Rosh Hashanah Message: Jody Pollack

Shana Tova to the greater Atlanta Jewish Community. I take great pride in being given the opportunity to uplift the community with my words of encouragement and “wisdom” as we wrap up 5783 and plunge head first into 5784. My mom who would have been 100 years old in 5783 would be thrilled to know that I am one of the select few to have been given this honor. Mom was the writer in the family, not me. I was the kid that almost failed English because when it came to composition time in class, everyone else was busily writing their life stories and I was staring at the blank page with nothing to say.

Those that know me now, in many cases, long for those days as I have been known at times to say way too much. So how does that play given this opportunity? It doesn’t really, l but I wanted to give a shout out to mom. Well here goes; life is filled with opportunities galore. The question is twofold; “How do you recognize an opportunity and how do you take advantage of the right ones?” No matter what the oddsmakers say, it is always 50/50. Right/wrong, good/bad, profitable or loser.

You won’t know until you try. Fortunately for us, our community is made is made up of risk takers that have seized opportunities, tried and failed and then tried and succeeded. Their hard work has provided us with a wealth of role models and lots of lessons on what to do and what not to do. This has afforded us an amazing environment to launch from and to set and hopefully achieve our goals, be it in family, faith, and/or business.

One of the previous tag lines for the U.S. Marines was “Be All You Can Be”. Simple, straightforward and a bit naïve, but actually, pretty real. In other words, take advantage of the right opportunities, put maximum effort into them, sprinkle in some good luck and you will achieve your goals. They may not be a 100 percent match for your original vision, but close can still be pretty awesome. By the time you read this we will be finished with 5783 and have a pretty solid idea of what didn’t work as well as we had hoped this past year. Now we need to pay attention to those life lessons and use them to solidify our personal foundations and build upon them for a happier, healthier and more successful 5784. Shana huledet sameach Ima.

Jody Pollack is the Hebrew Order of David Executive Director, The Atlanta Kosher BBQ Festival.