The Needed Vacation

As the owner of small businesses, I also find it hard to take time off. I go to work and preform the various task needed to properly construct the project return to my office to research new methods for preforming tasks. Study the pros and cons of many methods and make mock examples to practice or learn new skills. I also file the receipts and keep a rough record of my profit and losses. Sometime I have a situation that I can’t solve satisfactory during the day. This usually because of long hours and unending weeks. I go to my house and try to put the job behind me and when I am resting, sometimes sleeping I get the solution. It is like it is sent to me. The thing just appears. This is a sign that I need to take a little time away from the Job.

At the house there is a young lady who I wish to walk through the rest of my life with. There is also a five-year-old boy we have chosen to guide through the growing process as we support and provide for him. It is easy to lose track of time and get lost in imaginary deadlines I place on myself. When I allow it to happen, I’m unable to fulfill my obligations to them and I lose focus of their importance in my life. I not only short change them I rob myself of the privilege of having them share my life. Sometimes its hard and other people seem to call out of the blue to try and give me their burdens. Still, I try to remind myself that their lack of planning doesn’t create my emergencies. There are times when I need to break away to give a situation a temporary solution, this does not mean I need to work out the details of the contract, or fix the issue completely. It means I solve their immediate issue and return during regular hours.

Sometime there are other people or companies involved. It is easy to start to rely on someone or some entity that you have worked with and who has seemed to preform well in the past. But from time to time, I need to use different people or other companies to perform these tasks or purchase my materials. Doing so helps keep me fresh, it also educates me on new trends and techniques. It allows me to compare the workmanship and the cost. It also allows the other person or company to know that nothing is established in concrete.

As a general contractor I strive to create the best projects possible. Doing so is a constant search for a better method. Fads come and go, but the true creative techniques seem to linger and improve. In real estate we know that no two properties are the same. Thus, each property is said to be unique. Because of this ever property must be evaluated on its own uniqueness.  The large developers seem to have blurred this line for the general public. You walk into their sales office to purchase one off that one size fits all models and leave with a price tag that every other person who purchased that identical model has agreed to pay that day. (Yes, supply and demand will occasionally affect these prices also). I stay clear of the track housing industry. I have worked in it in the past but it isn’t about quality; its about production and affordable housing. Not craftsmanship and the most affordable housing. Doesn’t it seem odd that we support a system that doesn’t have the time to do the tasks correctly but always finds the time to do them over. Sometimes the best choice isn’t the easiest to obtain. Sometimes, we need to slow down, do the research, try new methods, explore other options. Sometimes, even though we love our work we need to take a vacation to center ourselves and evaluate the situation with new eyes when we return.

Note: Images on this blog site are from a free source or taken by the author. No image or group of photos is intended to represent the people the author serves. The author does not care about Race (that is a politically correct term that he does not like because we are all of the same Race, the Human Race. He prefers the term ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income, Veteran or military status, ancestry, citizenship, primary language or immigration status.) He is a service provider for all people. We will all rise together when we band together and help one another. Joseph Erwin is a Real Estate Broker, DRE # O2131799, and a CA general contractor # B 696662. He’s a member of the CRMLS and The East Valley Association of Realtors located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.