Things My Daughter Graciously (and probably inaccurately) Claims that She Learned from Her Badger (me).

My birthday is approaching and my daughter composed these things that she claims to have learned from me. It’s been a rough week and she wanted to encourage me. Needless to say, she succeeded.

I pray that I did impart these values because I have worked to achieve them in my life. However, I am a veteran parent and I know better than to claim to have contributed to my children’ successes or to have caused their problems. At soon-to-be 59 years of age, my legacy is about all that matters to me. If you are like me, you feel as if your life experience might best serve as a warning to others of things NOT to do.

So I’ll share my daughter’s observations – and consider them in light of her young legacy of nationally ranked distance runner – tough former fighter – insanely high academic achievements in multiple degrees at different schools – Renaissance personality – and all camouflaged in a petite little size.

Laugh often and genuinely.
Embrace your nerdiness, and find other nerds to marinate in the nerdly juice with you. Nerd bonding is the most exquisite kind of bonding. 🙂
Fight for the people (and pups) and causes you love, even when you’re fighting alone.
Look for nuance in all situations, even when it hurts to do so.
Be more generous than some people think would be “sufficient” with your resources and your time.
Never miss the chance to hug someone you love.
Be willing to answer the phone at 3 am when it’s someone you love who is calling.
When sh*t hits the fan, kick into warrior mode and stay there til said sh*t is no longer on your ceiling fan…even if it takes a while! No one likes sh*tty fans, after all. 🙂
You can never have too many books.
Don’t be afraid to veer away from your schedule. The best adventures and memories are most often spontaneous.
Having ADD is actually a benefit: it makes you more creative!
Dress in your power clothing when it’s time to kick a$$ and take names.
Going to counseling and taking medicine is a sign of courage and strength, not weakness.
The outdoors are a marvelous therapist.
Dogs aren’t really dogs: they’re furry angel-children, and should be spoiled as such!
Introverts can still be awesome public speakers and teachers.
Follow your career passion, even if it doesn’t pay well and even if it isn’t the most popular choice.
Courage is being scared, but still doing the right thing, even though it scares you!
Be outrageously kind to service industry folks, both with words, actions, and through being “mufaka” (not sure how to spell that one, but you know what I mean).
Take the people you love’s concerns and drama seriously enough to let them vent to you a bit, even if you don’t quite understand what they’re upset about!
Give yourself the introvert time you need to recharge, and don’t feel badly about it.
Being strong doesn’t just have to mean having big muscles: it means an inner strength and ferocity of spirit.
Try to look for the good in other people, even when you really, really, really dislike them!
Sometimes, waiting til the last minute is best, because then you work super, super fast!
It’s ok to be a good writer but to not enjoy writing!
Be a Labrador for those that you love, and a PO’d Doberman against those who seek to wrong them.
Life is too short to take it seriously all the time. Be goofy; smile; and the word will eventually smile back at you, if even just for one brilliant moment.

About mavity2012

I am a Senior Partner operating out of the Atlanta office of Fisher & Phillips LLP, one of the Nation’s oldest and largest management employment and labor firms. My practice is national and keeps me on the road or in one of our 28 offices about 50 percent of the time. I created and co-chair the Firm's Workplace Safety and Catastrophe Management Practice Group. I have almost 29 years of experience as a labor lawyer, but rely even more heavily on the experience I gained in working in my family's various businesses, and through dealing with practical client issues. Employers tell me that they seldom meet an attorney who delivers on his promise to provide practical guidance and to be a business partner. As a result, some executives probably use different terms than “practical” to describe my fellow travelers in the profession. I don't enjoy the luxury of being impractical because I spend much of my time on shop floors and construction sites dealing with safety, union and related issues which are driven by real world processes and the need to protect and get the most out of one's most important business assets ... its employees. That's one of the reasons that I view safety compliance as a way to also manage problem employees, reduce litigation and develop the type of work environment that makes unions unnecessary. Starting out dealing with union-management challenges and a stint in the NLRB have better equipped me to see the interrelationship of legal and workplace factors. I am proud also of my experience at Fisher & Phillips, where providing “practical advice” is second only to legal excellence among the Firm’s values. Our website lists me as having provided counsel for over 225 occasions of union activity, guided unionized companies, and as having managed approximately 450 OSHA fatality cases in construction and general industry, ranging from dust explosions to building collapses, in virtually every state. I have coordinated complex inspections involving multi-employer sites, corporate-wide compliance, and issues involving criminal referral. As a full labor lawyer, I oversee audits of corporate labor, HR, and safety compliance. I have responded to virtually every type of day-to-day workplace inquiry, and have handled cases before the EEOC, OFCCP, NLRB, and numerous other state and federal agencies. At F & P, all of us seek to spot issues and then rely upon attorneys in the Firm who concentrate on those areas. No tunnel vision. I teach or speak around 50 times per year to business associations, bar and professional groups, and to individual businesses. I serve on safety committees at three states’ AGC Chapters, teach at the AGC ASMTC

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