Turbo Leadership Systems^™

Want it? Don’t give up!!

Tim, operations manager for a Northwest highway construction company, told Session 3B of Turbo’s Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“In November 2007, two of my good homebrewing friends in Seattle, Washington, Mark Emily and Tom Schmidlin, and I had a vision to bring the National Homebrewer’s Conference to Seattle. After a little investigation and correspondence with the American Homebrewer’s Association, we learned that the Washington State Liquor Control law would not permit such an event, nor could a variance be given. We decided that bringing this event to Seattle was a goal worthy of investing significant time and energy to, and this goal was common to many of our other friends who enjoyed this hobby.

“We enlisted the energy and support of the homebrewing clubs and hobbyists in the state and formed an association whose focus was promoting homebrewing and effecting meaningful changes in legislation to benefit the hobby – The Washington Homebrewer’s Association (WAHA), www.wahomebrewers.org. One of these changes would be the revision of the laws precluding the conference from coming to Seattle. Using our relationships within the homebrewing and professional brewing communities, we obtained the assistance of a lobbyist who worked with the Washington brewing businesses. We focused on the changes that would be required to permit the conference to be held in Seattle and drafted the proposed body of Senate Bill 5060. We then obtained the help of a Washington Senator from Kirkland to present our bill to the Senate in the 2009 session. Homebrewers and professional brewers alike testified before the Senate about the benefits to the state and business community as well as hobbyists. Similar testimony was given before the House of Representatives. After more than a year of preparation, we finally learned that both the House and Senate approved

the bill, and on May 9, 2009, Governor Christine Gregoire signed our bill into law. In due course, we submitted proposals to the American Homebrewer’s Association to hold the national conference in the Seattle area. Finally in June of 2012, a vision that began nearly 5 years before became a reality, when the National Homebrewer’s Conference was held in Bellevue, Washington. The event was the height of satisfaction and recognition of much hard work and perseverance by many dedicated people who supported our vision. The supporting Senator from Kirkland, Ken Jacobsen, gave the keynote address at our event.

“The lesson I learned from this process was that lofty goals which seem insurmountable, which might require challenging the system and changing the status quo, are worth doing when dedication and perseverance follow vision. The outcome just might be more fantastic than you originally imagined.

“The action I call you to take is to plan the steps to the goal of seeing your vision become reality. Engage likeminded people who support your vision and help them use their skill and ability to work toward making the vision take shape.

“The benefit you will gain is a sense of accomplishment, and the acknowledgement from your peers and supporters of your success and efforts. It will also cement existing relationships and forge new, lasting ones.”

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