Alan Barnhart's Intro

0:07
Today on the Servant Leadership Podcast,

0:09
we're joined by Alan Barnhart, an

0:11
industrial CEO whose life and business

0:13
model turn conventional success upside

0:16
down. Alan leads Barnhart Crane and

0:18
Rigging, a company with over 60 branches

0:20
and over 2500 employees. What makes his

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story remarkable isn't just the scale of

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the business, it's the conviction behind

0:28
how they run it. From the very

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beginning, Allan and his brother

0:31
committed their company and its profits

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to God. They kept their lifestyles and

0:36
have reinvested hundreds of millions of

0:38
dollars into kingdom work around the

0:39
world, all while building one of the

0:41
most respected names in heavy industry.

0:44
In this episode, Allan shares how

0:46
biblical stewardship has guided every

0:48
major decision and how stewarding their

0:50
ownership has unlocked great purpose and

0:53
legacy. He also unpacks how joy fuels

0:56
their giving and how stewardship and

0:58
servant leadership shape everything from

1:00
family rhythms to executive strategy.

Welcome Alan Barnhart

1:04
Alan, thank you for joining us on the

1:05
servant leadership podcast. Oh, it's my

1:08
pleasure. Thank you. I am so excited

Alan Explains Barnhart Crane and Rigging

1:10
because you've been such an inspiration

1:12
to me personally and in our business,

1:14
which is a funny thing to say given what

1:16
you do professionally. Could you explain

1:18
Burnhart Crane and Rigging and what all

1:20
you do? Sure. We are an industrial

1:23
contractor. We pick up and move heavy

1:25
stuff basically. So we have a fleet of

1:27
cranes and and trucks and specialty

1:30
rigging equipment and a bunch of

1:32
engineers that try to figure out better

1:34
ways of moving stuff. Um stuff you would

1:37
have seen. We put up a lot of wind

1:38
turbines and do a lot of maintenance on

1:40
wind turbines. We do a lot of work in

1:41
the mining industry, oil refineries. um

1:44
mainly heavy industry has needs for our

1:47
services and we haul heavy stuff on the

1:49
highway and we also have a bunch of

1:52
equipment to lift and move and slide

1:54
things in in plants. Talk a little bit

The Size of Barnhart Crane and Rigging

1:56
about the scale just so people

1:58
understand how big Barnhart is. Sure.

2:01
Yeah, we're kind of a medium-sized

2:02
company. We have about 60 branches

2:04
around the US and in Western Canada. We

2:07
have about 2500 people. Um and so we uh

2:11
these branches are relatively small

2:14
operations with anywhere from 20 to 50

2:16
maybe 100 people in one. Um and uh we're

2:20
scattered pretty much across the US. So

The Journey of Barnhart Crane and Rigging

2:23
you've been there since the beginning.

2:26
Talk about how it started with your

2:28
family and a little bit of the journey

2:30
to now. Sure. My mom and dad started the

2:33
business in 1986, excuse me, 1969 with a

2:36
pickup truck and a ladder and a welding

2:38
machine and they ran the business for 17

2:41
years. It was a our international

2:43
corporate headquarters was two bedrooms

2:45
at the home I grew up in. It was a very

2:47
mom and pop business. We had about 10

2:50
employees and um and that's the way my

2:53
parents wanted it. And uh so they they

2:56
ran it for 17 years. And then in 1986,

2:59
my brother and I had gotten out of

3:01
college and started working for the

3:02
business full-time. We had worked every

3:04
summer in high school. And heck, we

3:06
started when we were 12 years old. But

3:09
um we started working full-time. And a

3:11
couple years later, my folks decided to

3:13
leave the business and get on a

3:15
sailboat. They bought a sailboat and

3:16
sailed around the world. And so they

3:18
were gone for years doing that. And uh

3:21
my brother and I started a another

3:24
company in '86, but it was basically

3:26
continuing what they were doing with

3:28
with about eight grains and and uh maybe

3:32
10 people. Um we we got started. Wow. So

Bold Decisions About Money

3:37
you made some bold decisions early on

3:39
about how you were going to think about

3:41
money and if the company succeeded. Can

3:44
you talk to us about your journey of

3:46
even how this came up and talk a little

3:48
bit about how it's structured? Sure.

