Pat and Karyn Williams: Life Lessons from Father to Daughter

IS ANYTHING GETTING THROUGH? It was July 2007, and Karyn’s car was packed. “My heart was breaking when I left Florida,” says Karyn. The next morning, she would be on her way to pursue a country music career in Nashville, Tennessee. Karyn knew the good-bye dinner would be tough and no good-bye gift seemed appropriate. So she decided to tell her dad how she felt about his influence in her life in a thank you card. As Pat fought back the tears, he thought about all the years of teaching, pushing, pulling and encouraging that he had done. The tears flowed freely as he read the card. Karyn listed all of the major life lessons she heard from her father since she was a little girl…lessons that prepared her for the journey she was about to take. They sat in silence for awhile, drinking in their last moments together. Pat shouted, “Karyn, this is a book!” Parents try to teach their children important lessons. Usually parents are left wondering, Is anything I’m saying getting through? Children tend to think their parents’ advice is old school and doesn’t apply to their lives. Karyn says when she was a little girl, her dad, Pat, was her hero. “Now that I’m grown, he’s still my hero,” says Karyn. “I realize everything I do and say is a result of what he has ingrained in me.” LIFE LESSONS Karyn says that over the years her father would always say three things before he hung up the phone: 1) Wear your seatbelt The way I see it, safety is job No. 1, and I’ve made it rule No. 1 in the Williams household for years,” says Pat. “Lives once damaged by the failure to play it safe cannot always be so easily repaired.” 2) Enjoy your life As the daughter of busy sports executive, Karyn says she lived an exciting life. Although her dad worked hard and non-stop, she says he always enjoyed his work. As a budding country music artist, Karyn says she discovered that secret herself. Love what you do. 3) Be good to people Pat says it is the basic foundation of his faith that God is love. “We are to love others the way He loves us. It’s a reflection on Him,” he says. Simply treat others how you want them to treat you. Karyn expanded on her dad’s initial three life lessons. “These are things he taught me over the last 30 years that have stood the test of time. She shares a story when she was in her 20s and the company she was working for was treating her badly. Her father told her not to worry about the “jerks” in life; the world takes care of the jerks eventually. A month later, the company Karyn worked for went out of business. Karyn says what she learned from that life lesson was that she had no idea what the company executives were going through. “You don’t know what is going on in someone’s life so give them a break,” she says. Another life lesson she learned from her dad was to dare to live big. “He told me to quit putting limits on myself,” says Karyn. Once she moved to Nashville, Karyn met a team of songwriters that are helping her in her career. “We didn’t plan any of this, the book, the music,” she says. “This just came out of life lessons from my father.”