Spotlight on Leadership: Tim Teske

What music do you listen to on your way to work?  I have over 1,500 songs on my iPhone and “shuffle” on the way to work I can listen to U2, Dave Matthews, Jimmy Thackery, Jimmy Vaughn, Tommy Castro and The Rolling Stones to name a few.  I appreciate good guitar playing.

What was your first car?  My uncle owned a Toyota dealership—a Toyota.

Tell us about your mentor.  A bank president/CEO.  On a first meeting 26 years ago, I sat across his desk admiring all of his success - pictures of famous people and all - and hoped he would tell me the secret to it all.  I felt obligated by full disclosure to tell him I didn’t know what I believed or what I wanted to do.  In so many words, he let me know that it was OK to be perplexed and torn by issues, that it was OK to look at the world and not feel inadequate because it would not sort itself out cleanly.  This began a great friendship.  He invited me to come back for coffee and told me he thought I had a hell of a career and future ahead of me.

Which celebrity (Hollywood or political) would you most like to have for your next-door neighbor?  Robert Redford - that way I would be living on a ranch in the most beautiful country in Utah, perhaps the entire country.

Outside of family and work, what is your passion?  As expected, I read a great deal of financial and economic information/articles.  However, my “spare time” passion is scientific reading.  I am fascinated by the implications of modern physics, specifically quantum mechanics.  Quantum theory places consciousness squarely as a phenomenon separate from the material world.  The tide is turning on “free will-eliminating” and “soul-crushing” materialism dogma.  It will reignite great faith as well as unimaginable technological possibilities.  The “rabbit hole” grows deeper and the mystery lives on.

How did you earn your first dollar?  Paper route - I delivered the Rocky Mountain News from my bicycle.

What is something people may not know about you?  I swim freestyle 3-4 miles per week using the total immersion swimming technique.  In the right setting, I do impressions of movie and TV characters and other people for fun.

What is one of the most important lessons you have learned as a member of the Leadership Division?  Don’t wait for a complete understanding of how the entire IBAT organization works.  Just chip in and help when you can.

What motivates you?  1)  To be a better father, and 2)  Financial Independence as personal responsibility to free up time to pursue helping other people through charity or volunteering and to give back to the world in some way.

If you could time travel, where in time would you go and whom would you like to meet?  That’s a tough one… so many great people before us.  How about Ralph Waldo Emerson, a resolute non-conformist and individualist (he was kicked out of Harvard Divinity).  I think I could learn from and relate to an ex-minister who claimed it was possible to dispense with organized religion and reach a lofty spiritual state by studying and responding to the natural world.