Today I am grieving, TRULY grieving the loss of a great man and entrepreneur in my community. Tears, sadness, loss.
Sam — lost too soon — was a restaurateur who made everyone feel like family, a legal immigrant who came to America for the PRIVILEGE of work, a man who could remark on the girls my son brought into the restaurant — accurately describing his connection with each, a proud Moyock-ian who knew when I was on a diet, sponsored the local football teams, would sing Happy Birthday to his customers without missing a beat and PERSONALLY inspect my food to be sure the pico de gallo was left off. 😊 #ofcourse
This man left a HUGE hole in our community. All day long I’ve been receiving texts from people who are crying over the loss. Our little town will never be the same without his huge authentic welcome when we came in to eat and his patented “See you tomorrow” when we left.
Did I REALLY know him? I feel like I did. I knew him and I loved him. He was a hard worker, a people person, a jokester, a BOLD man who tolerated NO B.S. And he knew me. He knew my voice when I called, knew my order before I said it, knew which kids were mine… but I can’t tell you if he knew my name. 😊
I “only” knew him as the proud restauranteur of my favorite Mexican restaurant, and he “only” knew me as a regular customer. But he made a difference in my life, and in the lives of thousands of others. THIS is the mark of a passionate business owner… the ability to impact SO many. My prayer today is that Sam KNEW just how loved he was by this community of ours. Because he was SO incredibly loved.
So, today… when I’m writing a tribute to him in our local newspapers… I’m feeling melancholy and sad. I’m GRATEFUL Sam took a bet out on himself, immigrated to our proud country, landed in Currituck and opened not one but SEVERAL restaurants.
But I am also thinking of all of the plans NOT brought to life today… I am thinking back to my OWN entrepreneurial resistance and delays, and those I coach our members through. I am — perhaps for the first time– seeing PLAINLY what is at the ROOT of ALL resistance and delay and inaction… I am seeing what is REALLY going on when we
📍 don’t show up fully
📍 don’t make decisions that we should ALREADY have in place
📍 don’t FULLY commit to our goals
📍 dream without doing
The deep sadness of resistance in all areas is the wondering if OUR ACTIONS will make a difference, the crippling doubt….
📌 Will anyone READ our book and be transformed by it?
📌Will anyone show up?
📌 Will anyone LOVE our post?
📌 Will anyone notice if we show up… or if we don’t?
📌 Will our actions PRODUCE something… or will they go lame and futile on us?
📌 Can we COUNT on our ability to create the result we want?
📌 Can we sustain another “failure” or let down?
This is the DEEP sadness of resistance,
it’s the soul-crushing, dream-robbing DOUBT that
creeps up in the form of promising yourself “later,” or “tomorrow,”
It’s the self-doubt that keeps us from going all in and doing all we KNOW to do to bring our dreams to life… leaving them UN-fulfilled, not because they were impossible, but because we didn’t have the BELIEF, the COURAGE to back ourselves.
a deep sadness indeed.
May I just say,
as I mourn the loss of Sam today,
that YOUR goals are in you for a reason…
and your business impacts FAR more than you know…
and that YOU not following through… MATTERS.
YOU DO THIS
whatever it is that you do
TO IMPACT PEOPLE.
So, don’t shrug.
Don’t push pause.
Don’t hold back.
Don’t count yourself out.
Don’t be FOOLED into your own promises of “tomorrow.”
Your work DOES matter.
You WILL run into haters and doubters along the way,
DO NOT JOIN THEM….
Sam wasn’t a pastor or a therapist. he wasn’t a politician or local teacher. He wasn’t a rock star or a coach… or any other title that we TYPICALLY associate with making a HUGE impact. He was a restauranteur who took a chance on this little town he came to love… the town that 100% loved him back, and already misses him greatly.
Sam hustled.
He worked hard.
He loved people.
And he LOVED the life of an entrepreneur. It lit him up.
Sam, No te veré mañana, amigo mío …
pero estoy seguro de que volveré a verte algún día.
Hasta entonces, adiós por ahora…
