Episode 87. “Everything You Do Matters” (ft. Bob Davis)

This week we sit down with Robert S. Davis, Grand Master of Masons in Minnesota. Hear about his numerous life adventures: living across the region as a “Pastor’s Kid,” passion for Scouting America, and later serving with the Peace Corps in the Dominican Republic. 

“What you do today can affect people a hundred years from now. Do you want to leave a positive effect or a negative effect?” 

Pursuing a pilot’s license, reading about inspirational leaders, and discovering his great-grandparent was a classmate with George Washington Carver in college. Stow your carry-on luggage and pass the peanut butter, it’s an all-new Minnesota Masonic Histories & Mysteries. 

Transcript

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Why? Leadership, leadership is, I don't wanna say the formation every, everything, but without leadership, many things fall apart. And I have seen organizations that have poor leadership. Well, every organization has leadership. The question is, is, is it good or not? And the organizations that don't have trained leaders. Don't do as well or survive as well as those with trained leaders. So the more you invest in yourself, in, in improving your leadership and your skills, uh, the better organization you are. I recently heard someone say that one of our intrinsic psychological needs is basically to feel power or to be powerful. How much does that play into someone's desire to be just perceived as the person in charge or the leader in air quotes? Well, first of all, you don't have to have a title to be a leader. So you don't have to be in charge to be a leader. Oftentimes, leaders though, are the person who's respected, the person that people are. Um, you're the go-to person. So, um, I think if you need to feel like you're the person in charge, you need to improve your leadership skills. It's that traditional notion of, of leadership, that it's simply about authority or just expertise in a particular field. That's not enough enough. No, no. Um, you need to have various skills. You have to have, uh, communication skills. You have to have the skill to improve others. So just, you don't wanna be the person who is the know-all because nobody knows it all, but you wanna be able to empower others. Our guest today is Robert Davis. I'm gonna call you Bob if I may. Sure. The grand. Sure. Grand Master of Masons in Minnesota. You are a pass master of Sir Winston Churchill Lodge number 3 51 and Excelsior Lodge, number one 13. Active in several appendant bodies, including Scottish Rights Order of Eastern Star York. Wright z Shrine. You're a financial advisor by trade. Were you born in Frederick, Maryland? Yes. Tell us about your life journey ultimately ending up in Minnesota. So, um, I was born in Frederick, Maryland because my dad was going to seminary at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC My dad was, uh, grew up on a farm in Eastern East Central, South Dakota, uh, near in, outside of Willow Lake, South Dakota. And my mom was from St. Cloud, Minnesota. So they were living in, in DC area, uh, um, for seminary. And then we moved back to Minnesota. Our first, uh, my dad's first appointment was at North Branch, Minnesota and North Branch, uh, Methodist Church and also Cambridge Methodist Church. Then we moved to Southwestern, Minnesota, um, to Morgan, Minnesota. We lived there for a couple of years. Then we moved to Paynesville, Minnesota. We lived there for four years, and I went to kindergarten and first grade there. Then we moved to Wells, Minnesota, and I went to second, third, and fourth in fifth grade. There. I went to sixth grade in Rochester, Minnesota, and then I, seventh, eighth, and ninth, and, uh, lived in Newport, Minnesota and went to Woodbury Junior High School. And then, uh, for high school, um, I went to Duluth East High School. That almost sounds like a military deployment. Well, what's the, what's the average tenure, or what's the average timeline for a pastor for a. It really depends. Uh, Methodist ministers or United Methodist ministers, um, have a reputation for moving often. Growing up, I only lived in two town. I in two towns. I lived there for four years, and that was the max at any place. So once I had been four years in my current home, I started getting the Eed eeg, EEB GBS to move. Uh, but I've been there 25 years now. Um, a couple of the reasons we had to move after Paynesville at that time, the Methodist Church, came together and merged with the Evangelical United Brethren Church, um, and to form the United Methodist Church. And so there were two Methodist churches in town. So my dad worked himself out of a job there. Same thing. Pr not the exact same thing, but in Wells, Minnesota, there were two Methodist churches as well. And