Mart Green
speaker
120 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Mart Green’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
For me, what I needed really, I think, was learning. I had to go out and really learn a lot. So I didn't know the best-selling books. I didn't know a lot of stuff. And that's back before we had computers. So I had Microfish. So I'm getting Microfish in.
I'm going down the library, just working really hard to understand the industries I was getting into, which was the Christian industry and the office supplies. Because again, I came in with no information on either one of them. Outside, I had a... Kirkbride Bible, maybe, you know, Thompson chain Bible at that time. So I think working hard was part of that and just being a lifelong learner.
I always want to learn. I've always been a lifelong learner. And so I just feel like jumping in and learning about that and, uh, and making some mistakes. And, uh, like I say, some of the mistakes I made, I held on too long with employees, others, I was easier for me to move on and said, well, that doesn't work. Let's, let's move on.
Early on for the business, I would go to other Christian bookstores and find out where the best Christian bookstores are. I just called my reps. Hey, you sell books. Who's the best in the country? Okay, I'm flying all over this country just going and looking and learning.
And it was huge for me because sometimes your brain is a certain size, but I wanted to go stretch my brain, see something, see the best. And so that's what helped me as far as the Mardell stores.
Yeah, again, it's tapping into other people, whether it's through their books. A lot of times it's through books because I don't know people and all that stuff. I listen to the Greg Groeschel Leadership Podcast. And so even through COVID, there was a phenomenal podcast you had right in the middle of it. I'm thinking, oh, my gosh, what are we going to do now?
I mean, if you went to leadership, it was right in the middle of COVID. And you had a podcast that came out that spoke very deeply to me. And so it's just listening to others, picking it up. And sometimes you get from younger people because now – The world has changed. I didn't grow up in the digital world, so I'm learning from them.
All right. When I read a book, I highlight it, and then I go back and I mark my favorite quotes. And then my executive assistant takes my favorite quotes of a book, so I'll type them up and make five copies of them and put them in a binder. And then when my four kids, I have four children, they're all married now, they got 13 binders of over 1,000 books that I've read and my favorite quotes.
Now, I don't humor myself that they've read them, but maybe when I die someday, they'll go back and look and say, oh, there's the years he was involved with this or that. Because you can see – because a lot of times I do like to learn. I learn easier probably by books and that way than people because I'm more of an introvert. But I love to learn from people too.
But they'll see that where I learned a lot in life was reading other people's books.
Yeah. Just today, earlier, I was talking to a guy, and we got into a conversation, and I said, oh, I'll send you my favorite quotes. Then I'll say, hey, if you want to read the book, fine, but if not, at least get the favorite quotes. But yeah, they come back to me, and so I've learned so much from other people.
Yeah, I guess it goes back to another weakness because my weakness on reading books is I wish I could remember what I read. And that's why I get the quotes and go back to them. So when I meet people for the first time, usually I'll document when we met them, what the occasion was, and maybe two or three facts about them. They've been married for 30 years. They got three kids or whatever.
And so, yeah, I've done that on hundreds of people. And so I can... But I can't remember them. So my brain, I have to keep my phone with me because if I don't have my phone with me, I've lost my brain. But it just helps me to remember, to go back. But there's other people who have photographic memory. I don't have that. So I know I don't. So I'm never going to. I can't practice my way to that.
So I overcome my weakness by trying to document things.
What's the motivation? Yeah, I think it's honoring to people. And I've learned that friendships are one of the greatest gifts that God gives us. And so how do I be a good friend to know something about you to be able to remember that? Now, I wish I could remember it on my own, and so I don't. But I think a trusted friendship is what I say is one of the greatest gifts God gives us.
So I want to be a trusted friend.
Yeah, I guess early on, another lesson you learn is that when you burn bridges, it lasts for a long, long time. So then I learned, even I've had situations that didn't work out well. I mean, it was tough, but I've learned never to burn that bridge, you know, to still keep half the bridge up. So I want to keep half the bridge up. You may never come back, but how do you do that?
So that's to all people. It's even your enemies, if you would, or what feels like enemies. Because you just never know. And it's crazy. It is crazy how many times 10 years later, 15 years later, something that happened way back then. And because I didn't burn the bridge like I did when I was younger, it actually came back. And not only was it healed, it became a huge advantage to me.
I have several stories where I thought that was over and it's done that, wow, God restored that relationship and it helped me move forward. But I never know when that's going to happen. So how do you treat everybody well? And I think that's the best way to do it.
I wish I was smart enough to figure that all out, right, for the future. Because there's lots of people I've been kind to and nice to and tried to keep the bridge, and I never see them again. And so I just trust that's not my responsibility. I just want to do the right thing. How do I go do the next right thing? How do I treat people well? I want to be treated well. I've made mistakes.
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