Category Archives: When Real Life Interferes

When The Next Generation Doesn’t Have The Passion…..

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No, this is not a “Well, my generation…” kind of post. This is about multi-generation family businesses that don’t continue in the family. Yes, there can be economic failure, but the other side of that coin is when children or grandchildren realize they don’t have the interest or desire to “carry on”. Sometimes, it is understanding the business “ability” doesn’t exist, but in those cases a competent manager/partner can often be brought it. Successfully running a business is difficult, period. Being in charge comes with tremendous responsibilities and if you’re in customer service, especially if it’s a 7-day-a-week business, the demands never stop. When you aren’t engaged in whatever the operation of the business is, there is always paperwork of some type waiting.

For a parent, there is a huge source of pride when a child (or children as it might be) want to follow in the footsteps and maintain or very often grow the business to greater heights. Sometimes it’s a major expansion or maybe modest, yet solid improvement. I have known several families who can count six generations worth, but that’s unusual. The primary reason for not continuing is when a child/children “grow up in the business”, they do know it from the inside out and may well want to do anything other than to stay in that particular business. You can’t create and manage a business without caring about it. Passion and skill can definitely be related, but they aren’t interchangeable. One of the difficult things in a family business is if there have been three (or more) generations who did keep it going and it becomes obvious that it won’t continue. So much tradition, so many memories, and they will fall by the wayside. Even if there is someone ready to buy at an acceptable (and sometimes attractive) price, it is still relinquishing family history. It is never easy, yet in the end, it is likely to be the correct action to take.

If You Know Someone Who Needs A New Career…..

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One of the nice things about being involved with different community organizations is the chance to spread the word about good opportunities. This one is quite removed from arts, but is also very exciting. It will be the topic of the Chamber Corner in the South Dade News Leader next week and there will be a piece in the March Home Shopper Magazine, but I’m trying to let as many people as I can know about it.

Manufactured construction is the latest wave and I’m not talking about building mobile homes. This type of construction is modular, high tech with the use of computers, very energy efficient, and meets strict wind/storm codes. In essence, the modules can be used for residential and commercial construction and can create anything from a “tiny house” to a high-rise building where there is a frame and completely constructed rooms are “plugged in” and connected to the structure. There are a lot more details involved, but the capabilities are amazing. When you look at a finished product, you can’t tell the difference in it and one constructed using traditional methods. While all of that is seriously cool, the point is this technology has a high demand for workers and supervisors.

The Department of Labor has provided large grants to different places to underwrite the cost of tuition for the two-year certification program and MDC got in on this program. Initially the classes were at Kendall and we (members of the Chamber) were able to talk with the program manager back in August and they now have the course right here in Homestead. The criteria for entering the program is very basic – be at least 18, make a 9 on the TABE (or have a high school diploma), and be eligible to work in the U.S. (The Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) is designed to effectively assess both the knowledge and skills of adult learners.) Even better, students who are older and have work or other education experience can try to test out of certain parts of the multi-phase program. At the completion of certification, the graduate has 2 new nationally recognized Certificates in Manufactured Construction and 7 nationally recognized industry certificates from OSHA, NCCER & MSSC. Due to the demands for these skills, employment is running at 80% and higher, and these are good paying jobs with a lot of upward an mobility potential. (Pardon the change in font here – not sure how to fix it)

There is some cost to students for texts and some certification tests have fees, but the tuition is completely free and with the course being taught at Homestead that solves the transportation issue of being up in Kendall. In the way that I do, I especially urge girls and young women to give this some thought and it’s great for veterans getting out of service or people who are stuck in jobs with little upward opportunity.

For more details, visit www.mdc.edu/tramcon or call Mariza Torres at 305-237-2723. Please tell anyone you know who might benefit from this.

About That I Told You So……

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This is going to be a short post and it will seem rather odd coming on the end of a holiday weekend. First, I do hope everyone was able to relax at least a little and enjoy family and/or friends depending on your particular situation.