so, um, you know, the town wasn't big enough for two, so we had to move again. And my dad wanted to, uh, take some chaplaincy training at the Mayo Clinic. So he took a sabbatical for a year. What was it like being a pastor's kid? how hard was that? Were you always expected to be the, the best behaved he was? A, was there a certain level of expectation? Uh, well you were always, we were always the outsider, so, um, and in small farm towns, um, you know, everybody else. Knew each other, they'd grown up there. So I was always the outsider. I had to, uh, learn to, uh, you know, I'd be the last person picked on the kickball team or whatever. Sure. So my attitude was, well, I'll show them. And, um, so by just about the time that I made a name for myself, then we'd have to move again and start all over, start again. Over, at the time though, I felt I had mixed emotions. One, I didn't wanna leave my friends, but two, I was excited to see who was I was gonna meet, you know, at the next place. So, the worst, the hardest move was from junior high to high school. Uh, from moving from. Newport to Duluth because, um, at the time I was a champion wrestler and I had wrestler, I had dreams of wrestling for the gophers at the time. I was that good. And, uh, I had also won the best actor award of our school play. but then we moved to Duluth the day we moved in. They said, oh, we don't have wrestling here. My heart was crushed. Um, and then, uh, also I couldn't be in school plays'cause I had to choose between the plays and, and, uh, sports. And so I chose sports. But, uh, while I wasn't recruited to run in, in wrestling, I was recruited to run for the gophers, uh, from my cross country and track career track. Okay. So I knew you were a track athlete, but I had no idea about the wrestling. Yes, yes. Um, and I also got my, um. Eagle Scout and Boy Scouts, uh, before I was 15 years old. And, um, that's no small task before that, before 15. Well, they, uh, figured out the game, actually. Oh, okay. The, the game was, uh, you know, I got into seventh grade and I would, uh, go into class and, oh, there's a wood. I had to take wood shop. Oh, looking through the book, oh, there's a wood bed, a wood, uh, working merit badge. So I, while it may ask for a bird feeder, it was a whole quarter long. The class I'm thinking, there's more, we're gonna learn more than just making a bird feeder. So I thought, wow, I, I wonder if I can two, kill two birds with one stone. And the scoutmaster said, oh sure, why not? And um, so then when I got into social studies, which they had, the eagle required merit badges for citizens ship in the nation and the community in that I would. I would, uh, rather, I thought, well, I'm not going to call up some random, uh, merit badge counselor and uh, and go tell him what I just learned in school, you know?'cause in school they teach you about the three branches of government, you know? Mm-hmm. So why, why go to an extra person when, why can't I have my social studies teacher sign it? So, that's what I did for virtually every class I was in. And by the time I got my Eagle Scout, I had 10 more merit badges than needed. You were decked out with the, the badges or patches? Like a, a young general, yeah. Yeah. Now you ran track. Uh, did you go to the U of M or Mankato? I don't recall. I went to Mankato. Okay. No, I was recruited to run for the gophers. Okay. But I, I ran at Mankato. Okay. And what, what tipped the balance? What tipped the scale on that decision? Well, I wanted to become a airline pilot at the time, and they had an aviation management program and the You did not. Mm-hmm. So I thought, well, I'll, I'll go to Mankato and do that. Plus also one of the, uh, guys on the Mankato team, he and I had run, um, uh, ridden the, the, uh, bus to school every day back in Woodbury, junior high school days. And I thought, yeah, I'd like to get to know Joe better. So that was kind of what tips scales. How did you meet your wife? So I met my wife when I was serving in the Peace Corps. you know, I graduated from college and I wanted to become fluent and I also wanted to help people. I'm, I, you know, if I, uh, could, um. Changed my middle name. It would be volunteer or, yeah, or helping others. Um, growing up at PK and, you know, living the values of the Boy Scout law and that, um, and wanting to, um, experience life, I, um, joined the Peace Corps. I had also, during college, I had worked a couple summers out at Disneyland and out in Montana. So, uh, joining the Peace Corps was a natural progression. How was the Peace Corps? I have a friend who served both in the Peace Corps and in the military and said at times the Peace Corps was harder. What, what was that like? Um, well, they say it's the toughest job you'll ever love. Um, What did you see? Or