3:51
Yeah. I uh I embraced the Christian

3:53
faith when I was in high school. I grew

3:55
a lot in my faith in college. Came out

3:58
of college um convinced that that uh the

4:02
Christian message was the ultimate

4:04
reality and that I needed to u figure

4:06
out how I could serve God. Um felt that

4:09
God had gifted me more in the area of

4:12
business and engineering than than being

4:14
a pastor or something like that. And so,

4:17
but I wanted to be using my skills and

4:19
my gifts full-time to serve God. Read

4:22
through the Bible to see what it had to

4:24
say about money. Said a lot. Bible was

4:27
full of uh messages about money,

4:30
including a lot of warnings. And so,

4:33
from that message, we landed on two

4:37
things as my brother and I were starting

4:38
our business. The first was the concept

4:40
of stewardship that I'm not an owner.

4:42
I'm a steward of everything I have. I'm

4:45
not an owner with rights. I'm a steward

4:47
with responses, excuse me, with

4:50
responsibilities. And and the second

4:52
thing was the danger of wealth. Um and

4:56
so we put a safeguard in our life um to

5:00
to protect ourselves against the dangers

5:02
of wealth. And basically we said we're

5:03
going to live a simple lifestyle um for

5:06
the rest of our lives. And if God

5:08
chooses to prosper our business, we're

5:10
not going to see that as a call to ramp

5:11
up our lifestyle, but but instead see it

5:14
as an opportunity to use the money that

5:16
we generate to help others. And so we we

5:20
decided each year we would give away 50%

5:22
of our profit. And we made these

5:24
decisions before we became partners,

5:26
before we went into business together.

5:28
And I'm so thankful we did because um it

5:31
really helped us focus on business and

5:34
and not get caught up in some of the

5:37
headaches. My brother and I have been

5:38
partners now for 39 years and we've

5:40
never argued about money. My wife and I

5:43
have been married almost 40 years and

5:44
we've never argued about money. And and

5:47
it's one of those things that sometimes

5:48
rips families apart. Um and particularly

5:51
when a company makes a lot of money. I

5:53
think sometimes too much money is more

5:55
detrimental sometimes than not enough.

5:57
And so we're so thankful that we heard

5:59
those warnings and we put some

6:01
safeguards in our life to protect us

6:04
against some of the dangers of weather.

6:06
Wow. I I've I've heard you talk about

Profit: Half to Grow and Half to Ministry

6:08
early on you used half the profit to

6:10
grow the business and half to give to

6:12
ministry. Is that still a little bit of

6:14
how it works? Yeah, we're still doing

6:16
just the same. Yeah. And the scale of

6:20
Barnhart is Barnhart's worth hundreds of

6:23
millions of dollars if if not more. and

6:25
you've been able to give away a lot of

6:27
money. Uh I know it didn't start with a

6:29
lot. It might have seemed like a lot and

6:31
now it's a significant amount. Talk

6:33
about that journey of seeing uh a little

6:36
bit start to go and just being committed

6:37
and how it's grown over time. Sure. I

6:40
mean, when we committed the company to

6:42
God and said, "God, basically, you own

6:44
it." Um we we didn't know if the company

6:47
would even survive the first year. I

6:49
mean, it was a mom and pop business. Mom

6:50
and pop left. I mean, really left. and

6:53
and I was a 25 year old kid, but but

6:56
just in case, we made that commitment.

6:58
The first year we actually made money

6:59
and we had I think

7:01
$50,000 we were able to send out to

7:04
organ to some organizations and and so

7:07
we did that and then the next year the

7:09
company grew and the next year the

7:11
company grew. So it it grew about 25% a

7:14
year for 23 straight years and uh and

7:17
became a you know kind of a medium-sized

7:19
company by about by 2008. And when you

Deciding Where The Money Goes

7:23
think about all that you've been able to

7:24
get involved in, how do you choose what

7:28
to get involved in on the generosity

7:30
side and I know you've got now a large

7:32
amount of people involved in that

7:34
process that you brought along with you.

7:35
Yeah, we decided we'd make those

7:37
decisions about where the money goes as

7:38
a group. Started out as a group of six

7:41
of us. Um, as we as the money increased

7:44
and as the company grew, we more people

7:47
uh joined us. These are all employees or

7:49
spouses. Um, and so we we decided we

7:53
wanted to fund things that were hard to

7:55
fund. There's lots of great things to

7:57
fund. And basically, everybody

8:00
ignores 99% of the need out there. I

8:03
mean, you can't you can't do everything.