Now to the fact that no matter how old we get, I suppose there is always the opportunity to make mistakes even though we might genuinely think we are correct. While experience is a good teacher, we can either lose a lesson or think we are in a situation where one we learned many years ago isn’t applicable. I popped onto Brainy Quotes and found the Oscar Wilde one of, “Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.” Although the goal should be to not repeat them, I suppose in our human reality, we do slip up with that. And if we have been warned, and move ahead with something anyway, the time may come when the individual who tried to warn you ought to have the opportunity to say, “Yeah, I told you so.” Whether or not the individual chooses to do so is another matter and if you happen to be the one who gave the warning that was ignored, it can be tricky to decide whether to let the phrase slip, or keep it quiet. Any thoughts on this one?

Plans Can Go Awry…..

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Fortunately, we drive to Georgia each year to have Thanksgiving with my husband’s family. That meant when a work crisis bubbled up and it became apparent I wasn’t going to be able to go, hubby didn’t want to go without me. At least we didn’t have to cope with the expense of cancelling airline reservations. This happened one other year, and as we did then, we’ll plan a trip up after the first of the year. It’s something that can’t be helped and we actually had two invitations to dinner we had declined since we were going to be out of town. That means all we have to do is whip up the broccoli-rice casserole to take with us. It so happens, that’s one of those dishes my husband makes. It’s kind of interesting.  Bring-a-dish gatherings are common in the military and back when he was a bachelor, he decided to not be the one who always brought chips and dip or grabbed a cheese tray from the store. He specialized in three things – a killer hot chili-cheese dip, a version of Ambrosia, and the broccoli-rice casserole. That pretty much took care of him with whatever the hostess wanted.

The casserole is really pretty simple – one package frozen broccoli, thawed and chopped, 1 jar Cheez Whiz, 1/2 medium onion chopped, 1-2 stalks celery chopped, 1 can cream soup (celery, onion, mushroom, chicken – your choice), 2 cups cooked rice. Salt and pepper to taste – throw in 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes if you like. Mix it all together, spray a casserole dish with non-stick spray and bake at 350 for 30-40 minutes until top is lightly browned. Easy and delicious, plus it retains heat pretty well.

So, anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.

Swirling About…..

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Goodness, what a lapse in posting. Events rather jammed together from last Thursday on and I hadn’t realized my long gap. Let me very quickly explain.

Homestead Main Street held the Third Annual Burger Battle (slight name change from previous years) on Saturday and Mother Nature was not as generous as she could have been. The fairly light and sporadic rain was manageable and the crowd was good considering how many did stay away because of weather. The main part of the event had at least passed before we got word of major rain on the way. Most folks were able to shut down and retreat, but not all by any means. Chefs on the Run remains the undefeated burger champion, but I have to say the two burgers I tried – one from Broadway Subs and one from El Toro Taco – were excellent. I normally help out in the museum during the festivals so all I could do was pop out for a few minutes and didn’t have time to try the other competitors. To be honest, I wouldn’t have tried the one that hubby was so excited about. The Big Cheese took a different approach and went with the “donut cheeseburger” that has been the trend in several places. Yes, it is a donut sliced in half as the bun. The idea is the sweet and savory mix entices your taste buds. Hubby thoroughly enjoyed it and I think I can handle the concept. The incredible stickiness of the donut with all the meat, cheese, bacon and other packed in is what I’m not sure I can deal with by hand. A knife and fork in this case, maybe.

Anyway, that took up Saturday and I’ve been crashing on the manuscript as well as juggling meetings and other commitments. I’ll make it a point to do better.

Kind of Like Making Lemonade From Lemons…..