what were some of your various responsibilities when you got rolling with that? Well, you know, you have a lot of challenges, uh, just amenities for one thing. Um, you know, there would be times where, you know, if it wasn't the rainy season, you didn't have water to bathe in, or, you know, you learned to bathe on a gallon of milk, gallon of water. Where were you stationed or where were you serving? So I served in the Dominican ub Okay. Public. And, you know, I, I, I learned to dance meringue. I learned to play dominoes. Um, I learned to do a lot of the things that local people did. Uh, so that was truly a pleasure. I, um, lived in a, the second largest town. So once I learned Spanish, I started taking French lessons. Um, I didn't get very far. I met my wife in French class actually. No kidding. Yeah. So, um, I worked with a concrete block production factory teaching basic business skills. So the guys were smart, but to balance the checkbook, they couldn't. And you know, the interesting thing, one of the things I, I learned a number of things. Um, the people are intelligent. It just comes down to are they formally educated or non formally educated. Uh, the observation, uh, about their intelligence was, one of'em was when I'd be playing dominoes. Those guys, they may not be able to, uh, balance a checkbook or sometimes they can't even see, uh, because they don't have glasses, but they can, they could, uh, calculate the point differential and everything within. A glance, they'd glance at the end of the game counting up points. And that I would have to sit there and go 1, 2, 3, and they'd done it. They'd calculated all the points before it even came out of their mouth, uh, you know, before I could get one out. something else I observed was that, uh, and I wear glasses. Well, most of them don't wear glasses. And if they do, they've gotten them free handout glasses, which, you know, that they, it's not perfect on their eyes. Doesn't, doesn't match their prescription. Exactly. Wow. And so when you think about it, when you think about going to school, I started wearing glasses in first grade, right? Mm-hmm. If I wouldn't have had glasses, I may not have finished school because it'd be so frustrating you can't read the board or anything like that, that you know, you would drop out. So eyesight glasses. Our profoundly, uh, rich in the ability to learn. How many years were you in the Dr. I was there three, almost three and a half. And then I go back almost every year. My grand, my mother-in-law is gonna turn 98 in September. I try and go every year. But, uh, this year my, uh, my responsibilities are keeping me here. Little, little busier schedule this year than past, but 98 years old. That's amazing. And I think she'll live to be 120. Really? She just a machine. She mentally, she's all there. She's a machine. And yet she's not physically fit, let's say. It's not like she works out or anything like that. Sure. she's a wonderful lady and two kids. I know they're older than I remember them last time. How old are the, you have a son and a daughter? Yeah, so Bryant is 31. No kidding. And, um, he's still going to school, um, and working full-time. Angie is going to be 30, uh, in December, and she lives out in Brooklyn, New York. And, um, uh, she has backpacked through, out both eastern and western Europe three times for three to four months at a time by herself. Wow. so she's finished up school. She, the first time she backpacked, she was 21, I think, and the second time, 22. We kicked off today talking about leadership a little bit, and as we know there is a leadership deficit in our communities. A collaboration factor is a challenge. You're very passionate about leadership training, about going out, mentoring, and addressing this topic. How do you see leadership training in and of itself to maybe fix that deficit at the community level? Well, first of all, I see, uh, and have studied the economics and different things. And, you know, you've got the rural, uh, flight of, uh, rural to urban migration. Um, and, and, uh, and even in the Peace Corps, you'd see that, you know, most people are fleeing their compost and mm-hmm. And going to the cities and, and yet there are still people there. So a, there's a deficit of people in general, and there's an even bigger deficit of trained leaders. So we have leaders, we have leadership positions, but everyone, um, has different levels of skill development and most get their positions, not because they've been fantastic leaders, but they volunteer for leadership positions and yet they haven't been trained, uh, as leaders. So if. They receive leadership training, they can become better leaders. And as a result, um, it can affect, uh, the betterment of society by improving the things that the leaders in those communities do. And then there's more opportunities within those communities. And so it can impact the, uh, communities and have slow down the urban to rural to urban migration ultimately. Is leadership teaching a skillset? Can, can anybody become if they really devote or commit themself to it? Is that achievable? