Martin Reid

Transcript

so I am dedicating this speech this talk to my aunt Phyllis she is a wonderful lady and she's in a nursing home right now and in her own words she would say her mind is falling out of her head as she battles with Alzheimer's but at the same time she is so happy and she's smiling and she's laughing and she's still such a great inspiration to me as a kid we used to go up to her house we drive from Mississauga and we'd hang out with there and as kids my brother and sister and I we loved it because she had a candy bowl and

this candies were the things that we run past her grabs a little hard candy with the soft centers you know ones like a little cherry filled ones and yeah so we're like mom can we go to F Phyllis's house jack we go to aunt Phyllis house could we want to see these candies right so that would be the thing we were really really young then as we got a little bit older we realized that she's actually a really really nice lady and and actually she had a she had a heart for me I you know of all people you think that you say your first

words to your mom or to your dad my very first words with my aunt Phyllis you know so I had this place in their heart like I was hers she was mine and you know my brother and sister were important too but like I was the one right anyway so as they got older I would spend more time with her we go and I Drive up there grab my candy have a conversation with her and and she was just really cool lady we spent lots of time together as I got older I had an opportunity to actually live with her when two went on to

do my master's degree and got to stay at her house and that's when I discovered what my legacy would be as I spent time with this wise lady see legacy is not something that you acquire you know a think of legacy it's not like on a company and you you bring them to great heights or you win a championship and then that's your dynasty and that's your legacy I think I'd like to see something more like you inherit it you carry it into the job so it's stay with the company example I have resilience or I'm a hard worker I have integrity and I bring

those integrity or that harberger that resilience to my job the job does well the company succeeds and you hope that the next person in that seat carries that integrity the hard work and that resilience with you right and that is the legacy it's something that's in you that comes out you hand it off to someone else and that's kind of how legacy works in my mind my aunt Phyllis is legacy is gratitude and it has this funny peculiar package and annoyed me when I was a kid because I would you know I'd be a 21 year old and I'd walk into the house and she

was so fast on the draw with her line so I come in I'm like aunt Phyllis I got a parking ticket today's $15 gonna have to go down to John Street blah blah blah and she would say you know you should be happy I didn't get a speeding ticket and she'd go back to sterner rice and peas on the stove and you know and then I'd say okay and Phyllis another time I walk in the house and Phyllis I sprained my ankle is playing basketball and I can't play for the rest of the year and she see you know you should be happy you didn't

break your arm and she go back to her stoop ease on the stove or she's and I leave me there mad because I I wanted to have someone just stew with it instead she'd had this attitude of gratitude and she was so fast on the draw living with her for years I almost like trying to stump her you know so one time I come in and she would have like Shira first one for this car situation so I'm like hey Phyllis my car is leaking and a strand of the side of the road I'm so mad this person set me up and she'd say you

know what you should be happy you didn't have a car accident on the way here and I'm like it's so true and I tell you these lessons with me and when I had some like real problems in my life I was able to go back to this whole point of having an attitude of gratitude being happy for what I had and they went on to my kids as well so now we'd be in the car and if you okay guys let's play the aunt Phyllis game alright and we say you know I say okay am i some of it alright okay dad my homework no

no no you got to start with that Phyllis and he's like okay all right okay and Phyllis my homework is lost and my dog ate my homework I'm gonna fail my exam and I'm gonna lose the whole semester I mean I will you should be happy you know how to read oh so that legacy is something that's in me that I carry on hand on to my kids and we live this out so I challenge you today to think about what your legacy is what did you inherit from your family hard work integrity gratitude passion whatever it is hand that off apply it and hand

it off that's what I've done with myself and with my kids thank you for your time

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.