By: Tony Lorenz

The biggest ideas are surprisingly simple.

Typically, they have been right in front of us all along. The emotional intelligence in others, however, comes along and helps us see these ideas for their brilliance.

These people inspire us to take the immediate needs of our work out of our way to embrace an idea worth our time and investment to make that idea happen with them.

When you least expect it, expect it to happen to you. It can come at any time, and when it does, you know right away. It happened to me about a year ago, courtesy of a long time friend, Mary Jo Valentine Blythe , an industry leader, and now founder of The Above and Beyond Foundation .

The heart of our industry, any industry for that matter, is on the front lines. The individuals who comprise the vast majority of our industry are not executives or business owners. They are not the thousands of industry professionals with ready access to this post.

Hundreds of thousands of people work day in and day out over many hours, and in the face of many challenges we do not face, to deliver events – in the background -while we are widely recognized by our peers for the outcome.

These individuals are on the front lines of our industry to ensure sleeping rooms and meeting are set and ready. They serve amazing meals. They support their fellow team members through a variety of skills they craft over their entire lives so they can provide for their families, and make our industry possible.

Mary Jo has spent a lifetime applying her generous spirit to her work, her family, her friends and her community. When we got together about a year ago, I could tell she was different. She was on a mission. Mary Jo had recently founded The Above and Beyond Foundation.

In the face of my ridiculous work load, within about five minutes she had me committed to her mission, with her and a number of others lucky enough to have been asked by Mary Jo to join her on the journey.

Mary Jo had a dream, now realized, to establish the Heart of Hospitality Award, which includes life-changing rewards of $10,000 given to individuals on the front lines of our industry who are exceptional in the view of their teams. No strings attached. Simply a thank you to these individuals for inspiring us to be grateful to them for their work. The Foundation is hopeful our work will lead to many more avenues for recognition of many individuals in many ways for years to come.

It all started with one heart, Mary Jo’s heart, which was open to recognize that this industry is not possible without these people. They make our careers possible. And we are grateful.

So, the biggest ideas really are quite simple after all, and they can be made real through just a bit of work, and a lot of heart.

As the saying goes, “When it’s right, its easy.” This endeavor has been easy.

Take a look at The Above and Beyond Foundation and send a note to TheAABF@gmail.com with any thoughts you have on how you can lend a bit of your heart to this incredible cause.

Thank you!

Tony

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