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, you learn things about conflict resolution and communication in general. Um, you can do self-reflection. So you can train yourself, well, you can't train yourself, but there are leaders who can train you to be a better person, let's say, and better, um, in how you relate to the people within your group. But then, uh, so that would be like building individual leadership skills. But then another skill is a collaborative leadership. So we oftentimes focus on internally and we say, okay, you know, let's all improve our skills. But that, uh, you're, we're not the only ones. You know, there are other organizations within communities and they have similar issues like us. Like we're not, may not all be trained and most of us are not trained well. It's the same for them. But if you work together for, to solve community problems, you can actually start beginning to have an impact with the combined knowledge. I've done a lot of different things, not just in Masonry, but there was a time where I was, uh, uh, board chair for a charter school and skills I learned there and talking with other people. I've actually applied them here in, in my position as Grand Master. So we can learn things from other people and apply them to our own situation. And that comes from collaborating with others. And the other thing is, is we all speak different languages. So we can be speaking about the same issue, but from a different perspective. And sometimes we don't understand what the other person's perspective is. But if we're collaborating together, then we try and understand what the other is doing and, and listening and it helps us solve. And just purely by that relationship with others, we can improve our own, uh, entities or our own organizations, if that makes sense. Did you see that at the charter school? Was there a. A time when you were able to appreciate someone else's point of view or perspective that you maybe have? Maybe I didn't look at it that way, or wa was it, was there a, a bit of a, a light bulb in that? Well, there was a light bulb, uh, from the sense that when I became chair, I thought, you know, I need to get some training. And the minimum training was the compliance training, but that doesn't really help me, uh, deal with issues. So then I, on my own, uh, volition, I went out and went to board training and then board chair training. And while I was there, I realized that the training was, um, all the people, there were community members concerned and they were on boards, right. But then I realized that from the charter school, we had different dynamics, uh, that weren't being addressed. So those dynamics were, we had to have teachers. As board members, we had to have, uh, parents who were board members, and then we had to have a community member who was a board member, which in that case, in my case it was me. Mm-hmm. I was the community member. And so they wanted to hire a consultant, but the dynamics of the, our board was that the parents, they had, uh, they had, um, kids in classes of the teachers. So if they were concerned about, if they, you know, do something against, uh, you know, that wouldn't favor a teacher, well then they might take it out on their child. The, the teachers were now the boss of the director who normally is the, uh, would be the boss of the teachers. So you had this dynamic going on, which you didn't get at the normal mm-hmm. Board tr uh, training. So. Then I went out and tried finding, okay, who's who, what, uh, consultant has experience working with the, the dynamics of all this? And so then I, uh, managed to find that person and, uh, worked closely with that person. And so I learned a lot. The, uh, school learned a lot, the, the people on the board and, uh, the director became better because of that, and the teachers became better. But it was a matter of it, it evolved from figuring out what the issues were, what the dynamics were, and not just accepting anything, but actually looking for somebody who could understand all of the issue, some of the issues, many of the issues. Well, it sounds like you had to really slow down and look at a long-term perspective of it wasn't going to be an immediate fix. There's a lot of layers. That's a lot of people involved too, but really to slow down and methodically look at how do we get there and knowing it won't be a, a fast. Exactly. And the consultant we found, he had been a, um, superintendent of the public school