“Prime Mover”: that’s what I have called my recently deceased friend. And he was that—Prime Mover to many. Directly or indirectly, he pushed people to accomplish goals and achieve success.
Why “Prime Mover”?
Ptolemy, if you remember, envisioned a universe of concentric celestial spheres with immovable Earth at the center. It made sense before Copernicus and Galileo. So, the Church then did its own envisioning, placing God in the position of Prime Mover, the One who “pushed” the outermost sphere that began a sequence of movements all the way to the innermost sphere. In such a geocentric universe, the Sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around Earth, and the friction between layers made the celestial music. Humans, standing on the surface of Earth, could look “up” toward the “heavens” to see “where the Prime Mover resides.” The metaphor stays with us as athletes point upward after scoring. *
Nevertheless and at the risk of being criticized for using the term Prime Mover, I labeled my friend Joe Hardy thus. Joe was without doubt a prime mover. There is no denying his influence on others through encouragement, financial support, and, in a seemingly contradictory way, even rejection. With regard to rejection, one highly successful person told me that Joe’s rejection of a proposal was what motivated him to try harder to succeed through a different, and more independent, path. And that is fitting because Joe told me his own motivation to become a successful entrepreneur arose partly after he was himself “rejected,” or, as he said, “fired” from the family’s jewelry business. It was that firing that drove him—moved him—to form a lumber company that subsequently grew into a national business with hundreds of stores that simply go by a number, 84, named after a western Pennsylvanian rural community called Eighty Four, where he opened his lumber yard.**
So, Joe started 84 Lumber next to a train track and then expanded, reaching out like the branches on a tree. His business model was so good that he opened multiple lumber yards, hundreds of them across the nation. It made him wealthy. But he never stopped “moving” and in doing so, he crossed the paths of many others. His motto, “Nothing is impossible,” framed his entire outlook. His business diversification and success stand as testimonies to that belief. Hardy World developers, 84 Lumber, philanthropic projects, revitalized communities, and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort are just parts of a legacy through which his ceaseless energy continued until his passing on his hundredth birthday, January 7, 2023. But Joe left another legacy, his humanity, his down-to-Earth compassion for individuals. With regard to his humanity, the world should know that, regardless of his busy daily schedule, Joe called people on their birthdays. He called people to congratulate them on their successes. He called people just to say, “Hello, how’re you doing?” He maintained contact with all those spheres he started in motion. Just two weeks before his hundredth birthday, he called my wife to ask how we were.
Joe Hardy lived as full a life as is imaginable. He built a universe peopled by family, friends, and employees who owe some part of their existence to his influence. I cannot recount all Joe’s many accomplishments here. I simply want to say that because of his positive influence on known and unknown individuals, I call Joe Prime Mover. Now that he is gone, it is up to each of us to emulate him by motivating ourselves and those in our spheres of influence to be successful—and human.
Want to emulate a highly successful motivator? Push. Keep those spheres turning.
** No kidding. There is such a place strung along PA State Rte 519. It even has a traffic light. You can look it up.
Why “Prime Mover”?
Ptolemy, if you remember, envisioned a universe of concentric celestial spheres with immovable Earth at the center. It made sense before Copernicus and Galileo. So, the Church then did its own envisioning, placing God in the position of Prime Mover, the One who “pushed” the outermost sphere that began a sequence of movements all the way to the innermost sphere. In such a geocentric universe, the Sun, moon, planets, and stars revolved around Earth, and the friction between layers made the celestial music. Humans, standing on the surface of Earth, could look “up” toward the “heavens” to see “where the Prime Mover resides.” The metaphor stays with us as athletes point upward after scoring. *
Nevertheless and at the risk of being criticized for using the term Prime Mover, I labeled my friend Joe Hardy thus. Joe was without doubt a prime mover. There is no denying his influence on others through encouragement, financial support, and, in a seemingly contradictory way, even rejection. With regard to rejection, one highly successful person told me that Joe’s rejection of a proposal was what motivated him to try harder to succeed through a different, and more independent, path. And that is fitting because Joe told me his own motivation to become a successful entrepreneur arose partly after he was himself “rejected,” or, as he said, “fired” from the family’s jewelry business. It was that firing that drove him—moved him—to form a lumber company that subsequently grew into a national business with hundreds of stores that simply go by a number, 84, named after a western Pennsylvanian rural community called Eighty Four, where he opened his lumber yard.**
So, Joe started 84 Lumber next to a train track and then expanded, reaching out like the branches on a tree. His business model was so good that he opened multiple lumber yards, hundreds of them across the nation. It made him wealthy. But he never stopped “moving” and in doing so, he crossed the paths of many others. His motto, “Nothing is impossible,” framed his entire outlook. His business diversification and success stand as testimonies to that belief. Hardy World developers, 84 Lumber, philanthropic projects, revitalized communities, and Nemacolin Woodlands Resort are just parts of a legacy through which his ceaseless energy continued until his passing on his hundredth birthday, January 7, 2023. But Joe left another legacy, his humanity, his down-to-Earth compassion for individuals. With regard to his humanity, the world should know that, regardless of his busy daily schedule, Joe called people on their birthdays. He called people to congratulate them on their successes. He called people just to say, “Hello, how’re you doing?” He maintained contact with all those spheres he started in motion. Just two weeks before his hundredth birthday, he called my wife to ask how we were.
Joe Hardy lived as full a life as is imaginable. He built a universe peopled by family, friends, and employees who owe some part of their existence to his influence. I cannot recount all Joe’s many accomplishments here. I simply want to say that because of his positive influence on known and unknown individuals, I call Joe Prime Mover. Now that he is gone, it is up to each of us to emulate him by motivating ourselves and those in our spheres of influence to be successful—and human.
Want to emulate a highly successful motivator? Push. Keep those spheres turning.
- No one save a Satanist, points downward to thank God for a touchdown. I should note that Ptolemy’s cosmological view laid the groundwork for the medieval Church’s hierarchy of life, with God in the heavens and Satan located at the farthest point from Him in the center of Earth. Thus, existence descended from God, THE Prime Mover, through angels, humans, animals, plants, to the insentient rocks in an unbroken chain of existence until the rise of the “modern world.” Copernicus’ book on heliocentric was banned and Galileo was placed in house arrest by the Inquisition because they contradicted the theological implications of a geocentric cosmology and disrupted the Great Chain of Being. Darwin was—and still is—rejected on similar grounds. Yep, Heaven’s up, and Hell’s down, even in the modern mind.
** No kidding. There is such a place strung along PA State Rte 519. It even has a traffic light. You can look it up.
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