Mayor addresses 2017-18 Leadership class

As school winds down, so do the extracurricular activities. And to say farewell to the 2017-2018 class of Leadership Mountain Brook, Mayor Stewart Welch met with the group to impart some wisdom in the form of the three principals he lives by.

The first principle states to define the core values that are true to your own personality. His, he said, are never give up, always give respect and to take care of yourself.

All three are important to keep yourself grounded, he said, especially as some of the class of Leadership Mountain Brook move off to college. 

Welch then said to work on building relationships, especially when they are earning money later in life. 

“Money is going to come from other people,” Welch said. “You want to know the single biggest key to success … it is relationships.”

He suggested they all look in to joining organizations in college and reaching out to the people who they might not usually talk to. Being involved can help later in life in many different aspects. 

“The people that are most successful are the people that are best at building relationships,” Welch said.

And finally, Welch said to always give back. He said not only will it make you feel better and help others, but it can benefit you in the long run.

“There’s this thing out there called the law of reciprocity. Whatever you give out comes back to you multifold,” he said, adding that the law doesn’t discriminate. “If you give out negativity, negativity will come back to you. If you give out meanness, meanness will come back to you.”

He suggested the students look at what is in their “bucket” and to keep their principles in mind as they continue on through life.

“Those things are going to be your compass; they’re going to be your GPS,” Welch said.

As a parting gift, Welch then gave each student one of his signature one-million-dollar bills to remind the students they are “one in a million,” along with an exercise he called the “power of three-squared plus three.” 

Under the exercise, the students are to list three blessings when they first wake up, list the top three things they need to accomplish during the day, uplift three people in a “very specific way” each day and celebrate three successes. The successes, Welch said, don't have to be large successes, rather positive results from the day.

He challenged them to do the exercises every day for one week to see if they experience positive changes in both their days and their attitudes.

“The one thing you can control is your ability to change,” Welch said. “As you move forward, just be sure to be open to new opportunities and meet as many people and build as many relationships as you can.”