system. He had also worked with other charter schools and specifically ours was a Montessori charter school, so he had worked with them as well. So he understood the dynamics and yes, it was slowing down and then, um, having actual training, board training with them. So, um, like one person said, yeah, I've been on the for board 15 years. You can be on the board 15 years and have one one year of experience 15 times, or you can have 15 years of experience. And that's so true. Yeah. My goal was to actually upgrade their understanding of their role on the board to be able to switch hats as best as possible. You know, because oftentimes people get onto boards or get onto whatever organization and don't switch hats, or they forget to switch hats. Right. They get comfortable. That's right. Mm-hmm. So that was one of my, uh, goals and it it finding the right person to be able to do some training and, and, uh, bring those things to light so people were aware of those. Made aware Who's on your Mount Rushmore of leaders. I don't really have a Mount Rushmore of leaders too. Call Mount Rushmore is something that's almost unattainable to me. That's um, in terms of leaders, I, I like to read many books, um, and, and, uh, talk to people. People who I think that are good, uh, leaders get their perspective, uh, so that I can, sometimes I'll get emotional about things and they'll say, Bob, you know, just settle down, take it easy. But, um, to name any one person or, you know, there are a whole list of, uh, people, um, uh, that I look to and, and, uh, and consider mentors, but I wouldn't going to a Mount Rushmore type thing, uh, I would say they're all Mount Rushmore. Um. But to pick and choose and single out names, I don't, can't really do that per se, or I don't, I don't want to because there are so many. And then people will come into my life and I'll say, you know, I agree with that. I think that's great. And so I will try and emulate that or incorporate it. well, so I'll tell you what I look for in leadership, and I try and improve myself on leadership. So years and years and years ago, I was in a training, um, through the Boy Scouts, uh, advanced leadership training and, uh, on both an adult level and also the youth level. And so I was learning there. But since, and since then, like I try and read books that focus on leadership, but they're about people. So for instance, a lot of people, uh, have heard about Winston. Who Winston Churchill is, right? Sure. Mm-hmm. But I just don't buy a, a book on Winston Churchill. I actually read a book called, um, Winston Churchill, CEO by Alan Axelrod. And what that focuses on, uh, the leadership lessons. So not just, it's not, it focuses on who he was as a leader. What were the things that made him the leader, who he is, who he was. Shackleton the, uh, there's a lot written about, uh, Ernest Shackleton shackle. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And so you can learn about the, the fantastic voyage or the leadership that he did and the story. So most people learn, read about the story, right. I got a couple of books that focused on his leadership skills. What was it that made him tick and how he related to people and did things. So, um, couple of books. One Shackleton's Way, talks about those exact, uh, skills that he had. And another was Leading At the Edge by Dennis Perkins. Um, and they're all about the, the skills. So that, and, and I've used those skills that I've picked up from those books. So yes, the, the stories are great, but to grow as a leader and learn, it's, I want something that doesn't tell me what a great leader they were. Right. The whole history of the Yeah. The, the battles and the, yeah. Yeah. That's all fine. And Danny, sure. But I wanna know what was it that they did specifically, the skills that they used that made them tick to, Enable them to do the heroic things that they did. Wasn't Shackleton known for being terrified of what was happening in the moment when that ship was stranded And yet the way he handled himself to his crew was very different than what his diary stated. Was it, am I, do I have that right? Yes. Yes. So he, you know, um, his goal was to traverse the South Pole and they get down, got down, they left Elephant Island and they got trapped, what, 1915 circuit? 