or not, I am the tall one in our family... Really...

Brad Daugherty and I have many things in common.

We were both drafted to come to Cleveland. Brad was the first choice of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 1986 NBA draft. In fact, Brad was the #1 overall draft pick that year. I became the #1 pick of Karen Young in her 1961 draft, a shallow year with very limited attractive picks from which to choose.

Brad is about 25 years younger than your favorite blogger. Brad went to the University of North Carolina where he earned a degree. I went to UNC, too, where I barely got a degree. Rumor has it he was a good student. That rumor was never spread about me.

Here’s a very visible way that Brad and I match up. We’re both tall. He’s just a smidge taller at 7 feet vs. my 5 feet, 5 inches. Everyone looks up to Brad. Small children look up to me. I don’t want to make excuses, but I once was 5 feet, 6 inches tall. When Brad gets a bit older, he will start to shrink, too, maybe all the way down to 6 feet, 11 inches.

Through my work with the Cavaliers ownership group over many years, I got to know Brad a bit. When we’d see each other we’d always talk UNC basketball. We both loved the game and had some great moments in Cleveland talking about our days as players in Chapel Hill. One way we aren’t quite on the same page is that Brad played basketball for the University of North Carolina in front of rabid fans in a large, impressive and sold-out arena. I, on the other hand, played basketball at the University of North Carolina on a playground across the street from my dorm with nobody watching. An academic gift I did receive at UNC was to learn the difference between the words for and at. I am forever grateful to my university for teaching me that important lesson.

Brad was a BMOC (Big Man On Campus). I was an SMOC (Small Man On Campus). I learned that if you want to be a BMOC, you need to play basketball for UNC. Playing at UNC doesn’t cut it.

The picture above was taken a week-and-a-half ago at a reception sponsored by the Cavaliers to honor the four new inductees into its Wall of Honor. That’s Brad Daugherty all suited up between Karen and me, and Larry Nance to Karen’s left. They are two of the nicest guys to ever play in our city, and both are also on the Wall of Honor at Rocket Mortgage Field House in downtown Cleveland. That’s all I have to say for this blog.

In fact, it’s the long and short of it.

Have a great day, everyone.

Davis Young
- Mar 29, 2022

DY: In Just a Few Words (#76)

We all have so much to offer.

Clients expect to learn something from consultants. That’s why they hire them. A good consultant brings special skills and an outside perspective to whatever the issue is that caused them to be hired in the first place.

To be clear, this isn’t a story about how much clients learned from me. Maybe, every once in a while, I brought a little expertise to a situation. But my purpose today is to focus on some life lessons I learned from a client over a period of years, including this past Saturday.

As I said in an early blog (#22 to be exact), I learned some great lessons about both basketball AND life from Gordon Gund and Wayne Embry during the years I worked with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Gordon taught me a ton about loyalty to others. Wayne showed me the importance of strong values and sticking to those regardless of pressure in the moment. There are lots of flashy people in professional sports. Gordon and Wayne, on the other hand, were rock-solid leaders - all about team, not personal glory.

I am revisiting all this because last weekend Karen and I were guests at the annual induction of new members of the Cavaliers Wall of Honor at Rocket Mortgage Field House.

My good friend, Gordon, was one of the inductees. Inducted along with him was World B. Free, who filled an empty Coliseum at Richfield in the early days, bringing a moribund franchise to life. The final 2022 Wall of Honor inductees were coach Lenny Wilkens and Campy Russell. In their acceptance speeches, all four of these men focused on their families and friends. They talked about how much relationships both on- and off-the-court have meant to them over the years.

I was especially taken with Lenny’s stories about being raised in Brooklyn. One regarded a priest who helped guide him through his youth. Another was about Jackie Robinson of Brooklyn Dodgers baseball fame, who Lenny - as a kid - got to know a little. He talked about how impressed he was by the way Jackie played sports the right way.

Campy Russell, now part of the Cavaliers broadcasting team, spoke eloquently about being raised in Pontiac, Michigan, in a tiny house with eight brothers and three sisters. He focused especially on his dad and how his father’s tremendous work ethic has influenced him all his life - a wonderful lesson that I’m sure wasn’t lost on his grandchildren in the audience.

We can all benefit so much from each other if we just pay attention. There are lots of lessons to learn and relearn. These lessons are all around us. We just have to be open to expanding our horizon.

I hope I learn a new one today.

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