8:04
So, you got to figure out what it is you

8:06
want to do. We decided we wanted to to

8:08
fund work in hard places in the world

8:10
where there's the most poverty, the the

8:12
the church was the least um established.

8:16
And so the the Muslim world, the Hindu

8:18
world, the Buddhist world, um there's

8:21
massive poverty, mass all kinds of needs

8:23
there. And we focused on those areas and

8:27
uh and and so that's that's been our our

8:30
focus and continues to be. Now we can we

8:33
we also fund ministries in every city

8:36
where we have an operation. We're in

8:37
about 60 cities. Um, so we do things

8:40
there as well, but the but the large

8:43
dollars, you know, God has brought in so

8:45
much money that uh the large dollars end

8:47
up going to these international needs in

8:50
a more strategic way. That group is now

8:53
about 60 of us that try to figure out

8:55
how to invest this money um in

8:58
ministries that are changing people's

9:00
lives around the world. Wow. One of the

The Joy of Giving

9:04
things I I love and that I've just

9:06
learned from you over time is the joy in

9:08
giving. Uh, a lot of people have this um

9:13
strange relationship with giving, I'd

9:15
say, where giving is sacrificial, but

9:18
they don't love to do it, but they know

9:19
they should, and it's just this sticky

9:22
relationship with giving. Talk about

9:24
what how you found joy in giving and how

9:27
you encourage others who are trying to

9:29
figure that out. Yeah. I mean, what I

9:31
would say is we've we've never given

9:33
anything that God didn't give to us.

9:35
We're just trying to be a I don't even

9:37
think what we're doing is sacrificial

9:39
giving. I mean, we we have a good

9:41
lifestyle and we're giving away the

9:44
surplus and um but but we we don't we

9:48
don't see it as sacrificial. We see it

9:50
as a a a joy to be able to be part of

9:53
the work of amazing people who are doing

9:56
hard things in hard places. stuff I

9:59
wouldn't want to have to go do. And

10:00
these guys are doing it uh year in and

10:03
year out and we get to be part of what

10:04
they're doing by providing funding to

10:06
them. And and that's an honor and it's a

10:09
it's a joy to be part of. Um God's

10:12
letting us in on it. And so um uh as we

10:15
have given, more money has come in and

10:18
uh the process has gotten bigger and

10:20
bigger. It's a job now. It's a lot of

10:22
work to figure out how to give away

10:24
money. And you can do more harm than

10:26
good by giving people money. And so

10:28
there's there's some danger in it.

10:30
There's some adventure in it. There's

10:32
some uh uh skill to it. You got to learn

10:34
some things. We've read a lot of books

10:36
and try to figure out how to do it. But

10:38
um it uh this it's it's mostly a great

10:42
adventure. Have you ever wavered in your

Second Thoughts?

10:45
thinking about was this the right

10:47
decision?

10:49
Uh not at all. I I mean not not even

10:52
slightly. It it uh we later in 2008 we

10:56
we transferred the stock of our company

10:58
out of we my brother and I each owned

11:00
half the stock and we we transferred

11:02
that to a charity u which had some great

11:05
advantages from a um succession planning

11:10
element u estate tax element um even

11:14
income tax element. There's lots of

11:15
benefits in doing that. Um, and people

11:19
ask, "Do do you do you have second

11:21
thoughts about doing that?" Because you

11:22
took this company that was worth

11:23
hundreds of millions of dollars and you

11:25
you gave it away. Um, and and what I say

11:29
is we really didn't give it away. We

11:30
really gave it away before we started

11:32
it. We really told God it was his before

11:34
we started it. Um, and the second thing

11:36
is we didn't really give it away. We

11:38
transferred the stock. So, we don't own

11:39
it anymore, but we still own it from a

11:42
from a uh we still feel it's like our

11:46
stewardship, our responsibility. So, the

11:48
company is about four times as big as it

11:50
was when we gave it away in 2008. So,

11:53
it's not like we're sitting back saying,

11:55
"Well, it's not mine anymore, so we're

11:56
not interested." But, you know, we're

11:58
we're we're continuing to push hard to

12:00
to be the best company in our industry,

12:02
to be great at what we do. Um, so that's

12:05
been all part of the journey.