1915, around there. Okay. They missed World War I. That's right. So, um, he, uh, you know, and it, the, it. The icebergs closed in on the ship and broke it up. and they lived on the, on an iceberg for basically two years. Uh, they would eat seals and everything else, but what he did was he got to know every person individually and analyzed each one to figure out how, what made each one tick. and by knowing how everyone ticked, he was able to manipulate in a good sense. Not in a evil sense, but in a good sense to give them what they needed so that they would maintain their sanity and be able to survive. We can't even fathom living. On an iceberg for a day, let alone two years. Yeah. That story is absolutely incredible. Yeah. So learning about his skills, what he did, um, was invaluable. Invaluable lessons. What are your thoughts on how we make it stick People learn by watching leaders practicing a lot of the skills, and it seems like leadership becomes sticky when it's lived and it's practiced. It cascades basically from the top all the way through, either into a group or an organization. But what, what's your take on that? Um, well, first of all, it, it's hard to grasp, um. Because there's nothing you can see, feel, hear, or touch, you know? And to a certain degree, it's like being a financial advisor. You're trying to help somebody with, uh, with their financial situation. And it's not like they're, you know, seal, they, they buy something, they buy an investment, but they can't see, feel, or hear or touch it, right? Right. Mm-hmm. So it's some, a little bit esoteric. It's hard for other people to understand. Leadership is hard to understand. Um, so to the uninformed, um, a lot of people think, oh, you know, I, you know, I've got this position in, in leadership and I'm a leader. Yes, you're a leader, but that doesn't necessarily make you a good leader. Um, you have a title or you have a position. Yeah. Correct, correct. Uh, but it's to be a good leader, it's so much more than that, I think to a certain, well, to a lot of degree. Um, you have to serve. It's about service and servant leadership. a lot of people say, well, Bob, you know, um, what are some of the things you're gonna do in your year? Yeah. Well, it's not my year. It's the craft's year. And I feel personally that if the craft, is doing well or go, go back to the lodges, um, you know, back when I was master of, uh, of. Sir Winston Churchill Lodge, it said, you know, we, um, we, uh, do the English, um, ritual, uh, emulation ritual, or we, you know, or we travel to other countries. And so my focus was, okay, let's do some of these things. Let's not just say we do'em, right, let's do some of'em. Mm-hmm. So my goal was to, okay, let's perform the English emulation ritual. Actually do it. We hadn't done it up to that point. So then it, the question is, is what does it take to be able to do it? What needs to be done? And, and so then we ended up doing it several times. Um, we ended up going to the Dominican Republic, not because I wanted to, I'd go to the Dominican Republic all the time. Sure. Yeah. One of the lodge members said, Bob, there's an English speaking lodge in the Dominican Republic. Let's go down there. I said, well. Only if you arrange it. I didn't want it to do it because I wanted to go there. I can go there anytime. You know, it's, do you wanna go there? You know, so those things, it was serving the lodge. It was the lodges here. It wasn't me, you know? Uh, Excelsior Lodge, same thing, you know? Oh, and I used some of Shackleton's, uh, things. I went around before I became master. I sat down with 29 out of the 35 members and found out why they joined Churchill Lodge. What'd they hope to get out of it? Same thing when I was at, uh, master of Excels here beforehand. I said, what do you think we need in the lodge now? There are lots of things we can do. Mm-hmm. But, um, they would say, well, you know, I think we should. Send out birthday cards, so I think we should, um, do this or that. And I said, well, are you willing to do it? Because I don't have enough bandwidth to do it. And they did some of the things, you know, so it's like, okay, you're in charge. Mm-hmm. Somebody's gotta be the driver and in charge, and it wasn't gonna be me. So it was them, you know, I supported them. My, my role was to support them, but it was their year. It wasn't my year. Yes, I have to be there, but I was just serving. That's the way I feel about, uh, as grandma. It's not about what happens this year. My thoughts and focus on leadership in that is to help build us and, and help us become better leaders so that the craft can enjoy good leadership when you have good leadership, good things happen because they've got the skills that will be able to either, um, train, train others, because as leaders, one of the biggest thing is that we train our replacement and we train others So it's not my year, it's if you, the craft are enjoying, you know, coming to lodge, Then, and you're enjoying it and you're joining the company. It's, that's what the way it's supposed to be. Um, and what can I do to facilitate that? as we're all out visiting lodges in the state. One of the main areas of focus has been working with lodges to enhance and refine that overall experience, that draw to stay involved