Last Word with Kevin Rutherford: The Good Old Days

The TV show The Office has become one of the most iconic comedic shows of all time. The attachment the audience has with the cast and the feeling of escape we get through the endless, clever humor offers a sense of comfort by seeing a part of ourselves in their shoes. I have a fondness for many episodes, yet there is one moment that stands out for me because of its life lesson. Yes, you heard that right, a life lesson from The Office. It took place in the final episode when Andy Bernard, played by Ed Helms, looked at the camera and said:

“I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.”

I would be remiss if I didn’t say the next line was the perfect humor at that moment when Andy, also a singer, said “someone should write a song about that.”

The past 15 months have been extremely wearing on the running industry, on all of you, and I realize this observation is a bit of an understatement. During these times, I have searched deep to find and connect with a vision for a better future for our industry and humanity. Through this process, I found that I have developed more hope and conviction about what we are recreating. At this moment in time we are connecting, strategizing and creating our future with a fresh start. There are few times in history where this has happened on this scale. The only example that I can think of is the generation that built the roaring 20’s coming out of World War I while also overcoming the Spanish Flu pandemic. Like the generation then, we will look back at this time and connect the dots in our life journey to discover that 2021 will very likely be ‘the good old days.’

As leaders, here are five reasons why we should not only have hope, but why we should use it to create the new world we want:

Hope that preventative health is the new way.

How might we (HMW) leverage the surge in connected fitness and the quantified athlete, both of which are reinventing the way we are exercising. The consumer is here, let’s meet them where they are.

Hope that race and run experiences will bring us together.

HMW leverage a longing for community and connection by delivering an omni-experience like never before? Remember, running event participation peaked in 2013, so this is the time to start with a better way. Let’s find a way to connect the communities that we operate in while also partnering with a global running community for a bigger impact.

Hope will show us how to act.

HMW envision a future and chart the path forward with confidence that will blaze the trail for all of us to act upon. Action will create momentum, and in turn, build a belief in oneself and in others.

Hope has a ripple effect.

HMW realize the compounded impact whenwe create a vision, believe in it and begin taking action. The cumulative impact from the ripple effect across our teams will accelerate and it all starts with a spark. Take action now with a focus on how far you’ve come versus feeling overwhelmed by concentrating on how far you need to go.

Hope is the catalyst for us to overcome adversity and create a life of meaning & purpose.

HMW create a sense of shared purpose that sustains impact every month and every year. When Terry Fox started his run across Canada, the second largest nation on the planet, it wasn’t about his run. It was about hope that gave purpose to him, his community, cancer survivors, a nation and global citizens by uniting around running to support a shared cause.

This is our moment to create a new and better way, by giving a sense of hope through community, action and experiences. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to approach our events with the mindset of a truly fresh start.

We have the chance to start anew and create a better race experience for people while delivering a superior business model versus what we had previously. As I once heard, “leaders are dealers in hope.” That sounds like a good motto for us to live by.

Together, we can create a running industry stronger than ever before by serving our communities with hope. To be clear, hope is not a strategy. However, you can and should build a strategy on hope. It needs to start with believing in our ability to create a better world within our respective circles of influence and follow quickly with action through servant leadership. This moment in time is a rare gift for many of us, so let’s make it count and we will look back and say, ‘remember the good old days when we rebuilt the running community on the foundation that allowed us to evolve into the healthier world we are today.’

AS I ONCE HEARD, "LEADERS ARE DEALERS IN HOPE."

This is our moment to create a new and better way, by giving a sense of hope through community, action and experiences. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to approach our

About the author: Kevin Rutherford is Chief Eternal Optimist (CEO) of Nuun Hydration, dedicated to keeping you as hydrated as humanly possible.