Herman: John L. Herman Jr., Author

200 and Counting...

This is the 200th posting of the blog. Workplace issues? Buying your next business? Something about debt? Why you just don’t work hard enough to succeed? These are topics I could write about…but at a milestone I wanted to mark the occasion with something more personal.

Does what you do teach others even when you are not looking?

There were three children growing up in my household, all daughters. Kelly was the oldest and came into my life at a time when I was just starting out in business. In those days I worked from home and Kelly fought her asthma with battles that often involved a hospital stay. Colleen came along eight years later and she was born into the world seemingly as an adult, already headstrong and sure of herself. Shannon was the baby. This posting will focus on Shannon.

Now a twenty-five year old woman, Shannon is heading off from Baltimore to live with the man in her life in North Carolina. The baby is all grown up now. She has a Masters degree and is a Social Worker currently involved with young people in need of help.

During the early years of Shannon’s life I was building my most successful company, just after my most catastrophic failure. She knew we went broke and she was aware of our recovery and start-up to great success. When I explained to her that Dad had lost everything she gave me the hugs I needed to know I hadn’t lost my family…just my stuff. When I was putting together the seedling money for the next start-up she wanted to know the exact amount of money I was risking…it was thirty thousand dollars. Precious dollars. And she knew that.

During the early months and years of Equity Partners Shannon would often ask me if we still had the thirty thousand dollars…and even when we had many times that she still felt that security far outweighs stuff. In reality she didn’t care that we lost our stuff…she just knew how much it hurt me to fail and she didn’t want that to happen to me again. Shannon, as well as Colleen and Kelly worked hard for me back then. There were always mailings to be folded, stuffed and stamped. In our garage there was a copier bigger than Shannon to print financial data for investors looking at the companies I was selling…she stood on a chair and made thousands of copies. And then sat in the living room collating them for marketing books. To this day she loves repetitive tasks, in part because it reminds her of working with Dad to help me succeed.

In the summer of her fifteenth year Shannon and her best friend Liz invented a word that still makes me laugh. I asked what the girls were going to do that summer and they announced they were in “pretirement.” It meant that they knew it was the last time of their life they wouldn’t have a job until they hit retirement, hence they were in pretirement…the time before you start to work. Then the first job came in the next summer…working at the swimming pool owned by football great Artie Donovan. The most famous story was when little Shannon reached high overhead in the snack bar to get down the jug of oil to put into the fryer. There was no lid and Shannon took a shower in the spilling mess. Undaunted, she made it through that summer and has continued working hard to this day.

Kids watch what you do all the time. My father had a great work ethic, and a care for his “family first” ethic. I got it and now Shannon has it. She knows integrity beats everything else whether you win or lose. And she knows to finish your work before you focus on play. But she knows the value of loving and being loved. And so she will leave her family in Baltimore to explore a life in North Carolina. It will be a gain for that State. The children she helps will be touched by an angel. Matt is a lucky man to have an opportunity to share his life with Shannon.

Two hundred postings. No big deal. Shannon spreading her wings and flying on her own terms…a wonderful big deal. Fly high Shannon…and as one of our favorite songs says…I’ll be standing there when you come back down. I love you Shanny Bird…I love you.

• Posted: 26 August 2008
• Comments: 1
• Category: Business success

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