The Summer of My Discontent

I moved back home one year ago to oversee the family business. Stepping into the role of President, daughter, sister, and child of a legend has been both exhilarating and petrifying. The first year consisted of getting into the ledgers, understanding who does what and how to best change the world one book at a time. I’ve hired various folks to help us craft our brand and market our image. After all before I can get folks to come, I’ve got to clearly identify what we are and what we stand for. Max DePree said, "Management has a lot to do with answers. Leadership is a function of questions. And the first question for a leader always is: 'Who do we intend to be?' Not 'What are we going to do?' but 'Who do we intend to be?'" Our business has a unique purpose. In addition to publishing and promoting the most amazing leadership, inspirational and motivational material, we also sell it at the lowest cost on the planet. We had a year of very modest growth and were able to give $100k to our foundation in its first year. I’m told to be happy that we had any growth at all due to the economy. I consider this comment to be a cop out and it makes me discontented because my goal is to give ten times as much to those who need it. So after this year of courting and publishing new authors, moving into the realm of social media and developing greater brand awareness, my discontent becomes more palpable every day. And I am glad. Being discontent means I am not happy with the status quo. There have been many times in my life where I’ve struggled with a decision. My course of action has been to work as hard as I am in my current situation until I wake up and clearly see the course of action I should take.  Sometimes this takes years but as they say, “when you’re going through hell, keep going!” It doesn’t mean that I am unhappy. It means that I am restless because I know there is something more out there. My Dad used to call this state “happy miserable” which was a good place to be since you know why you were miserable and could therefore do something about it. So here I am after my first year home and as a fully fledged entrepreneur. It’s been an amazing learning process regarding things that have worked and things that haven’t. But the one thing all these successes and failures make me is restless. Knowledge makes you yearn for movement, to move one step closer on the map to your destination, to click in one more level of clarity on your site glass as your vision becomes clearer. Seeing the goal more clearly makes me discontent with anything in my circle that doesn’t fully support my mission. So here’s to a long, hot summer of discontent. May it bring about the seasons of change needed to accomplish our ultimate goals.