How this got started
The idea for this really goes back to a spring day in 2006. I had a tee time at a local country club with my friend Tom. I arrived about 15 minutes before time and called my host, Tom. The staff told me they hadn’t seen Tom, but that I could wait in the bar area. After about 10 or 15 minutes, and several calls to Tom’s cell phone, I began to worry. We had a tee time, would they be mad? Would they still let us play? Where was he?
Finally, just as I was about to leave, I saw Tom. He was out on the practice green. Tom stood there, swinging, smiling, looking relaxed, draining 15 foot puts, and… smoking a stogie. He wasn’t stressed, he was just mellow, grinning like a kid… and this is a guy whose wife made him quit his job after he nearly has a heart attack at 40 he worked so hard. What was his secret, I wondered?
I was enjoying a round the round, until, on the 6th tee, my phone rang. I didn’t have good service, so I missed the call… from the CEO of my firm. Tom had one thing to say. Suddenly getting serious he said:
“Turn it off, dude!”
But no, I had to call back. The CEO was calling. Had to be important, had to be handled right away. Had to be something so mindbogglingly crucial that the world would end if I didn’t call the CEO right then! I’d just call him and tell him ‘sorry’ and promise that it (whatever the hell it was) would never happen again. Which I did, but I didn’t mean it. And why the hell did I not take Tom’s advice and turn the damn thing off? Four words. “Turn it off, dude!” So that buggered my round, my mood, and my afternoon. Oh, yeah. It was my birthday too. It turns out that Tom always leaves his phone in the car when he golfs. That’s why he didn’t get my calls earlier in the day. I leave my phone in the car now too.
“Turn it off, dude!”