Speech given at Junior Achievement Center, Menomonee Falls, WI
Good Evening, my name is Michael Duda from Russ Darrow Kia Wauwatosa.
I want to start out by thanking each and every one of you for attending President’s Club tonight. You all Earned your way here and you deserve a round of applause.
I want to recognize a few special standouts here tonight. Let me start by pointing out the New GM at Nissan nation. Steve Perkins. I personally & professionally gained by having Steve Perkins in Wauwatosa prior to him getting the NOD to the big leagues. Thank You Steve!
I also want to talk about RIO, that’s his alias, just so you know, homeland security knows him as Giatano Daquisto. He is top finance guy in the group this year and in the trenches with me daily. He literally spins bad credit into gold on the daily in tosa.
Both of these men have something in common… they both have smart, successful, beautiful, and supportive wives. Amazing women!
Last but NOT least, Mitchel Darrow!!! I have had the privilege of sharing the sales floor with him… he will need deprogramming before he moves on to other parts of the company.
So I looked back on my last few speeches and I realized that most of them were focused on Yours Truley…. Michael Zippidy Duda - It’s my 7th straight year earning this honor, it cannot be achieved alone and I’m humbled.
Tonight we are going to change things up a little and talk about what we all have been able to achieve to get here tonight.
2020/2021 has Challenged Us, Changed Us, and Strengthened all of Us. We all survived through a very difficult time in history. A 100 year pandemic. We are all survivors.
We have lost loved ones, friends, and even coworkers.
I remember I was working at GE over on Hwy T when the planes took down the buildings in 2001, yes 911. That event changed all of our lives in too many ways to list tonight. Fast forward to March of 2020…. 19 years later when we were faced with an invisible threat we all had decisions to make… It felt like 2001 all over again…. I sat at a table in front of our dealership and was thinking… We were all faced with the improbable, not the impossible. For the first time in most of our lives we had to determine if we should continue to work and basically risk our lives for our families well being. All of you here took pride in your job and your company and found a way forward. The last few years have been so challenging for all of us. It’s important to always understand that in the face of tragedy, we can choose to be victims or rise above it. All of you rose to the challenge!
I’m here tonight to remind us all that we are survivors, we are purpose driven, we are committed to the success of each of our dealerships. You all are the cream of the crop!!!
We owe it to everyone we have left behind in memories and photos to spread our wings and be wildly successful. I’m very proud to see each and every one of your smiling faces here tonight. You all mean a lot to our network of dealerships.
Man am I excited about the auto industry!!! The EV revolution is alive and well with many thanks to Elan Musk. Tesla has pushed all of the companies to wake up and race their EV’s to market. We are all going to kill it for at least the next 10 YEARS!!! Yes we are….
I will leave you with this quote; Mark Twain said “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you don’t do than by the ones you did do”
As my grandfather always told me; “You are only a flicker in eternity, Make your flicker count”
Thank You, and Goodnight