Walker College Boyles CEO Lecture Series Speakers
Pursuing a Passion, while Writing an Epitaph
Jim Morgan
CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
March 26, 2009
WATCH THE SPEECH ONLINE
I am more delighted to be here than you could possibly imagine. For any number of reasons, not the least of which is Harlan Boyles, to have the honor to speak at a lecture series named for him. As Edward knows I didn’t know his father well, but I met him several times and knew him, and Edward I will never forget, I saw him in several venues, but the first time I met him was in his office at Raleigh, and I don’t know how to say this any other way but to tell you that when I walked in that office I truly, you just know sometimes, I knew I was in the presence of a great man. Harlan Boyles was a great man so I am thrilled to be here and be a part of that.
Secondly, just through great good fortune, I have had a friendship with your chancellor for a pretty good number of years now - twelve or thirteen years I guess - and so to be on campus with him and be a part of anything that he is leading is a privilege to me. Third, and its good -I want the students to hear this, in the two major parts of my career, which were investment banking and brokerage firm for Interstate Johnson/Lane, but now with Krispy Kreme, Appstate graduates have played an incredible role in my life. In fact, I would tell you during an interview process, if I have anything to do with it, if an Appstate diploma is in that group, that resume rises, simply due to that fact.
There are a couple of people here, I don’t know if Kay Norwood is here, but Kay Norwood was the research director at Interstate Johnson/Lane, but more importantly she was - and is - a close friend. And you never would know this from her, but she was also clearly considered not only the best research director with any regional firm, but the greatest technical analyst in the world. She is an Appstate graduate. I have a number of Krispy Kreme Associates who have graduated from Appstate. One of them is here, Brad Hall; not sure where Brad is, but Krispy Kreme, my conviction that Krispy Kreme is headed in the right direction would be dampened greatly if it weren’t for Brad and the role he plays. He runs several of our most important businesses and he is a credit to the university. He got his graduate degree from Appstate University. So, a number of reasons why I am thrilled to be here…
I want to give three quick apologies as a preface, and then we will get going. Apology number one is that I am going to speak primarily to the students. I hope that for those of you that are not students, there will be something for you to take back, but my real focus is going to be on the students. Secondly, I just want to make sure you understand, and I apologize in advance, and never would want to be offensive, but rather I try or not, so much of what I believe and so much of what I will say will be colored by, and deeply covered by my faith, which is central part of my life. So you just need to understand that as a backdrop. And third, and this may be most important, and I’m going to have to look at my notes a couple of times, because normally, I don’t know what I’m going to say, and I come up and am kind of ready. But as my wife would tell you, for some reason over the past couple of days, I just felt like I was not headed in the right direction with these comments. And so I have changed dramatically in the last 24-hours, a few things that I have put on a couple pieces of paper that I don’t want to forget. So those are my apologies.
We’ll move forward and see how we do. I do want to say one more thing, for the group that is here from China, who apparently got in at 2:00am this morning: it should be about right now, at 2:30pm, there should be some pillows coming in through the door, but in all honesty, there will be nothing personal taken by me, if any and all of you fall asleep! I understand you got here at 2am, which 2pm now is about 2am your time. So we fully understand, but what a great blessing for us to have them! As I may tell you later, Krispy Kreme has come to China this year. So, that is pretty exciting.
I do need to read one thing to you. Dean Edwards and I were talking, and he said one of the great things about being here for Appstate students is all of the outdoor activities that ya’ll get to participate in. You know the skiing in the winter and the hiking in the better months; and, he even mentioned to me, a lot of you continue the hiking and that passion by going out West sometimes, hiking in Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana when you can. It is just a big part of your lives. Well, what happened last night, I was messing around on the internet and happened to come across a bulletin that I feel I should read to you, to kind of give you a heads up in case you are headed in that direction. So, let me read this real quick, and then I’ll go on with my comments. This comes from the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, and they’re advising American hikers to take extra precautions against bears, while hiking in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and National Forests. They are advising hikers to wear noise-producing devices, such as little bells on their clothing, to alert, but not startle, the bears unexpectedly. They also advice you to carry cover spray in case of an encounter with a bear. Also, very good signs to look for bear activity. For example, hikers should be able to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly droppings on the golf courses and hiking trails. Is that okay to talk about droppings? I don’t know, but “droppings” is the best word I could come up with. But anyway, apparently black bear droppings are smaller, contain berries and possibly may have some squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have bells in them and smell like pepper spray.
