My Entr'acte

I have heard the saying, "The road to happiness is paved with gratitude."   I have a sibling who seems to never be happy. She is constantly placing the blame of her own actions on others and uncontrollable circumstances. She claims that everything makes  her unhappy. This sibling of mine is particularly difficult to be around right now for me with my cancer diagnosis. In what she feels is a form of empathy, she will claim that she knows what I am going through when she has no idea (and I am glad she does not). However, I cannot tell her that or it will start a fight.   When the suggestion arises that she would be happier if she figured out what she was grateful for every day, she shrugs it off and says things like, "Well, that may work for you, but that doesn't work for me," and then she settles into her victim-hood. This makes it difficult to carry conversations with her and have her get to know me because she gets angry at every little thing and makes ...

People. That is what business is for. When a business forgets that and puts their policies and profit margins above the people they serve, I believe that business is not a success. Are policies and profit margins important? Yes. However, there should be exceptions to every policy rule and profit should never be put as a higher priority than the person that needs service. Charles Handy points that out in his article entitled  What is a Business For?  He mentions the importance of rules and laws in business, but that those rules and laws depend on truth and trust. To know that a business is truthful and trustworthy, that business needs to have policies that are virtuous and the people in that business need to be people of integrity. When an economy is full of good people who own businesses with integrity, that economy flourishes. A ccording to Handy, the purpose for the existence of businesses is not solely to make a profit. "It is to make a profit so that the business c...

Stephen W. Gibson's discussion on the "Attitude of Money" reminded me of some important truths about money. One being that money itself is not evil. Money is a tool. However, how money is used shows the character of a person. How money is used can be good or evil. Money truly reveals the kind of person we are. I have lived in subsidized housing. I have been so poor that I have needed to rely on my parents and my in-laws for housing and care. I know what it is like to not have anything and to be grateful for the programs that exist to give people a hand-up and out of poverty. I also know what it is like to budget properly and make sufficient for my family's needs. Between the two of them, I much prefer the latter. When in poverty, I felt I could not do the things I wanted to do because I could not think about much else other than making ends meet. Now that my husband and I have become more self-sufficient, I am able to give more to others and to help them. In fact, I w...

I am a dreamer. I am also a planner. Both of these qualities about me occasionally keep me up at night and into the early hours of the morning. I dream to get out of student loan debt. I made the plan with my husband to create a budget so we could tell every dollar we earn where to go before we spend it. We are due to be student loan debt-free by the end of next year. I dream to own a house I love mortgage-free. Once we are out of student loan debt, we will save up for a down-payment on a new home. Then, we will work on paying it off. I dream to own my own gym debt-free. I am thinking I want to go for a franchise, however, because those tend to be cheaper and more popular. I dream to graduate with an MBA. I am currently in school and beginning that process. I want to own other businesses and help them to succeed. I dream to be a good mom. I home-school my kids so they spend a lot of time with me and we get to do a lot together. I dream to be cancer-free. I am on chemo and doing the bes...

This week I have been thinking about vision. My husband is under contract to purchase the optometry practice where we both currently work. He is an optometrist and he has wanted to own his own practice since he decided he wanted to become an optometrist. His father is an optometrist and an entrepreneur. He owns his own practice, and my husband has wanted to work with him ever since he knew he wanted to be an optometrist as well. He has been working with his father now for eight years, and we are to purchase the practice at the end of next year. Fighting cancer and dealing with everything that is involved with fighting cancer, we are not feeling comfortable with going into debt to purchase the practice. We do not feel comfortable with purchasing the practice if I am still fighting cancer by the time we are supposed to purchase. So, what does all of this have to do with vision? My husband and I do not really have a vision right now of what it is that we want to do with our lives-...

Life is full of challenges. I have had so many challenges in my life that they are impossible to count. The biggest challenges, of course, stand out more so than the everyday challenges, but I do not think that anyone gets through even one day without having a challenge to overcome. It matters how we react to these challenges that appear. Do we face them head-on and defeat the challenge and overcome or do we get upset and claim to be the victim of our situation--blaming others and even society for the personal challenges we face? In today's narcissistic culture, I have witnessed a lot more of the latter of that question than the former. I think that is why those who are able to overcome challenges are such heroes in society. Many of these heroes are heroic only to the small audience of people that they interact with, but audience size does not matter. The world is changed one person at a time. Challenges teach us. Without challenges in life and in business, there is no grow...