Reactions to Alan's Lifestyle

12:08
One of the things I I know that you do

12:09
is go around the country and around the

12:12
world talking about a little of your

12:13
story of how uh you're stewards of the

12:16
business and how you decided to just

12:18
give it back to God uh what was his and

12:21
and it's interesting because in that

12:23
process you also talk a little bit about

12:25
how you've kept your lifestyle and I

12:28
would imagine that a lot of the

12:29
audiences you speak to of successful

12:32
business CEOs who run large scale

12:34
companies um that probably doesn't go

12:37
over well. How do you hear how do you

12:40
hear that being received? Talking about

12:41
capping your lifestyle and giving away

12:43
so much money and encouraging others and

12:46
bring them bringing them in with you.

12:49
You know, I think for a lot of people it

12:51
does make sense. I mean, for some they

12:53
they think it's crazy, but for if you

12:56
believe what I believe about God, that

12:58
that everything has come from God, we're

13:00
just a conduit. God's giving us this

13:02
this stuff and we're just trying to be a

13:04
good conduit. If you believe that you're

13:06
going to live forever and that your life

13:08
on this earth is just a small part of

13:10
your total existence, if you believe

13:12
that there is a good God, then um making

13:16
some minor sacrifices is is not is is

13:20
not a big deal and and it's bad. It's

13:23
logical. It's um it's investing in the

13:25
future, I guess you would say. So, um,

13:29
you know, some people really struggle

13:30
with with lifestyle and think they need

13:32
to have We live in such an opulent

13:35
society. It's it's it's amazing. But,

13:38
you know, Jesus warned about

13:40
money 2,000 years ago. He warned about

13:43
money 10 times more than he warned about

13:45
anything else. It was a big problem um

13:48
and and a big trap for people 10 years a

13:51
2,000 years ago. It's a big deal today.

13:54
Um, and I I think my life has been

13:57
freer by putting constraints in my life.

14:01
You would think putting constraints like

14:02
saying you're going to have a certain

14:04
lifestyle would would be put you in

14:06
bondage. To me, it's led to freedom. And

14:09
I think living a life without

14:11
constraints and basically doing whatever

14:13
you want to do tends to lead to bondage

14:16
and an emptiness. And so, you know,

14:18
we're not created to be happy or

14:21
satisfied with stuff.

14:23
um that's not how we're built. And so

14:26
people spend their whole life trying to

14:28
accumulate and you know accumulate toys

14:31
and and it really backfires. And so we

14:33
just um got on the front end of that and

14:36
preempted that and are so thankful that

14:38
we did it to it has led not to a life of

14:41
of hardship and struggle and sacrifice

14:44
but a life of adventure and and fun and

14:48
um so it's it's uh I you know the reason

14:52
you know we went for 15 years our first

14:54
15 years we didn't tell anybody what we

14:56
were doing. There's a verse in the Bible

14:58
that says don't let the left hand know

15:00
what the right hand's doing. don't don't

15:01
don't let other people see you giving.

15:05
And and I think there's some validity to

15:07
that. Um there's also verses, you know,

15:09
a few verses before that, it says, "Let

15:11
your light shine before men in such a

15:13
way that they see your good works and

15:15
glorify God." And so, um, some people

15:19
challenged us and said, you know, your

15:20
story is pretty amazing. God has done

15:22
something pretty wild in your business

15:25
and you have a stewardship of your story

15:28
also. You need to be willing to tell the

15:30
story. And so back in the you know

15:33
2007208 we started telling our story and

15:36
uh and I think it has set a lot of

15:38
people free. People have heard the

15:40
story. Some have rejected it and thought

15:43
that's that's crazy. Um but many have

15:46
embraced it and and found freedom in

15:49
this area. And so I that's that's what

15:51
keeps encouraging us. Some people have

15:54
never thought about it before and it's a

15:56
new concept but once they think about it

15:58
it does make sense. So, um, so that

16:02
that's been that's why we're we're

16:03
willing to come on a podcast like this

16:05
and tell our story. Several years ago,

16:07
we wouldn't have done that, but now

16:08
we're open to doing that. Well, it it's

Building The Servant Leadership Mentality Into The Team

16:12
fascinating because you've modeled

16:13
servant leadership so well. Um, how do

16:17
you build into your team that same

16:19
mentality and what do they think of all

16:21
this, your executive team and key

16:23
leaders?