So, why did I start off with that? I started off with that because so many of us are now in a world, and so many of you are going into a world, which is chocked full of grizzly bears; different shapes, you know, different risks, but we all have our grizzlies out there. And I really can’t tell you how much, I would have come just to hear Jeff Kane’s comments, and I can’t tell you how much I think his thoughts and his comments are going to help prepare you for that world. And for those of us already in it, for us to take a deep breath and calm down in that world. So, my prayer is that somehow, somewhere, whether it is now or years from now, something I want to say to you today will help you be better prepared to face those grizzlies along the trail.
The title of the talk that I chose today is “Pursuing a Passion, while Writing an Epitaph”. I know if you even looked at that title, you might not understand a connection and a matter of fact, might not even know what he is talking about. So let me tell you how they connect and why I worded the title that way. First, I’ll address passion. What does passion have to do with pursuing a successful career? I’ll give you my answer: In my opinion, if you pursue a career, about which you have no passion, you are either pursuing someone else’s dream or you are pursuing someone else’s dream for you. What do I mean by that? I began my career as a naval officer; I was an undergraduate student during Vietnam, and I had moved forward from that to investments - and not into doughnuts.
The great thing in my life, including my naval days, is that I have truly had a passion for what I do. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to go to work every day and be excited about what you are going to do. It is a gift beyond any other. When I considered changing from retirement (where I was three months ago) to going to Krispy Kreme fulltime, I turned life kind of upside down.
There were a lot of reasons why I said yes, when the board asked me to do it. But I will tell the greatest of these was that I knew the people at Krispy Kreme. I knew they had a passion for the brand; I knew they had a passion for the product; and I had a passion for them. I believe they are the people that could turn that company around. If I had the privilege to being a part of that, then I was going to jump at the chance. So, I did.
So, let me tell you a little bit about Krispy Kreme. We at Krispy Kreme believe we are guardians of something special. It is a 72- year old company, and it needs to be here a lot more than 72 more years. Quite frankly, there are a lot of people out there, based on what has occurred the last 5 years, that don’t think we are going to be here much longer. It is a complicated company, but it serves a very uncomplicated product. It is Winston-Salem, North Carolina; it is local. We are in 38 states; we will be in 20 countries at the end of this year -and I was serious, China being one of them. We’re going to Turkey, China and Malaysia by the end of this year. The problem we have now is that there were some mistakes made year ago, and by the way, sometimes mistakes are obvious when you get to them, but sometimes it is the wisdom of hindsight that tells you when they had been made. So, I’m going to speak with the wisdom of hindsight, and try not to be judgmental of any of the decision-makers at that time. With the wisdom of hindsight, some poor decisions were made. And the people that are paying the price for that right now are not the people who had anything to do with those decisions.
The employees of Krispy Kreme have been beaten down, berated in the press and otherwise for 5 years now. I’ll give you an example of what can hit all at once, all at one time: Krispy Kreme is facing shareholders with a lawsuit, a derivative lawsuit, an Arissa lawsuit, an SEC investigation and a Department of Justice investigation. Pretty hard to come to work every day, excited about what you are doing and what you’re responsible for, when you have that hanging over you. And when papers, both local and national, are telling the world you are not going to be around! So my job at Krispy Kreme initially was to tell people we are going to be around, and to tell them we are going to be around because of them. What we tried to do there - I’m not sure we had the most unique business plan in the world - we have seven strategic objectives we are driving for. What we do have are 3800 employees that believe our future is brighter than ever. I believe personally that the company will be stronger because they had their head handed to them, than if they had never had that happen.
