Acting Our Age

It's been a humbling summer for me. In late May, running was going well and I decided to raise my weekly mileage to "marathon ready" distance.

My 62 year old body had other ideas.

For the record, you may not want to double your mileage from twenty to forty miles in one week.   

The last three months I have been nursing a strained achilles, torn calf muscles, and sore hamstring, all results of over-training.

This has not kept me from working out entirely as I can still bike, swim and hike with no discomfort, although staying active has probably slowed down recovery of the injured muscles.

Skip the sympathy cards. These setbacks are temporary and 100% avoidable.

I just need to act my age and pace my training appropriately.

On that note, Pinicon Farm has done a much better job of acting its age.

Managing a rapidly growing business can be a chaotic, reactionary, surprise a minute, multi-tasking, sufferfest. 

Finding workers, developing effective systems, pursuing opportunities, raising capital, keeping records, marketing commodities, dodging natural disasters (or not) and trying to have a life.

Add a healthy dose of human error to this concoction. You get the picture.

Even when dysfunction was off the charts and our survival precarious, we held on to a vision of a purposeful, disciplined, profitable, and resilient company. 

Building a business with the scale to be efficient, specialized, and dominant while maintaining high quality standards was our mission.    

Last week, The Pinicon owners and I had had our July financial meeting.

After reviewing the previous minutes, monthly expense monitor and financial reports, we decided the farm is on track to meet 2020 budget forecasts.

Rents will be paid on time, farms will be improved, infrastructure will be maintained, and debt will be serviced.

Bert has an opening on his Team. Danni, our HR specialist is reviewing applications and setting up interviews.

He expects to fill the position with a quality hire and be back to full strength pre harvest.

Our summer project list was made up of long delayed appearance enhancements and organization projects.

Repainting the tile shed, equipment parking lot upgrades and worker housing renovations are examples of tasks completed. 

If the life cycle of a living organism is a corollary for the life cycle of a business, the purpose of the growth stage is to grow to a size where the enterprise can shift its focus to the creation of equity. This is how the DNA of the first generation carries over to the next.   

I'm not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud that it took us 40 years to get to the point where perpetuation of the farm takes precedence over expansion.

But everyone on the Team is in agreement that Pinicon Farm's first priorities are to care for the resources we oversee, stay resilient, and choose opportunities cautiously. 

Sounds like the musings of a mature adult to me.

Jim