An Army of Normal Folks - What If You’ve Been Keeping Score of the Wrong Game?

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Bob Buford had already won - he built his family's media business into a major cable company and sold it for an estimated $300 million. Then his 24-year-old son passed away. Buford spent the second half of his life helping others and writing the bestselling book "Halftime". In this Shop Talk, we dig into his idea that your money, career, skills, and even your failures aren't just measures of what you've accomplished - they're assets you can deploy for someone else. Purpose doesn't have a retirement age. Your second half can be your best one. ARMY ACTIONS Subscribe to the podcast and rate & review us! Signup to join the Army, visit NormalFolks.org Follow us on social media @ArmyofNormalFolks Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/ Take The 10 Level Challenge, "the hero's journey for service" at 10LevelChallenge.orgSupport the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, everybody. It's Bill Courtney with an army of normal folks. Welcome to the shop. How was your birthday, Bill? That was great. I had a filet from Pete and Sam. I still haven't been there. Is it awesome? Oh, so good. Old school, I love it. So we picked it up and brought her home. Both of my sons happened to be cruising through in town that day for no particular reason. Not my birthday. but Will ended up spending the night.

And so we hung around, watched a movie, ate a steak, Will had lasagna, Lisa had got chicken Italian salad, and fell asleep, and it was great. This is very monumental. Yeah, Lisa did go to Baskin-Robbins and get me a chocolate chip cookie ice cream cake. I love ice cream cakes. Oh, my gosh, they're so... Why would you have a regular cake? When you could have ice cream?

And the cake in it, and this one, it was like made, recently, and so the cake was still spongy and soft and fresh. I had two big fat pieces. It was really, yeah. So, birthday was fine. Yeah, and we're going to Vegas this weekend for my birthday. Of course you are. Why wouldn't we?

The University of Memphis is playing UNLV out there, so. Oh, that's your excuse? Yeah, so it's my birthday, and we're going to go watch the University of Memphis play the UNOV. And by the time this airs, we'll know if Memphis was, the winner or not, but either way, we'll go. Just you and Lisa or the crew? No, me and Lisa. Nice.

Just leaving, I'm off this weekend. We don't have a football game Friday. Yeah. So I'm leaving tomorrow and we're just flying out and flying back. Just kind of have a good time. So, thanks for us. All the middle college lost, huh? No, we got, we got smoked.

We're starting, we started, I think, six freshmen between both sides of the ball. We're just young. We'll be okay. By midseason, we'll hit our stride. We'll be okay as these kids grow up and learn, but. Tesla I did at first when you're starting that many years. Yeah. But we'll be right. 122 years ago.

Yeah. So what happened in 1841? Jeez, Louise. What did happen? It's shop talk. Oh, first of all, hang on, everybody. It is shop talk number 122, which is, what if you've been keeping score of the wrong game, which will get to after brief messages. But first, 122 years ago, in honor of shop talk number 122, which would have been

1908 1904 1904 the United States took control the Panama Canal project really

we gained control the canal zone and then we gave it away I guess no we did like what six seven years ago

we gave it back to Panama oh is that when it happened that recently we had because when we took control over it we got control over for 100 years

and then we were doing to the agreement to give it back to panel yeah and then a bunch of Chinese companies came in and started control them some of it. So we fixed that too, I think. Yeah. Teddy Roosevelt won the presidency in his own right. So he became

present after McKinley's assassination. But then he got elected. I cannot believe that was 122 years ago. I love that. That's like stuff I remember studying and in junior high school. We should do a shop talk just on Teddy Roosevelt. Probably there's so many things about him. I think it was awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Let's see. The man in the arena. Yeah, we already did that. Yeah. Yeah, but the teddy bear. Yeah, that's right. I think he was like one of the first customers of Brooks Brothers. There's so many things.

I mean, I know I'm saying random things. They actually made his uniform. Now I'm going to butcher the history. Is it the Spanish-American War? Like when they fought in Cuba? Brooks Brothers made that uniform? Yeah. No kidding.

Was it called the Cuban-American War or the Spanish-American War? I don't know. Now I'm going to sound like an idiot to people, but I don't know. But he actually fought in that war. I do do that. Yeah. All right. New York City subway opened.

A hundred and twenty-two years ago. Yeah. I bet that was a soot-ridden, loud, disgusting place. More than 100,000 people wrote it on opening day. Wow. And think about that back then. Wow. Have you actually written the subway before?

Yeah. For sure. Hate it. I knew you would. I'm claustrophobic. I don't like tax spaces. No. Michael Bloomberg wrote it every day.

Oh, good for him. I don't. He's a billionaire and you're not. It's not about money. about just, you know, I won't ride the tube in London either. I hate it down there, yeah. Oh, claustrophobics real, though. It's a real thing, yeah.

Actually, if I ever told you my story about, I know I'm going on and on, about the subway in D.C.? No. Oh, man. So I'm by the Capitol Hill South subway station, and I'm waiting, and I feel an itch on my leg. You feel what? An itch on my leg.

