Of course, Lott said, without the leadership working together, it’s virtually impossible to make strides.

“You have to create a team environment where everybody is working toward the same goal,” he said.

So many times, Lott said young people from Alabama have to move out of state to places like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston and Nashville. It’s important, he said, for leaders to ask what can be done to keep the next generation living and working in Alabama.

“We have to create an environment where our kids can stay here,” he said. “We have to look at how we can take advantage of every situation we are in. A friend of mine told me, ‘Wiley, wherever you are, you have to bloom where you are planted.’ We have to take advantage of where we are right now.”