I happen to have that philosophy personally. I’m not sure you will ever be as good at what you are trying to do in life, if you have not been humbled pretty severely at least once or twice. I think you learn what you can’t control and you also learn what is truly important. So, I personally believe Krispy Kreme has a great, great future. We are opening our first new company store next Tuesday, first store we’ve opened in six years. Employees are seeing that - they are seeing the growth. I have difficult days, don’t get me wrong. We were on a list about three weeks ago; a list of about 15 companies that aren’t going to make it. What a great day to wake up one day; to find out that someone has put you on a list of 15 companies that aren’t expected to make it. When you’re sitting there as part of an employee base, that is always telling each other that we have some great things going. We really are making progress; the initiatives are getting traction. That piece had no research; it had no facts; it was just easy to put out. It was just 15 household names that aren’t going to make it!?! And you can imagine the disruption it created in our corporate life. They said that the reason was because we had heavy debt – that we were laden with debt. Let me make sure you understand what it means to be laden with debt, because they didn’t have any numbers. Krispy Kreme has about 70 something million dollars in debt, which is not much for a corporate entity of their size. We happen to have approximately 35 million dollars of cash in the bank. We are not laden with debt, and I can almost assure you, if you meet with me next year, I’ll still be with Krispy Kreme, and Krispy Kreme will still be here. We have a tough road, a turnaround is not easy. But the great thing is that being part of a turnaround is one of the most exciting things you can experience in life. Kay Norwood and others and I did that at IJL, and it was fun.
The biggest thing I can tell you about Krispy Kreme is that we are not a business of selling more doughnuts. Here’s who we are… Krispy Kreme is 3800 people, and here is what they are committed to: We are deeply committed to taking the product we know as Krispy Kreme, that has an aura way beyond what its size justifies, and through that product, we want to touch and change lives. That’s our mission. If we do that, if every time someone walks into our stores, and every time we see each other, if we are touching and changing lives, we will sell all the doughnuts that we need to sell. So, our mission is to use this vehicle, this magic product Krispy Kreme, to make a difference in this world. And, I’m telling you, we are going to do it! The question and answer, if you have more questions about Krispy Kreme, and I’ll be able to answer some, not all, because of being a public company, but I just want you to know that is my summary of Krispy Kreme.
I’m going to read something to you. If you want to know what Krispy Kreme is, here is what Krispy Kreme is. For about a year, 10 months, I have been urging our employee base to understand what our mission is and that is what is going to make us succeed. We have to think of others and think of this world around us. I’m going to read to you a quick couple of paragraphs from blog, from one of the websites, from a Carepage website, I believe it is called. Where people go on, and they blog with their friends and loved ones about someone who is ill or is troubled in their family or is maybe someone they have lost. It’s a beautiful website by the way. But this was posted February 28 by a wonderful lady named Jennifer.
I have to share with ya’ll a wonderful testament to the kindness of strangers. Benjamin and I witnessed on his “heart” birthday. Thursdays, as I had mentioned in my post, I had ordered Krispy Kreme doughnuts for Benjamin to take to class on Thursday.
I had called and hoped to get the heart-shaped ones. There was a lady on the phone and she explained I have to order 10 dozen to get special shaped ones. This was after Valentines, B, meaning Benjamin, has only 10 kids in his class, so that wasn’t an option. I could tell the woman on the phone (and I asked and her name was Virginia) seemed to think I was a bit of a nut trying to order heart-shaped doughnuts two weeks after Valentine’s Day. So, I very briefly mentioned I wanted the heart-shape because my son is on his 6th heart transplant anniversary, and I needed a special snack for his pre-school class. She then suggest she could do a round one and stamp on heart on it somehow - that sounded great to me.