16:25
You know, I think it really helps that

16:27
my lifestyle is is less than or equal to

16:31
their lifestyle. Um, they're not seeing

16:34
their the fruits of their labor are not

16:36
going to to ramp up my lifestyle. So,

16:39
we're all on the same team. Um, we all

16:42
are owners in a

16:44
stewardship. You know, they they they

16:46
all are trying to make a great company

16:48
as as am I. Um but we all from a

16:52
financial standpoint have a similar uh

16:54
mindset. Now each one of those guys has

16:57
different um personal we pay market

16:59
wages to everybody and so uh many people

17:04
probably a hundred people at the company

17:05
make more money than I do. Um I I have

17:08
artificially limited my salary and we

17:10
don't do that for the rest of the guys.

17:12
But but a lot of people are um who

17:16
coming to our company because they want

17:18
to be at a company that's making a

17:20
difference and that has a a purpose that

17:22
matters. And so that uh that's been a

17:25
secret to us attracting good people and

17:27
having them stay for 25 years. Wow. it

The Magnitude of Money Given

17:31
and it must be cool for them to see the

17:33
growth of some of those people coming

17:35
for and being there for decades now

17:37
seeing the actual impact on the ground

17:40
that you're making not just in the

17:42
professional world but also in a lot of

17:44
the ministry stuff you've get involved

17:46
in um and answer this however you want

17:49
but when you think through how much

17:51
money you have been able to give away

17:54
how do you think about that in terms of

17:55
numbers

17:58
you know I mean I think I'd start off by

18:00
saying I don't think that God is

18:03
impressed with the magnitude of the

18:05
numbers. People are impressed by that.

18:08
But if you look in the Bible, the the

18:09
number one hall of fame giving story in

18:12
the Bible, Jesus was sitting at the

18:15
temple and watching people put in large

18:17
sums of money. And this lady came up, a

18:19
poor lady came up and put in two small

18:22
coins. And Jesus said, "Hey, stop. Look

18:26
at this. That is real giving." That's

18:28
the story that he pointed out as the the

18:31
Hall of Fame giving story. So God's not

18:33
impressed with the commas and the zeros.

18:35
He doesn't want our money. He wants us.

18:39
And and because he wants us though, he

18:41
wants us to hold our money with an open

18:43
hand. He said you can't serve God and

18:44
money. Um so you know the the uh we

18:49
started out gave $50,000. It got up to

18:52
where we were got up to a million

18:53
dollars a year we were able to send out.

18:55
We were amazed by that.

18:58
One of our guys who was a sales guy

19:00
said, "I think we ought to set a goal of

19:02
a million dollars a month." And we're

19:05
like, "Yeah, right." You know, it but

19:07
but almost immediately the industry

19:09
boomed. And we got to a place where we

19:11
were able to send out a million dollars

19:13
a month. And so we had to have more

19:15
people helping us figure out where that

19:16
money was going. And uh and since then,

19:19
the company has continued to grow. We've

19:21
added some other companies that have a

19:22
similar ownership structure. and we pull

19:24
our money and and so now the uh the

19:28
total going out um just from our group

19:31
is about $55 million last year and we're

19:34
amazed. I mean it's we never dreamed of

19:36
this kind of dollars flowing out. Um and

19:39
it's a lot of work to try to figure out

19:41
how to how to distribute that kind of

19:43
money. Um and it and we don't know what

19:46
the future holds. It may be more in the

19:48
future. So, and we're having others that

19:50
are coming and saying, "We'd like, you

19:52
know, I've made a lot of money, but I

19:54
don't know how to give it. Can you help

19:55
me figure out where to put that money?"

19:58
And so, now that's one of the things

20:00
that we're helping some people with. Um,

20:02
not on a, you know, just on a very

20:04
informal basis, but helping people try

20:06
to figure out um what to do if you if

20:10
you've got a lot of money.

20:12
It's absolutely amazing. And I I love

Alan's Thoughts About His Legacy

20:15
the the story you shared before that,

20:18
too. when when we think through the

20:20
company that you've built and companies

20:22
that you're involved in now, you're

20:24
really structuring them differently,

20:26
which might be how it was always

20:28
intended to be. Um, when you think

20:31
through legacy and the legacy you're

20:33
leaving, what comes to mind? You know,

20:36
I'm I'm not big on that word in

20:40
but I I think that I think stewardship

20:44
is the right posture for a person who is

20:48
a follower of Jesus. Everything we have

20:50
has come from God. Everything belongs to

20:52
God. And so I mean I just want to be um

20:56
I want to leave if you want to call it a

20:57
legacy but just a concept of that

21:00
stewardship is a great way to live life.

