“How are you, sir?” I asked as we shook hands.

“Better than I deserve,” Tim remarked, and he meant it.

At six-foot-five and knocking on the border of 300 pounds in the summer of 2012, Tim was an imposing figure with the gentlest and most inviting smile. Approaching 60 at the time, with an impressive career in his back pocket, Tim entered my office for his first-ever interview, nervously sweating bullets.

After the interview, I escorted Tim out to his old white pickup. I spotted a massive and well-worn cooler in the back of his truck and said, “Looks like you’re ready for a party!”

Tim gave a courteous chuckle, opened the cooler lid, reached inside, and asked, “Would you like a cold drink?”

The cooler was filled to the brim with ice and water bottles. I asked, “You having a cookout or something?”

“No, sir. On these hot Alabama days, I like to ride around with a bunch of ice-cold waters and pass them out to people that I see out working hard in their yards to keep our community beautiful.”

I didn't know if he had passed out water a million times or only once, but my mind was made up. I figured having a guy who could even come up with a thoughtful idea like that would be a game-changer for our up-and-coming team.

The skeptic in me believed he could have possibly put the cooler in his truck just for show, but I could not have been more wrong! The explanation of that beat-up cooler just scratched the surface of my education into the life of Mr. Tim Gore. Ever since that day, from what I have come to know about him, that was only the tip of the iceberg.

I chose Tim as my first “Sharper Leader” profile because he is the best man I know. He displays an unmatched level of consideration for others and provides an example of a servant's heart that has and will forever impact me profoundly.

In the ten years I was honored to work with Tim, and the years of continued friendship since, Tim has never failed to astound me. Regardless of whether he was putting in long hours at work, traversing crowds at a high school football game, or hugging strangers on the street at a conference in New Orleans or Las Vegas, I have witnessed countless people approach him to personally thank him for a wide variety of roles he played in being a blessing in their life.

Through thousands of hand-written notes, special food deliveries, secretly giving to those in need, putting faith in “deadbeats” that others have disowned, picking up trash, serving at his church, or other untold and unknown ways he works in the shadows, Tim demonstrates countless examples of Sharper Leadership.

Tim is the epitome of being a Sharper Leader, and I know I am a better man because I know him.