So, I asked if I could use the drive-thru to pick up the doughnut the next day, and then I hung up. The next morning I got a call from Virginia at Krispy Kreme letting me know my order was ready, I thought this a little odd and if I could come inside to pick them up. That was fine with me, I was just happy to have doughnuts with a heart like Benjamin wanted.
When we got there, we walked in and Virginia said, “You must be Jennifer”. I just smiled and said yes, caught a little off-guard. She then said she had been expecting us and had something special for Benjamin. There on the counter was a balloon bouquet, a card she had picked-up from Hallmark, signed by all the staff at Krispy Kreme, that had a puppy on it and said “so happy for you – congratulations”, a Krispy Kreme hat, which Benjamin wore all day at school, and two and a half dozen heart-shaped doughnuts with red icing. Benjamin was so excited to see the balloons and doughnuts.
I was so touched I was speechless and then had the sense to remember I had my camera in my purse and took pictures and thanked them over and over. I have not been moved by such a random act of kindness - as my friend Jane Allison calls it - in a long, long time. This lady knew nothing about us. Only that I said he was celebrating his heart transplant surgery and went to so much trouble to make his day special. And on top of everything else, she would not let us pay for them. She said she just wanted him to have a special day. Wow!
I’ve shared her kindness with as many of my friends as I could and with you because I would love for all of our local friends to support the Mallory Lane Krispy Kreme, they rock! As my friend Lisa A., who is a recent cancer survivor, says often in her post, it is all about paying it forward isn’t it? I can’t help but think God has his angels down here and Virginia at Krispy Kreme is one to us. She made Benjamin’s day much more special by simply taking the time to do something for a stranger. I’m going to do my best to pay it forward also.
I took a lot my time to read that one blog, but I just want you to understand that is what Krispy Kreme is. Krispy Kreme is not bricks and mortar; it is not a company that has made a lot of mistakes the past 6 or 7 years ago; it’s not a company that is not going to be here tomorrow. It is a company of incredible people. For those of you who are college students, you want to look for a company of incredible people. You want to look for a company who is focused on the Jennifers and Benjamins of the world as they go through what may seem to be a routine business plan such as selling doughnuts.
Quickly, to get back to passion and epitaphs… I would just tell you that in my career I didn’t do anything that I planned to do. All my plans got blown out. As I told a smaller group the other day I totally failed at some things. I’ve tried to do so I had to change because I was a failure at what I had done. I ended up places far greater than I had ever planned, and I think the one common denominator that helped me get there was that I never did anything for which I did not have a passion.
How does that tie in to an epitaph? It ties in because I started tying the two together when I began to realize that part of the passion needs to be recognizing who you are and what you’re trying to accomplish with your life as much as how successful you are and what you have achieved. I got hit upside the head not too many years ago when I was asked to write the memorial words for my father when he died and the words for his marker at his graveside. It’s interesting, but I sat there thinking as I realize I have this responsibility, as one of six siblings, and I thought about what I wanted to put and what he would want me to put. Let me tell you, I had never thought one word about anything he had achieved in his business or professional life, ever - and he had been successful under any definition. It never occurred to me; all I thought about was who he was, how much he loved his wife of sixty-two years, his children and his friends. I thought about his laughter, thought about the way he sang (off key but all the time). I thought about the way he whistled when he came home from work. As a child sitting or lying in the front bedroom I knew he was home because I could hear him whistling no matter how bad his day was.
So what I realized was that his epitaph was not up to me to write, he had already written his epitaph. He wrote it with his life. And that’s when it crystallized me that that’s what we’re all doing. We’re all writing our epitaph as we go through this life on Earth. I think that it caused me to change the way I was, to change my focus and my priorities.
