Autumn Updates
For us long-suffering entrepreneur types, our day to day productivity is typically off the charts. I’m not saying this to brag or boast, but as an observation. As I find myself procrastinating a few things here and there due to some low-simmering depression over the emotionally wrought things in my life currently, the self-critical ‘procrastination’ made me reflect on what my days are really like compared to most people, with top to bottom obligations of some sort and it’s been going on for decades.
I’m helping my son with his grammar last week for a test, and we were studying compound adjectives, and when a hyphen should be used. I’m a big English language geek so I was all in on the request for help, so see above - ‘self-critical’ and ‘emotionally wrought’ - similar but not. Both occurred before the noun they are describing so should get a hyphen, but then, like many times in the English language there is an exception, and in this case the exception is the rule doesn’t apply if one of the adjectives ends in ‘ly’, which it does in this case, hence ‘emotionally wrought’ is sans hyphen. Either of these compounds would not get a hyphen if they come after the noun, mind you, and and ‘self’ and ‘free’ always gets one, before or after a noun - self-expression, free-love, etc… Interesting stuff.
The Milford Boro bell tolls at 5am on a Sunday morning - I can hear it ever so faintly in the quiet morning. It rings hourly, 24/7/365. It does not toll to the count of the hour of the day I don’t believe - just a gong or two at each passing hour of each passing day.
To circle back to the commencing paragraph, to us busy self-employed people, tasks and to-do lists are endless, complex, and typically urgent. You typically build up a muscle to tackle them as they announce themselves, since there is another soon arriving at the station, so not a lot of space to kick the can down the road without it all piling up on you. Which makes some self-observing procrastination stand out like a mutt in a pure-breed dog show- but I think compared to a lot of lives lived, pushing off a task is par for the course, be it a chore, a repair, a will, or self-improvement initiative.
Long and meandering electric line dug up a steep embankment.
I mention it because I’m definitely procrastinating a few things more than I would like - sure I’m working a lot, learning spanish, reading a book a month, working a lot, writing a blog, keeping up my social media, showing up for my son and dog alike and dozens of similar efforts, but I’m not exercising like I’d like to be, not getting my walks and hikes in, haven’t been to my detached residential gym in a few weeks - and for someone who is aware of tasks undone, it just stands out as a symptom of something going on.
But life is chapters and not all chapters of a book can radiate with the bright sunrays of happy endings. I’m just glad I have some money in the bank, because to navigate all the stuff thrown my way recently while being taxed and uncertain financially, might actually be a bridge too far.
I can never see a survey ribbon without some sort of feeling of FOMA of what someone got that I didn't.
I mention a slight case of the blues up top not for concern, sympathy or intervention, but just as some simple self-awareness. It’s very much anti-culture to ride your ups and downs with anything other than a smile and stiff upper lip, but it’s unnecessary. Like is said in therapy and psychological circles, it’s ok not to be ok. The faking it is what gets people into trouble. I also mention it because in my life, career and journey, feeling good, bad or something in between has never been a reason for task deference or avoidance. Shit needs to get done, regardless of what is going on, and it typically needs to be done pretty well, pretty quick, and pretty comprehensively. The ability to compartmentalize and motor on is a critical skill of anyone achieving anything in any professional arena because life will be throwing some distracting stuff your way, and frankly, you need to buck up, stay dialed in, and keep the thing rolling.
That all being said, that all being true without a doubt, that over the years, there has been nothing that has derailed my focus and concentration on the Catskill Farms thing, day in day out. However, that’s not to say that I did it that well, did it with unnecessary brute force and toe-stomping/crushing. Some people with less on the line might be able to even-keel through some of the issue, but for those of us who path is actually defined by identifying, evaluating, addressing and solving real problems in real time, I think most of us could confess to approaches that while may be effective, leave some real collateral damage in its wake.