Okay. So I itch my leg. I feel another itch on my leg. I itch my leg. I feel another itch. And I realized a rat had climbed up my pants. Are you kidding? No, I not.

What was this? This is like when I used to work in D.C. It's like a decade ago. A rat climbed up your leg, old rat. On the Will's side of the Capitol, his former side of the house. Like a squirrel size rat. What did you do? So I got it out.

I guess so. The funniest part of it, though, this makes me seem like a was. I literally ran to the other side of the subway platform. Which didn't matter. The rat was gone. I would have. That's disgusting. You love you to get rabies.

Yeah. A rat crawled up your leg. Yeah. That is gross. Oh, my God. I don't even want to talk about this. Yet I still ride the subway. A man of the people.

So shop talk number 122 is what to do if a rat crawls up your leg. That's gross. It's a great story, though. Right after we get back from our generous sponsors, we're going to talk about what if you've been keeping score in the wrong day. See in just a minute. The music you love Your favorite radio stations

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IR Radio app today. All right, everybody. Welcome back to the shop. Number 122. I've thrown up in my mouth a little bit, thinking about the rats that went up. Alex's leg. Maybe that's why I'm single.

Yeah. Gee, whiz. Get the scurvy. Okay, guys, what have you been keeping score the wrong game? There's a moment in every football game called halftime. When you're getting your butt kicked, it's a nice respite.

You walk into the locker room, the first half is over. You can't change a single play. If you screwed up, it's done. If you play great, that's great. That's done too. But there's only one question that matters. What are we going to do in the second half?

A guy named Bob Buford built an entire book around that idea. It's called Halftime. And it's about moving from success to significance. And Bob wasn't writing about this theoretically. Bob had lived it. Bob eventually grew this family business with one ABC television station and Tyler. Bob eventually grew it into a network of cable systems around the country. And when I six successful, I mean really successful.

By the time the family cable business was sold in 1999, it had about 170,000 subscribers. And the deal was estimated at around just 300 million. That's about 600 million. dollars in today's world. So a little bit over half a billion. Now that doesn't mean Bob personally pocketed 600 billion. It wasn't a family business and we don't know how much of that sale ultimately went to him. But the point is this, that wasn't somebody who failed at business and decided success didn't matter. Bob had succeeded. He built the business. He made money,

achieved things that the world tells us were supposed to achieve. And yet, years before the company was even sold, Bob had started asking himself a deceptibly simple question. How much is enough? He was beginning to wonder, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? You know, the second half? And then tragedy struck. Bob's only son, Ross, sadly, drowned in the Rio Grande at just 24 years old. Imagine that. You've built a company. You've achieved success. You've reached what society. he says is the pinnacle, and then you lose your child. Bob was already wrestling with what he wanted to do in the second half of his life and what he wanted it to mean.

Losing Ross made that question impossible to ignore. Bob's answer wasn't that success was bad. It was to put that success to work. He's helped start an organization called Leadership Network to help innovative church leaders learn from one another and increase their impact. Then he wrote halftime. The book has sold more than 750,000 copies and the response eventually helped lead Bob to create the Halftime Institute,

which has helped thousands of leaders figure out how to use what they've accumulated during the first half of their lives to make a difference in the second. And I'm not just talking about money. Think about what you've accumulated by the time you're 40. 50, 60 years old, knowledge, relationships, skills, mistakes, scars, wisdom. You spent decades acquiring all of it. So what are you going to do with it?

Maybe you've run a company for 30 years. There's a young entrepreneur who desperately needs what you know. Maybe you've raised three kids, or in my case four. There's a 17-year-old without a stable adult who really could use you. Maybe you're an accountant. There's a little nonprofit down the road, drowning and bookkeeping, or people in difficult areas that don't have financial literacy. Maybe you're a retired electrician. They're young people who'd love to learn a trade from you who college really isn't built for.

You have assets. You may not even think of as assets. And somebody around you in your community, they need them. I think part of what happens at halftime is the scoreboard changes. For much of our lives, we measure salary, net worth, job title, square footage, promotions. I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with any of those things or trying to achieve your goals financially and be exceptional. But imagine getting to the end of your life and realizing you were keeping score of the wrong game. Try a different scoreboard.

How many people did I mentor? How many neighbors know they can call me? How many people did I connect an opportunity to? How much did I give away? How many times did I just show up? What problem is smaller because I was here? Who have I affected positively? Now, that's an interesting scoreboard.

We've also developed a strange culture idea that the reward for 40 years of being useful is to stop being useful. We call it retirement. Now, I'm all for golf and tennis and go fishing, travel, sit on a beach, you've earned some rest. I enjoy those things myself. But if you've got 20 healthy years left and 40 years of experience, somebody needs what you know. And maybe you need to share it, too. Purpose doesn't have a retirement age. Bob Euford didn't wait until his business was sold to begin.