21:03
It's and and you know it it is true that

21:06
we serve a that we serve God and he is

21:09
he is God. I mean and he's worthy of our

21:11
total obedience even if it's really

21:13
really hard but he's also a loving

21:16
heavenly father who wants to give us a

21:18
rich abundant life and and that's what

21:21
we found. And so um you know I I want to

21:24
be um to leave a legacy of being a

21:28
reasonably good steward. I'm I'm not a

21:32
um I'm not some amazing guy. I'm not

21:34
super disciplined. If this had been

21:36
really really hard, I probably would

21:38
have bailed out, but it's not been it's

21:40
been a great life of adventure and

21:42
excitement and interesting and it's

21:44
hard. I mean, there's not this not that

21:46
not hard parts to it. Um anything that

21:49
you're doing that's substantial and if

21:51
you want to be the best in your

21:52
industry, you don't you don't coast up

21:54
to that point. You you got to keep

21:56
working hard. But all that's part of the

21:58
good stuff in life. So um yeah, I think

22:02
to have a legacy of work is a good

22:05
thing, stewardship is the right posture

22:08
and helping other people brings you joy

22:11
and fulfillment. When some of our

Communicating Stewardship to Others

22:14
audience are coming at this from a faith

22:16
standpoint, some are coming at this

22:18
without any faith at all. And thinking

22:21
through stewardship, uh that could mean

22:23
a lot of things to a lot of people. and

22:25
you've kind of explained what it means

22:26
to you and you've explained that really

22:28
well when you encourage other people to

22:31
think through stewardship in their own

22:33
lives. What's the starting point look

22:35
like to to recognize the fact that being

22:38
a steward, it means that it's not your

22:41
stuff. Now, that's a maybe that's a

22:44
foreign concept to someone that doesn't

22:46
believe in God, but the uh for a person

22:48
that does believe in God, everything

22:50
that you have is not yours. And you need

22:53
to um figure out what what the owner

22:56
wants you to do with it. Um the owner

22:58
being God. The um you know, even if even

23:02
if I didn't believe in God, I think

23:04
living a life that's centered on

23:07
others is a more full life than a life

23:10
centered on yourself. I I don't think

23:13
even if you don't believe in God, you're

23:15
still not created to be happy with a

23:17
bunch of stuff. It'll never fulfill you.

23:20
And contentment is a wonderful thing.

23:24
And and um greed is a is a choice tool

23:29
of our enemy to to mess us up way our

23:32
mess up our thinking, mess up our

23:35
perspective. And I think

23:37
generosity breaks the power of greed.

23:40
You rarely meet a generous person who's

23:43
not happy. Um and you rarely meet a

23:47
greedy person who is happy. And so even

23:50
if you don't even if it's totally self-s

23:53
serving, develop generosity in your life

23:56
because it will um it will help you have

23:59
a better life.

Involving Family In Generous Giving

24:01
Wow. I know your family is very

24:04
important to you and you've got a big

24:05
family. Um how did you bring in your

24:10
family into all of this? You know, our

24:13
family, we have six kids and they grew

24:15
up kind of as uh they had the benefit of

24:18
not growing up as rich kids. We, you

24:20
know, we had a relatively simple

24:22
lifestyle, which I think was beneficial

24:23
to them. We let them do things like pay

24:26
for half of their college, which some

24:28
people think of as child abuse, but we

24:30
thought of it as doing something for

24:31
them, not to them. Um, and and there

24:34
were a lot of things we didn't we had a

24:36
lot of fun as a family. We went camping

24:38
and we went to the beach and we just we

24:40
had a lot of fun. we did had special

24:42
treats. Um, but there was a lot of

24:46
things that we didn't do from a

24:48
lifestyle standpoint. And so sometimes

24:50
we did have to say no to our kids. Um,

24:53
but we also showed them the alternative

24:55
by taking them all over the world. my

24:56
kids. We didn't take the whole family to

24:58
Disney World, but we went to we went to

25:01
uh Vietnam and we went to India and we

25:04
went all across Africa and we went to

25:06
Turkey and to Egypt and to Israel and we

25:10
met amazing people who were changing

25:13
people's lives. And my kids got to meet

25:15
these people and see these ministries.

