Bill Walton - what a freakin' legacy of optimism. He passed away at the age of 71 this last weekend (eff you, Cancer) which caused me to reflect on the only chance I ever had to meet him. As many others have said over the past 24 hours - he showed people what he was about very quickly - and it was no different for me.
In 2019 I flew to Springfield, Massachusetts to see my childhood hero, Sidney Moncrief, get inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Having arrived insanely early for the events of the day (my inner 12 year old couldn't wait), I was allowed to roam around the museum exhibits while there were VERY few people there.
At one point I walked around the corner to see Bill Walton and the President of the Hall of Fame, John Doleva, checking out an electronic display (turns out the hall had just released some new content associated with Bill). I stood a very short distance away and watched this 7-footer talk thru his memories of every single photo that he scrolled thru - all details that your typical caption could never capture, narrated by the man himself.
Seeing that I was watching, Bill pulled me in as though I was meant to be there and included me in the story telling. He was clear that he believed that he was "the luckiest man in the world" and that his job on the planet was to "see how many lives he could positively impact every single day". He stood there and had a conversation for north of 20 minutes and completely made my day.
Cheers to an inspiring, one-of-a-kind, dude who put a transformational mindset into the world every day of the week. Something for all of us to aspire to.
Thanks for including me when you didn't have to, Bill! Rest in Peace.
#gratefuldude #billwalton #changeagent #hippiesunite #positivity #endlessoptimism
Enterprise Lean-Agile-DevOps Coach and Consultant, and Founder at BluHound Solutions
2wIt's great to see this for AgileIndy, and I highly recommend folks take the opportunity to hear from the authentic and highly-knowledgeable Pete Anderson.