That's an important part of this. He started Leadership Network back in 1984 while he was still running his business. He didn't say, someday when I've made enough money, I'll start doing something significant. He started using what he had, where he was when he had it, and eventually Leadership Network was reaching more than 1,500 leaders a year through in-person gathering, as many as 25,000 through online conferences with an audience of more than 50,000 subscribers. That's somebody taking what he'd learned in the first half and putting it to work for other people. So what do you do? Start with four questions. What am I good at? What do I care

deeply about? What is my passion? What could benefit from what I've learned? And what problem bothers me enough that I'm willing to do something about it? Then pick one action. mentor one person, coach, one team. Join one nonprofit board. Teach one person your trade. Volunteer your professional skills. Introduce two people who need to know each other. Give away just a little more money.

Block two hours on your calendar every week and use them for somebody other than yourself. You do not need a perfect second half strategy. You just got to get on the field. Half time isn't about regretting the first half. It's about using it. Every win, every failure, every relationship, every lesson, every scar, all of it becomes equipment for what comes next. Maybe you're 28 listening to this. Maybe you're 48.

Maybe you're 78. But I can tell you this, if you're still breathing, the game's still going on. So look at the scoreboard. Make whatever adjustments you need to make. Ask yourself the question Bob Buford asked himself, how. How much is enough? And then ask the bigger question, what am I going to do with the rest of my life? Because your second half can absolutely be your best half.

But you've got to be in the game. It reminds me, honestly, of a game last year. Middle College had never beaten ECS. And ECS has got decades long history and state championships and people who played for ECS that are, that played in NFL, major league baseball, all over the place. It's got a rich cultural tradition of success in athletics and academics well,

but athletics. And we went into the halftime up 12-7. And middle college is never supposed to be on the field with an ECS, much less compete with them, much less up at halftime. And when I walked in the locker room, my team was going crazy. They had the music,

going a couple of jumping up down on on binges and stuff i mean i'm talking about seniors leaders they were so ecstatic that they were up 12 seven and a half time i lost my mind i've ripped the cord out of the wall turn the music off and just went i said what are you you had done anything it's half that you won half a game and you're actually like you just won the world series if you out there and lay an egg and lose you're going to feel like an idiot in an hour and a half from now for what you've just done. It's, the first half is for pomp and circumstance.

The second half is when the ball games won. And we went ahead and won the game 18-7. Thank goodness. But metaphorically, that night is exactly what, um, the half-time's about and that, you know,

it's true. The first half of our lives, the, the asset gathering in terms of not only money, but experience and knowledge and know-how and relationships. and access and everything else set you up to have an incredible second half. But you got to be in the game.

You got to be willing to get out there and use those assets to the better money community and other people. And I think it's a great lesson. I think ideally too, people would start younger and have more significance in their career to start. Obviously not everybody gets the luxury of it.

But I mean, I think we all just get into this mindless, you know, mentality of, yeah, let's become the doctor or the lawyer. and entrepreneur and accumulate all this wealth. And then when we retire, we'll do all that good stuff. Yeah.

But hopefully, yes, and hopefully this podcast will encourage more people to start off with significance. But what I like about halftime is it's a good opportunity for people who have lived more for accumulation the first half of their life to really reflect, oh, wow, I actually have an opportunity to do something different. And I think it's a real important distinction. We're not just talking, in fact, we're talking very little about the accumulation of of money and wealth, just accumulation of talents and what those talents can do for other people.

I mean, to me, obviously, money makes world go around, and that's important that we have people that are philanthropic and give. But for the vast majority of people, for the vast majority of the army of normal folks, it's the accumulation of talents and knowledge that in time that you can share and make the greatest differences with. Even like a negative example of it, I'll be working at the cigar shop. Every time I say that, people think I'm an employee there. I'm working on my laptop on an Army of normal folks. In the cigar shop.

In the cigar shop. There's so many of these retired guys who just come in there so often. They're doing nothing with their lives. And it's like, you have so much you can give people. You know, you can think about the business success you had. Or if you're a teacher, you're in the military, like all these things that you could be using to help other people. And you're just like hanging out in a cigar shop.

Yeah. And you're robbing yourself, obviously, you know of joy, right? You know of joy, right? Be allowed to actually help other people too. There was an old saying in the Indianapolis Colts back days and days and days ago that on one wall, the locker room, it said complacency is for retirement. And then on the other wall, it says retire the day before you die. And the point is, don't ever be complacent. Yeah.

So good stuff. Second half. I love it. So everybody, that is shop talk number 122. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with friends and on social. Subscribe to the podcast. Join the army at normalfokes.us. Dot org.org. I'll get it right eventually.

Buy our merch. Join a local service club. If there's not one in your community, get in touch with Alex and start one. We need more of them. What else? That's good enough. All right. So that's Shop Talk number 122.

Thanks for joining us. We'll see you next week. Thank you.