The last day of this July brings with it a blue moon tonight. I’m sure there’ll be many out howling and likely wake up some time tomorrow and attempt to remember what they said and did while being three sheets to the wind. If we can ever get to the point of having a near crime free city, I wouldn’t be surprised if there will be the return of the full moon evening walkers. Far more years ago than I want to tell, I fully remember people out walking late in the summer evening under a full moon. It was likely the time when husbands and wives had their opportunity to speak freely with each other while the children were in bed. Some past nights of the full moon were so bright it was as though the sun was shining through heavily darkened sunglasses. For me it was never a creepy feeling being outside during a full moon when living on the farm. The animals were busy feeding and grazing under the moonlight, and never seemed to be spooked by someone’s approach. Most people think mosquitos are in a constant attack mode all night. Yes they will bother nearly always, but the worst times to be outside is an hour before sunset and continuing on about an hour or so after. It likewise happens before sunrise. I’m sure there’s some scientific explanation why this occurs with those nasty insects.
Today was likely one of the more time crunching days I’ve had in a while due to trying to keep appointments made while working on several problem transactions along with incoming offers. As with many others I’m sure, I have to be exceptionally careful not to make a mistake during days like today. As the saying goes, “Haste makes waste”, especially when stressed. Someone said something to me several days ago about the concept of proprietorship. Many people don’t fully understand what marked differences there are between employees and proprietors. The employees and private contractors simply fulfill their given tasks, wait for their checks and go home. With them, there is rarely any deep loyalty or long term concern over the business simply because they are just doing their jobs for pre-established amounts. On the flip side, proprietors carry all the burdens of planning, forecasting, and adjusting to the directions their companies are moving. They’re usually the ones who arrive early, make sure their businesses are presentable to the public, and even go to the extent of picking up a scrap of paper in the hallway that was likely dropped by an employee. They’re also usually the last ones to leave their businesses in making sure the lights are off and the doors locked. Many in the general public consider proprietors to be fat cats with suitcases full of cash sitting around waiting for the next month to draw surplus funds from the company. Yes, there are likely those types in the business world, but a good and well respected proprietor is more about growing the company while continually looking for ways to make it better.
Some consider truly dedicated proprietors to be workaholics because they never seem to want to find time to relax and enjoy life. As they grow older, and their businesses blossom to a point where key employees are groomed to take on some of the management responsibilities, you’ll likely start seeing those proprietors spending more time away from their businesses because they’ve started doing something they’ve always wanted to do but didn’t have time due to their struggles in creating respected businesses. So now you have it. The businesses didn’t come first—it was the proprietors. I give a great bow to all the quiet and hard working proprietors we have living in North Iowa.