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Although I don’t remember exactly why,  the other day I thought about an incident from my childhood. Being raised in the deep South in small towns, church “dinner on the grounds” was a given. (By the way, that was when “dinner” meant lunch, and “supper” was the evening mean.) As she often did, Mother made a pound cake – she preferred the tube pan over the loaf type – and aside from the fact my brother and I knew better, it really was a tempting sight. Hey, a little pinch from the top wouldn’t really be noticeable or so it seemed. Needless to say, a pinch became more than one and the end result was quite noticeable. After the initial yelling and predictable spanking, there was the question of what to do about the cake. Rewarding us by letting us enjoy it and baking another one was either not practical or not considered. I don’t remember that part. Again, being a good Southern household, we had a store of pecans on hand. Maple syrup was not a stable, but cane syrup (dark and light) was and thus, a toasted pecan and syrup topping was whipped up, drizzled over the unsightly cake, all signs of damaged concealed. And yes, compliments on the cake were also received the next day.

That was one of life’s little lessons, in a) not always being nearly as clever as you think, and b) creativity can rectify a distressing situation at times.

“That’s Not Possible”…..

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My apologies once more for a lack of posting, but it’s been another of those weeks. I’m taking a few minutes break from a task and have had the television tuned to the movie, “Apollo 13” with it’s incredible cast of stars. I’ve always enjoyed the movie for a lot of reasons and it’s especially great if you want to use a movie that demonstrates problem solving and leadership. The two most memorable phrases of course are, “Houston, we have a problem,” and “Failure is not an option.” (That phrase is often used inappropriately, but that’s a topic for another post.) One of my favorite lines though comes just after the explosion on the craft as no one knows quite what has happened. Everyone is looking at their instruments and Ed Harris, who plays Flight Director Gene Krantz is asking one of the men what’s going on. “It’s reading a quadruple failure. That’s not possible – I’ll get back to you, Flight.” Except it was very possible and in the six (or maybe seven) days that followed, a great many things that had been considered “not possible” occurred. A huge number of individuals were required to come up with solutions for things that had simply not been imagined as going wrong and in each case, the people thought through the problem and worked it out.

Another irony that I’ve always wondered about is that Astronaut Ken Mattingly was replaced on the mission by Jack Swigert at a very late date because NASA was concerned that Mattingly would break out with the measles during the mission. To disrupt a well-functioning team is never something to be done lightly and inserting a new member at that point did have some drawbacks. However, it was Mattingly who figured out how to re-sequence the re-entry of the crippled spacecraft. Quite simply, there may have been no other person who could have worked that out –  Mattingly not being in space was a significant reason why the astronauts were able to successfully return to earth.

Not too long ago, I watched a “making of” segment that was part of the real story of Apollo 13 and there was this one scene they discussed with Director Ron Howard where tempers had flared in the movie. The truth was that scene did not occur in real life and when asked about it, Howard readily acknowledged he had taken dramatic license in a few spots. Why? Because the reality was that people had remained remarkably calm, all working to the very best of their ability to solve the crisis. As Howard said, “I was making a movie and we had to have at least a little conflict.” (Not his exact words, but close.)

Relatives and Friends or…….

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I was in a conversation the other day when the topic of having family and friends in business with you came up. For small family businesses, especially places like restaurants, it isn’t surprising to see siblings and two or three generations working side-by-side. In really successful situations, a son or daughter might then branch out to open a second location. The flip side to that are the sons and daughters who when given the opportunity, go into an entirely different line of work precisely because they did “grow up” in something that they decided wasn’t the right path. In fact, if you remember the great scene between Peter Boyle as the father and Bill Pullman as the son from the movie, “While You Were Sleeping,” the character of Bill Pullman finally got up the nerve to explain that he didn’t want to continue in the family business only to have his father tell him he wished he’d known earlier because someone was asking to buy him out.

