By Greg Graves, VP of Sales and Marketing
I started to call this post, “Leelon Loves Wastewater”, but that wasn’t quite it. I changed it to “Leelon Loves the Wastewater Industry”, but that didn’t sit right either. The truth is, Leelon Scott loves people who happen to work in the wastewater industry.
Colin Powell once said, “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” Leelon Scott is Revere’s Director of Account Management, and he is responsible for taking care of some of our oldest and most valued client relationships. Anyone who knows Leelon knows that he is the embodiment of perpetual optimism. He’s been in the water industry for over 40 years, with no plans to step away anytime soon. Why? Because he loves it! Leelon has an abundance of passion, and that passion drives him every day. At first, I thought he had some sort of affinity for the industry itself. There’s no doubt about it, Leelon has a very deep understanding of the equipment, processes and control systems, politics, and personalities affecting the water industry. He is an advocate and a long-standing member of WWEMA. He knows his business and that is impressive. But what I have learned is that Leelon genuinely loves connecting with and serving the people in this industry. His passion for the water industry is fueled by his attitude, and by the value he places on the people in the industry.
Charles Swindoll highlighted the importance of attitude in this way:
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, or a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past; we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.”
Thinking back over my career in automation, people like Leelon are the ones who stand out the most. There are going to be ups and downs in business and in life. This is an unavoidable truth, but I admire the people who choose to lean into the moment with great attitudes. As we look to hire and develop the right people, we must use all the indicators of potential success available to us. Leelon is a great reminder to us that optimism and passion are among those indicators. When you’ve got a single employee with perpetual optimism, you can accomplish some good things, but when your staff is full of those people, your company is poised for great success.
Leelon, thanks for your service to Revere and the people of the water industry at large.
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“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier. The ripple effect of a leader’s enthusiasm and optimism is awesome. So is the impact of cynicism and pessimism. I am not talking about stoically accepting organizational stupidity and performance incompetence with a “What, me worry?” smile. I am talking about a gung-ho attitude that says, ‘We can change things here, we can achieve awesome goals, we can be the best.’ Spare me the grim litany of the “realist,” give me the unrealistic aspirations of the optimist any day.”
General Collin Powell