25:18
And um we had people around our dinner

25:20
table regularly talking about what was

25:22
going on around the world. And so my

25:25
kids don't feel ripped off by the

25:27
childhood they had. They had an

25:29
exciting, adventurous childhood. They

25:32
are equipped now with education and work

25:35
ethic and faith to to go on in life. We

25:40
don't plan to leave our kids a lot of

25:41
money because we don't think that that's

25:44
beneficial to them. Um, you know,

25:47
there's some people that say, "I want I

25:49
don't want my kids to have to go through

25:50
what I went through."

25:52
to which I would say, why not? I mean,

25:55
it made you who you are. We We want our

25:57
kids to struggle. That's one of the

25:58
gifts we have for them. Pain is one of

26:00
the gifts we want to let them

26:02
experience. And I think it helps them.

26:04
And we've sitting they're they're all

26:06
grown now. Five of them are married and

26:09
uh and they're all on their own and and

26:12
uh you know, so it's it's um my kids

26:16
don't feel like they got short changed

26:18
because we gave away the company. Some

26:20
people ask me that, you know, are your

26:21
kids pissed off that you gave away their

26:23
multi hundreds of millions of dollars of

26:26
inheritance? And uh there's been none of

26:28
that. We never felt like it was ours and

26:31
therefore they never felt like it was

26:33
theirs. And so, and I think expectation

26:36
management, particularly with kids, is

26:38
huge. With everybody, it's huge, but but

26:41
uh you know, my kids didn't expect that

26:44
they were going to be set for life

26:45
because, you know, because we were going

26:47
to take care of them. We we let them

26:49
know right away that they're going to

26:50
need to take care of themselves. Wow,

26:53
that's so cool. Well, I want to finish

10-Rapid-Fire Questions

26:55
with 10 rapid fire questions where you

26:58
just say the first thing that comes to

27:00
your mind. Great. Who's the first person

27:03
you think of when I say servant

27:05
leadership?

27:07
Jesus.

27:09
Five words that most describe you.

27:13
Adventurous. Uh

27:17
uh hard

27:19
worker.

27:21
Uh

27:24
fun.

27:26
Uh

27:27
thrifty. I'm a little My wife would say

27:30
cheap. Um and I'd say I'd say I'm a

27:33
leader. Love it. Favorite author or

27:36
book? Yeah, I've read all the Jim

27:38
Collins books. I love I love all the Jim

27:40
Collins books. Um great book called

27:42
Amazing Grace about the life of uh

27:45
William Wilberg Force. That to me was

27:49
really impressive book. Favorite movie.

27:52
Favorite movie. It's a wonderful life.

27:54
Favorite food? Favorite food? I'd say

27:56
barbecued ribs. Oh, and you have good

27:59
ribs in Texas, too. Or in uh Memphis. In

28:02
Memphis. Memphis. Yeah. Favorite thing

28:03
to do in your free time? Uh backpacking.

28:05
All right. What's a surprising fact

28:07
about you? You know, I've been to every

28:09
state and over 60 countries. How about

28:12
that? I've done a little traveling.

28:13
That's a lot. Okay. Where's your

28:15
favorite place you've been? I'd say

28:17
probably Israel. Is there anywhere you

28:19
want to go that you have not been

28:20
before? Yes. I want to go to New

28:22
Zealand. I've never been there. All

28:24
right. And finally, what's the best

28:26
advice you've ever gotten? I think to to

28:29
seriously

28:30
consider the claims of Jesus because to

28:34
me it answers all the key questions in

28:36
life about where we came from, where

28:38
we're

28:39
going, what our morality should be, what

28:42
our purpose is. So to be encouraged

28:46
to

28:48
to get to a conclusion on that, I think

28:51
was the best advice I've ever been

28:53
given. That's good. Well, Alan, thank

Closing

28:55
you so much for joining us on the

28:57
Servant Leadership Podcast. Oh, it's

28:59
been a it's been a treat. Thank you for

29:01
allowing me to be part of it. Thank you

29:02
for listening to this episode of the

29:04
Servant Leadership Podcast. If you

29:07
enjoyed what you heard, please give it a

29:09
thumbs up and leave a comment below.

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