To My Classy Agents, Staff and Friends:
When I was growing up being a classy person was a popular compliment. While some associated the term with social stature or wealth, its most prevalent connotation was that you “had it all together.” You had the whole package. Everyone wanted to be referred to as a class act. We still should. What is Class?
Class never runs scared. It is sure-footed and confident in the knowledge that you can meet life head-on and handle whatever comes along.
Jacob had it. Esau didn’t. Symbolically, we can look to Jacob’s wrestling match with the angel. Those who have class have wrestled with their own personal “angel” and won a victory that marks them thereafter.
Class never makes excuses. It takes its lumps and learns from past mistakes.
Class is considerate of others. It knows that good manners are nothing more than a series of petty sacrifices.
Class bespeaks an aristocracy that has nothing to do with ancestors or money. The most affluent blueblood can be totally without class while the descendant of a Welsh miner may ooze class from every pore.
Class never tries to build itself up by tearing others down.
Class is already up and need not strive to look better by making others look worse.
Class can “walk with kings and keep its virtue, and talk with crowds and keep the common touch.” Everyone is comfortable with the person who has class – because he is comfortable with himself.
If you have class, you don’t need much of anything else. If you don’t have it. No matter what else you have – it doesn’t make much difference.
Character, honesty, loyalty, respect and unselfishness are all values I believe to be synonymous with class. While our society and our psyche puts great store in measuring what things we acquire in our lives, the truest measure of a person’s wealth; the measure that stands the test of time, even eternity, is what kind of person we are as defined by these core values. Thomas Jefferson, one of our founding fathers and the author of the Declaration of Independence summed up Class quite well when he wrote:
Dear Lord, Help us all to be more classy.
Have an AWE-full weekend!
Bill