I started looking back and thinking about other epitaphs that were being written in front of me, good and bad. I mentioned I was in the navy… as a naval officer, I was reassigned to the same ship, so I was on same ship my whole time, almost two and half years. I had two naval Captains, full Lieutenant, first Captain graduated from Annapolis: tall, erect, stern, good, had a passion for what he was doing. He made the life for almost everyone on that ship miserable. Second captain: honestly, the day I met him, he looked like Colombo in a naval uniform. I may be dating myself, but he was pretty disheveled for a Captain coming to take command of a ship. He had a passion also for what he was doing. He had already been passed over for Admiral; he wasn’t going to make it, that wasn’t his goal in life. And he made the life of every single person on that ship better.
By all earthly measurements, my first Captain, who did make Admiral, was a greater success than my second Captain, who later retired after he left our ship… by all earthly measurements. But I will tell you, the first Captain, in my opinion, was not a success, but my second captain, Captain Mallard, was a success beyond all words. My first Captain was busy building a resume, my second Captain was busy building a life.
One more thing on epitaphs, obviously I was thinking about all this a number of years ago and continue to do so. I wonder what people in my life would write about me right now, if I left this Earth. I have to admit to you that the one thing I thought about when an epitaph could be written about me was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I had been with Interstate Johnson/Lane for a few years; I had left to go help with a family situation down in Greenville, South Carolina. They asked me to come back as President, I decided that day I would. Peggy talked about it, couldn’t wait for my two twins to come home from grammar school to tell them they weren’t going to have to leave Charlotte. They were going to get to stay; they had their best friends living down the street from them. They weren’t going to have to leave their best friends and move to Greenville, where I thought we were moving. They came in together, a boy and girl twin, the boy said, “Man, that is great,” he took off the door to run to his friend Philip’s house to tell Philip he wasn’t moving and they were still going to be best friends and neighbors.
Anna, who also had a best friend down the street, seemed a little quieter about it and disappeared. After a few minutes, I told Peggy I was going to go upstairs and see what Anna was doing. She was in her bedroom, sitting in her bed, and she had a crocodile’s tears coming down her cheek. I literally got down on my knees beside her bed and took her little hands in mine and said, “Anna, sweetheart, I don’t think you understood, we aren’t going to move, you get to stay here, and be with all of your friends”. In the way only a wise young one can do, she looked at me and said, basically, “Dad, you’re the one that doesn’t understand, last time you were with IJL, I never saw you.” My epitaph from her at that point in time would have been “I never saw him.” At that point in time, “I never saw him,” her own father. Don’t ever, ever, ever, make that mistake in your life.
Think about that epitaph, and think of others and how they are thinking of you and your life. I’m going to leave you with one possibility… I’ve thought, “how can I convey this, how can I get people to think about passion and epitaph when choosing, pursuing their lives?” Passion is easy; you feel that, it’s internal, you’ll know whether you’re in the right spot, you’ll know how excited you are about going to work, you’ll know how excited you are about the people you are working with, you’ll know about how proud you are the platform and what it is accomplishing. You’ll know if you have a passion for it.
Think each day about what kind of epitaph you are writing for yourself. So, maybe I’ll leave you with this recommendation that some of you can take. Maybe what we need to do is to create a ‘to be’ list. Most all of us have had ‘to do’ lists in our lives before, but maybe, a ‘to be’ list makes sense. And all you have to do is decide who you want to be, and you make a list, that would have the characteristics of that person, and maybe check it every night, and if you are off-track, great. Rejuvenate yourself, redirect, refocus, and remember the next day the person you want to be.
I guess many of you saw the movie The Bucket List, that was all about a ‘to do’ list, you know, it was an incredible movie if you haven’t seen it, by the way. These two men had certain things they wanted to do before they kicked the bucket. So, take that whole concept and make a ‘to be’ list and measure yourself, and keep yourself not too far from that path of being who you want to be. I can’t create your list for you; you’re the one that has to do that. You’re the one that has to determine your legacy and your epitaph, but just remember it’s not going to be what you achieved that determines it. Just like my father, it’s going to be who you are. By letting who you are determine what that epitaph is all about, you will be successful in the truest of ways beyond your wildest dreams.