and to to be active. And as we do our best to help some lodges kind of get out of neutral and, and fix some of the infrastructure challenges. How important is it to address some of these things before we embark on, say, a new initiative, before we really focus on one particular aspect? So going back to what Lead Good Leaders can do, um, you can start any project you want, right? But if you don't have good leaders, that project, no matter how good it is, no matter how honorable that is, you're not gonna have the people or the leadership to help direct it How, how mo motivate others or help teach others on how to do or what to do. Mm-hmm. So leadership, it basically begins with leadership and good leadership. Well, it begins with leadership. The leadership may be good or bad. If the leadership is bad, there's a good chance that it will, that may, that the project may fail unless there are other leaders that are helping to, to hold it up. Um, but ultimately in Masonry, for instance, ultimately it's the master of the lodge. And if the master of the lodge hasn't been trained. Um, you know, everybody's looking to the master for direction, and if he's not providing it, well then the project, as I mentioned, no matter how good it is, it can fail. So in my opinion, one of the foremost things that we should be doing is training our leaders to become better leaders and collaborating with others because like, like I mentioned, by collaborating with others, you learn things from them and they learn from you. If we're only focusing on ourselves. You know, we're not learning things because we all kind of hang around with each other, right? And we kind of know each other and you know, personalities or whatever. But when we work with others, we have to learn to adapt. And in that process of adapting to someone else, we learn things from them and we can apply what we learn from them to our own situation and help us become better. But leadership to me is one of the most important things that we do. And I know that there are a lot of other great projects. I, I'm not saying there aren't, but it can have it be successful or fail depending upon the quality of the leadership. I agree that we sometimes tend to be inward focused. Literally and figuratively, and as we look at society in general right now, men specifically, there's this prevailing lack of purpose or connection. I, I heard it referenced recently as the male crisis. The male crisis being men are more separated and isolated from each other than than ever before. We really have an opportunity to show men especially, but everybody how to build a life that's meaningful, give our members especially a purpose solutions strength. There's somewhat of that prevailing attitude of indifference towards things that used to be priorities, both in life and in lodge. It's a little bit of apathy perhaps, that, well, if it works, it works and if it doesn't, whatever. And that's crept into lodge culture too. Like basically, as long as this benefits me or it's fun, okay, great, I support it. But then when it gets hard, well someone else can do it. there are so many things that can be done. Um, People need to step forward and help out. Well, you know, how do you do that? Uh, the good leader will try and find a way to motivate there. Again, each person going back to Shackleton, you know, if they get to know, know the guys on a one-to-one basis, find out what they tick. I, I do think that we need to, get to know each other better and find out, you know, who needs what type of help. Everybody has different needs. Yes. And I think as leaders, the better we become as leaders, the better we will observe that. We will observe the different, uh, brothers within the lodge and we'll say, you know, so and so needs to be helped a little bit more, uh, helped along and whatever that is. But, uh, that comes with leadership training and, and understanding others. Um, just because you have a title doesn't mean that you've got those skills. We say it often on this podcast that we are in the relationship business. we are going to lodge, spending time together knowing what's going on in each other's lives, making brotherhood a verb and not a noun. Mm-hmm. We can say all the words all day long, but until we're living it and acting it, and really I appreciate the perspective of the relationships and those take time as well. Mm-hmm. That, that is a long-term trajectory Absolutely. Of really getting to know each other in a quality way. Correct. Yeah. Correct. And, and talking about getting to know each other in a quality way is, realizing that everybody has value and wanting to get to know them, and people are dealing with different things. We never know what the other person is dealing with. Sometimes we'll get mad at our, our brothers