Anyway, the real point of the post goes back to when I retired from the Army and went to work for a small services and technology firm. I say small –  that’s how they started and grew to the point that a Fortune 500 company acquired them. That, however, is another story. At some stage as they were hiring larger numbers of people, the comment was made about them hiring relatives and friends. The wife part of the co-founders said, “Yes. Who would you like us to hire – strangers and enemies?”. The reality is that I have absolutely nothing against family and friends with the clear understanding that they have to be the best qualified for the job or at least highly qualified. They must also be willing to recognize that they probably need to work a bit harder to overcome the perception that they’re getting away with stuff that others wouldn’t be allowed to. It isn’t fair, but it is a normal human reaction. The problem comes when it’s obvious that an individual is either not fully qualified or has an attitude that’s difficult for other employees to deal with. The smirking, “You can’t do anything about this,” can quickly translate into the loss of good employees who don’t need that kind of thing in their lives. Other employees might not be in a position to leave, but aren’t as effective as they otherwise could be. Working together as family and friends can be great, but it isn’t the right arrangement for everyone.

The Liar at Work……..

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A friend recently experienced having a co-worker fired for what sounded like valid reasons even if the actual process of dismissal might not have been handled as well as it could have been. In the description of events that led up to the parting of ways, it seemed to be a classic case of an individual who played fast and loose with the truth at a minimum and quite possibly sprinkled in some lies along the way. Don’t get me wrong – the, “Yes, I’ll get right on that,” when what you mean is, “I’ve got more important things to do and I’ll take care of it when I’m good and ready,” is the sort of thing that most of us have done in a work setting. Claiming that you never saw a request for something when what you really did was set it aside and forgot about it gets a little “fuzzier” when it comes to differentiating between truth and lies. The harsh reality though is that there are people in the workplace who are out-and-out liars and while it often catches up with them, that’s not a given. Indeed, some of them benefit from their lies and are greatly rewarded, which is why other people will perhaps find other work rather than continue in an environment like that.

As I’ve discussed in previous posts, there are honest mistakes and perceptions/perspectives can depart from actual facts. Then there is the very human trait of not wanting to admit being wrong. The first time I encountered a person who routinely lied, I chalked it up to one of the above. After all, this was a professional, intelligent individual. It was difficult to believe that other motive was at play, but it also didn’t take too long for me to learn to carefully document any transactions that I had with the individual and to preferably have conversations with at least one other person present. Fortunately our work overlap was of relatively short duration. It was one of those unpleasant, but important life lessons.

Complicated Finances……

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Serious content alert! I try to stay away from politics in this blog. I completely agree that medical costs are absurd in this country, but what I also know is that there is a lot of blame to go around for that. We do need reforms, although they need to be rationale reforms and that means all sorts of groups being willing to admit the responsibility that they share and being willing to look for sensible answers. That, however, is not the actual subject of this post. The subject is how much money you need for your “old age”.

I do not go into that specifically in my book, Your Room at the End: Thoughts About Aging We’d Rather Avoid, but I do touch on it. None of us – none, want to believe that we will need to go into an assisted living facility (ALF). And in some case, it isn’t necessary. There’s no question that staying in your own home is generally better emotionally than being in an ALF. However, planning to stay in your own home comes with a number of drawbacks and if you reach a stage where it is physically unsafe, your options shrink considerably. So, finding out the cost of an ALF well before you need one and deciding which one you would be willing to go into is an important first step. Then you calculate a specified number of years that you might be in the ALF and that becomes the planning factor for your “old age”. The number is likely to be startling since most ALFs are a minimum of $2,000/month and easily range from $3-5,000 depending on location and services. If you own your own home, planning to sell that to fund moving into an ALF is fine, but there needs to be a “transition” time since the house may not sell right away. The other unfortunate reality is that the proceeds from the house might not bring as much as anticipated.

This brings me to the subject of long term care insurance. Medicare and normal health insurance does not – that means does not – cover long term care costs. The issue with long term care insurance is that you have to very carefully look at what you pay and what you get in return. The earlier you take out the insurance, the lower the premiums are, but what if you pay all those premiums and never need the care? If you wait until you’re older, the premiums jump significantly. It is unquestionably a gamble and as tedious as it is to “read the fine print”, you really need to do so before making a decision about this kind of insurance. However, it can be worth every penny spent depending on your situation.

A reverse mortgage is another option that only works in certain circumstances. That, though, I’ll save for another post.