Would you believe that the price of gas is over $4 a gallon and moving towards $5 a gallon? You know, I see that happening and I watch the reports on the news. This price increase is affecting all of us, some more than others. It affects every aspect of our lives and that price increase is reflected in what we pay for everything! And because this is having such a dramatic impact, we are actually seeing a cause and effect happen.

I read recently that for the first time in 20 years our use of gas is down dramatically and is continuing to go down, which tells us what? We are adaptable. We are going to find that we can maybe not drive our cars to as many places as we did before. We’ll ride bicycles, we’ll ride motorcycles or scooters, we’ll walk, we’ll combine our errands, we’ll not take trips because we have got to adapt. We will do all these things because we can not afford to travel and drive as much as we did before. This cause and effect is happening in America….the land of plenty. And we are really adapting. For the first time in 20 years, and I find this astounding, we are saying, “No — I am not going to pay this price” and we are reducing the demand for gasoline in this country by not using as much.

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On Wednesday, June 18th Tim Russert was laid to rest. A lot of significant things happened at his memorial service. A lot of great words were spoken, people expressing their feelings, telling stories, and having a really grand Irish funeral. But the most impressive part of the funeral to me was Tim’s 22 year old son, Luke Russert, who gave the eulogy. His uniqueness showed up before the eulogy was even given when Luke Russert asked the presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain, to sit side by side in a show of unity as they move towards the presidential election in November. I thought that was more than symbolic, because I think we have the chance this year to show the heartfelt feelings and greatness of our country, which should not be steeped in hatred just because one is liberal or one is conservative, one is Democrat or one is Republican. We’ve had far too much of that.

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I played football in the National Football League for 18 years, four years of football at the University of Georgia and four years of football at Athens High School. I had a couple of coaches in high school – Waymon Sellers and Billy Henderson. They were instrumental in my understanding of life, as well as developing as a football player.

They worked us hard. They made us practice the fundamentals over and over again. Those were important, but they were not nearly as important as this lesson: They instilled in me that in playing the team sport of football – it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about my accomplishments or how many passes I could complete or how many runs I could make. It was about my teammates. My mission was supposed to be about my teammates. My job in a team sport was to make my teammates better. If I had that understanding and that attitude, and my teammates had that attitude, we had a much better chance of winning. My mission then, not only in high school and college and pro football was just that – it wasn’t about selfish ME. My focus and my mission had to be about making my teammates better, and if I made my teammates better, then our team had a much better chance to win.

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Hamilton Jordan was the Chief of Staff to President Jimmy Carter. At age 32 or so, when Jimmy Carter was in his first year as Governor of Georgia, Hamilton wrote an 80 page document outlining how he could become President. Jimmy Carter followed it to the letter, and this unknown peanut farmer from Georgia who had no chance in the world to become President became President. President Carter acknowledges that fact today, and all of us in Georgia are well versed in the legend of Hamilton Jordan.

Hamilton died 2 days ago at age 63. He had battled cancer for 20 years. I am passing on to you a message sent to me by Hamilton’s good friend, and my good friend, Scott Miller. Scott Miller is one of the great marketing minds in America. He is Chairman of the Board of Zyman Group, a marketing company that works with the biggest and best companies in America. I thought you would enjoy his thoughts on Hamilton.

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As I’ve said to you often, entrepreneurs are the best business people in this country, and the reason they are is they are the ones that are doing the work. They are engaged. They have their hands all over their businesses. They’ve got good hearts, and they work hard at what they are doing, at whatever age they are.

One of the greatest entrepreneurs and greatest human beings I have ever known is Buddy Koffman from Binghamton, NY. He came into my life when I was 27 years old. I was playing for the New York Giants and had started some businesses in Atlanta. I had a lawyer who worked with me who was a good soul and a bright man, and he was going to run all these businesses for me. He did – but he ran them right into the ground!

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I am a serial entrepreneur. I have worked all of my life. I had a little wagon when I was five years old in Washington, DC, and I would go down to the Safeway grocery store and take the little old ladies’ groceries from the Safeway store to their houses. That was back in 1945, and they would give me a nickel or a dime. I had a paper route when I was seven years old. I delivered newspapers every afternoon during the week and at six o’clock in the morning on Saturdays and Sundays.

I have built businesses all my life. I have built 15 different companies. I believe the greatest business people in the world are entrepreneurs, because entrepreneurs get it done now. They don’t put off until tomorrow what they can do today. They’ve got energy, they’ve got a belief system, and they’ve got a passion for what they are doing. I used to think in my younger life that the big business people, the guys who run these big companies, were “the bomb!” But now I know that “the bombs” are the ones that build their own companies. People like Bill Gates, the college dropout. Michael Dell from Dell Business Systems with one quarter of college under his belt.

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This is Masters’ week. This really starts the golf season. This is the first major tournament and is played in Augusta, Georgia on the Augusta National Golf Course, which is hallowed ground. It was started by Cliff Roberts and Bobby Jones – the legendary Bobby Jones. And of all the golf courses in the world, I’ll suggest to you that this is the one that every golfer — no matter who they are — wants to play. This golf course doesn’t have a lot of rough. It has pretty wide fairways but is one of the most challenging golf courses in the world, and people would pay anything to be able to able to play one round of golf on this course.

I’ve played it many times but I want to take you back to January 31, 1976. I had a friend named Phinizy Timmerman. Isn’t that a real southern name? He was Chairman of the Board of Graniteville Mills in Graniteville, South Carolina, which is about 10 or 15 miles from Augusta. He was a member of Augusta National and would invite me to come play with him in the off season of my football days because in ‘76 I was still playing professional football with the Minnesota Vikings. Phinizy Timmerman, “Phinny” as we called him, was a real competitive little guy who wanted to beat me in the worst way.

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Changing one’s routine is very important. Sometimes we call it vacation or just getting out of our daily rut. Going to a different town, a different city, a different venue or seeing different people is so important to all of us. It gives us a chance to relax, recharge, and come back to our lives with a new enthusiasm and a fresh perspective.

Let me tell you about a vacation that I’ve taken every year since 1990, and I took it again just a few weeks ago. My wife and I go to St. Barth, which is an island in the French West Indies, 1852 miles southeast of my home in Atlanta. GA. The atmosphere is very relaxed and very French. On this island there are no Marriott’s, there are no high rise buildings, there are no golf courses. Nobody wears a coat, nobody wears a tie. There are great beaches, and a pretty harbor town. It’s very laid back, and of course, great weather.

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This is a message for seniors. It is also a message for those of you who have senior grandparents, senior parents, senior aunts and uncles. Because guess what? Someday, faster than you think, you’re going to become a senior, too.

The good news about seniors is, we are living longer than any generation before us. Listen to this data. The average life expectancy of an American has doubled since 1900. A senior woman who reaches 65 years old has an average a life expectancy of 87. A senior man reaching 65 years of age will have an average life expectancy of 85 years. So we have seniors living longer, and yet we hear all the doomsayers say that people living long is somehow bad news. They say it is going to strangle the economy. They say that social security will run out of money soon and that taking care of older Americans is going to be a problem.

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Brett Favre has announced his retirement from the Green Bay Packers, and that’s a retirement announcement that nobody really wanted to hear, because we watched him have one of his best years last year. He was healthy, his arm was still strong, his legs were strong, he didn’t have bad knees, bad shoulders, and he was playing on a really good football team. But he said in his press conference that he was just tired. I understand that. When I retired from football I was 38 years old – one month before I turned 39 – after playing for 18 years. I had a bum shoulder, torn cruciate, and was recovered from a broken leg, but more than that, I was just tired. It was time to go. So I understand that.

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