I know there are plenty of places to go look for some good epitaphs, there are tons of them. I know I have some of my favorites, that I reminded myself of, a couple of them happen to be in the Bible. This is a great one, “I fought the good fight.” I always thought man wouldn’t that be great if someone could say that about me if I left this Earth. Another one is “It is finished,” which implies I have finished my task on this Earth. That would be great, you’ve got other sources you can go to where you can find great epitaphs that might ring home with you, but I just urge you to pay attention to it and just do it.
Closing thing, I thought maybe I’ve learned a lot, but I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I thought I would give you a list of a few things that have helped me redirect myself when I have realized I was doing the wrong thing. So, just real quickly I have 9 keys that have served me well over the years; I have wondered from them, but when I come back I am usually happy. They’re quick, if you want them after the talk I can get them to the Dean and to you, but very quickly.
- Do not pursue fame or fortune as your reason for being…pursue a passion and a life that makes a difference in the lives of others. In the end, you will either achieve the fame and fortune because you are so much better at what you do with your life or you will not and you will discover that it does not matter!
- Do not get confused about the true definition of success – it is measured by who you are, not what you achieve.
- Always be willing to climb the steps when those around you are waiting for the elevator.
- Approach any unexpected or undesired ending as an opportunity for a new and exciting beginning.
- Be willing to take some risks even if it means you fail or fall short once in a while.
- Be willing to use the wisdom of hindsight as a tool through which to learn, but never use the wisdom of hindsight as a means by which to judge.
- Treat yourself as if you were your own best friend (E.g. Be forgiving).
- Never move forward at the expense of your faith or your family.
- Learn the difference between an inner-joy which is permanent and material happiness which is fleeting.
The closure I have for these comments comes, interestingly enough, from the April 23, 2007, issue of Forbes magazine. It is about a man who clearly understood the purpose of his life. There was a nurse, and she is the one who tells this story, who once was an emergency room nurse. One night she witnessed what she considered to be an astonishing leadership act.
It was about 10:30pm, the room was a mess. I was finishing up some work on the chart before I was going to go home. The doctor, whom I loved working for, was debriefing a new doctor, who had done a very respectful, competent job, telling him what he had done well and also what he could have done differently. And then he put his hand on the young doctor’s shoulder, and he said, ‘When you finished did you notice the young man from housekeeping, who came into the room?’ There was a completely blank look on the face of the young doctor.
The older doctor then said, ‘His name is Carlos; he has been here for three years, and he does a fabulous job. When he comes in, he gets the room turned around so fast, that you and I can get our new patients in here quickly. His wife’s name is Maria, they have four children.’ And then he named all of the four children and gave the age of each child. The older doctor went on to say, ‘He lives in a rented house about three blocks from here in Santa Anna. They have been here from Mexico for about five years. Remember, his name is Carlos.’ Then he said to the young doctor, ‘Next week, I would like you to tell me something about Carlos that I don’t know, okay? Now, let’s go check on the other patients.’ The nurse recalls standing there, writing my nursing notes, literally stunned and thinking, ‘I have just witnessed breathtaking, breathtaking, leadership.’
So, I leave you with that story. I urge you to go out and truly pursue your passions in life. I urge you to go out and commit breathtaking leadership at every possible opportunity. I believe if you do that, you are living your life that if you are writing an epitaph, that not only will those that love you and know you be proud, but even, the strangers you touch on the streets will be proud. And if you do that, you will be successful in the most significant ways. If all of you do that, I believe, we may never again have to face the moral, ethical, business, and political morass that has been primary contributors to the current economic turmoil. So, just know, we believe in you, we’re counting on you, and we are praying for you. And I thank you for letting me share this part of your life.