and, um, we oftentimes stop, don't stop to say, you know. That person's dealing with some things that I'm not walking in his shoes and maybe I should, you know, try and find out what's what that person is dealing with. Yeah. And take more personal approach, ask more questions. Yep. How are you, what's new since wheel add? Just to be curious about where they're at in their rollercoaster of life. Exactly. Well, and, and then also from a leadership standpoint there, here's where it goes back to training is oftentimes we don't ask ourselves What can I do to become a better leader? And, uh, there again, the better you become as a leader, the better the lodge will, um, evolve. Moments ago you mentioned the getting to know each other better. part of this podcast is giving our listeners, both members and non-members a better perspective of, of you as the person behind. Mm-hmm. The, what is your favorite working tool? My favorite working tool, I would say probably the trowel, um, because you're spreading the cement of brotherly love. and in that, now a person could say, well, that's the master's trow. Well, it's not because it's the master's t. But it's going around helping others, trying to figure out how I can make, um, that person a better person or enhance that person's life. and what can I do for that person to spread that cement of brotherly love? What is something that most people don't know about you? Well, I have my private pilot's license. Um, oh, so here's a fun fact. so I've told this story on my Masonic journeys. So many people, um, and my fa favorite phrase, favorite phrase, is. Everything you do matters. Now that comes from a, a coffee table book. and half the coffee table book is about George Washington Carver, the peanut man. it talks about how little things happened to him throughout his life that if not for one of those little things, a he wouldn't have been around or he wouldn't have had the opportunity to discover the, and, and make the patents that he did. And many of us would probably not be eating peanut butter today. when I was in third grade living in Wells, Minnesota, we learned about, uh, the peanut man. And the interesting thing that I, I knew enough at that time about the history of, uh, of African Americans and, you know, how they were subjugated and that, and had been slaves. So I thought it was pretty cool that he went to college and they told us about how, um, how he, uh. Washed clothes to earn his way through college. And I thought, wow, that is so cool. So I went home and said, mom, dad, guess what? Guess what we learned about the peanut man and how he washed clothes to earn his way through college. And I said, Bob, let's sit down here. so my dad goes over to the shelf. Pulls out a class photo, from Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa from the fall of 1890. And show in the class photo is George Washington Carver sitting on the right hand side and sitting next to him is my great-grandmother, Bertha Burns Hughes. No kidding. And my parents told me that, uh, yeah, he, uh, her family gave him the wash tubs that enabled him to wash the clothes to earn his way through college so that he could in, uh, provide peanut butter to us all. and Bertha Burns. I mentioned last name Hughes. Well, Bertha Burns was her maiden name. Hughes was her last name. Her husband Roscoe Hughes. My great-grandfather was the Inspira. He was the circuit writing Methodist minister, fire and Brimstone, which my dad was not fire and brimstone, but he was the ins inspiration for my dad wanting to become a minister. And he was first cousins to Howard Hughes's dad. so yes, I'm related to Howard Hughes. But anyway, so that's a little fun fact, family tree. What would be the title of your autobiography? He made a Difference. how, how well everything you do matters. Positively. uh, when I say everything you do matters that can be negative or positive. the book that I mentioned was, is called the Butterfly Effect Colon. Everything You Do Matters by Andy Andrews. you know, it, it's the Butterfly Effect. George Washington Carver did not know that he was gonna, you know, uh, be feeding billions of people, you know, a hundred years later, right? So no matter what you do, you know, generations from now, you won't know until, and, and you'll be long gone. But yet what you do today can affect people a hundred years from now. So do you wanna leave a positive effect or a negative effect? And that's an uncomplicated perspective of not underestimating the power of literally everything you do matters. Yes. Bob Davis, I really appreciate you being in studio with us today on another episode of Minnesota Masonic Histories and Mysteries. Your passion for the human experience for leadership. Absolutely unparalleled. Thank you. It's been a pleasure.