For me, I’m universally, in all areas I work and play, considered a bit of bi-polar wildman asshole. A fair description. But I’ve also built and have sustained a business that has no local peers. So could it have been done differently? Maybe, but we will never know because no one has succeeded in doing it differently - all we have are once and done johnnies who maybe wanted to be a Catskill Farms-like player, got a house or two or three built and then we never hear from them again as they slink off with dashed dreams, a harrowing few years of effort with little to show for it, and diminished bank account balances. Catskill Farms has over 300 homes dotting the country-side, carpenters with $200k in a 401k, hundreds of people and businesses nursing off our economic development tit, be it towns and their tax revenue, employees with their stability, subcontractors with their quality client, and clients and their families enjoying the fruits of our seriousness.
A lot of the criticism directed towards me is wholly fair but it’s also wholly out of context, like ants judging an elephant. What we do, on a daily basis, year after year, is attack and achieve large-scale goals with gigantic consequences in both success and failure. There is nothing we do that doesn’t have an important impact on someone.
Not sure what my point is other than when you lead from the front, when you never shy from being the point of the spear, when you are always aware of the most pressing problem to solve and personally select that one as your task of the day, that is best done not as a dull, rounded tip, but a sharpened, focused edge of concentration. Construction is a big-boy sport - and it takes a big boy mind-set to meet your goals.
I look out and around survey the battlefield, and I understand better than most that it’s not the superficial headlines or instagram partnerships or false-start collaborations that sustain us, but the real, deep, raw-hide tough relationships that have ridden this bull ride with us for decades -subs, banks, lawyers, surveyors, engineers, employees, - relationships built and sustained by trial by fire, and here’s the real kicker - built and sustained by continuing to get hard shit done day after day for years - paying bills, forging ahead, navigating real problems. There is not a person I work with -from the banker to the client to the vendor- who doesn’t believe I will find a way to solve the problem that prevents me from living up to my word. It’s atypical.
These micro-finance options for consumption are everywhere. I can’t buy anything without some option to ‘split the payment in 4’, like Karma, Affirm, Afterpay, Paypal, and now I think even Venmo the last time I paid someone using that app. It’s scary stuff - I’ve never clicked the button, so I don’t know what the application and approval process looks like, but given the financial illiteracy of most of America, I can see a lot of people getting into a lot of problems with easy micro finance like this. Grocery bills, holidays, travel, gas, back-to-school.
Ever since the death of my friend John, and the devastation he left in his wake with the lack of an estate plan, I’ve been on a mission of sorts to make sure men in my orbit have addressed their estates in a pro-active way. Maybe it’s a will, maybe it’s a trust, maybe it’s life insurance. I’ve now coached close to a dozen colleagues into a roadmap to take care of the details that can leave your legacy of good intact when you pass instead of turning people’s lives upside down taking care of the shit you never had time to. And since I run into and around with a lot of people, the long-term impact of making this a priority for me and my colleagues should be large over time. There is just really no excuse for it, especially some of these small business people, who have small businesses that could be complex to unwind, difficult to sustain, immediately in need of continued cash flow. No quicker way to diminish your life’s work than to leave it in the hands of people unfamiliar with its operations upon your passing. Wills, trusts, and life insurance. It’s not that complicated.
The 6am bell tolls. My good friend and once-upon-time college roommate Justen has a small business named Devotion to Writing, where he systematically, through courses and trips, encourages people to make a habit of writing. I often, in fact it seems always, use the comfort of writing as a recuperative tool in solving riddles of a personal and professional matter.
Business-wise, we are busy. Busier than we have been in years. That actually isn’t quite true - I’ve been busy for the last few years, but it’s been a lot of nonsense of team-rebuilding - a tedious task, an unredeeming task as it went sideways and backwards. But now we are busy in a way I enjoy, and to be honest, deserve. I’m not one to feel ‘deserved’ or ‘entitled’ - I work for what I get - but in this situation, I feel I put in the work, maybe for longer than I should’ve needed to - to get my operations team back in order, so to be firing on all cylinders alongside a full cadre of talented men each day, that feels deserved.
It appears I just booked $5m of building business, plus have at least 5 spec homes planned across 2 counties, plus we have a fully finished house that will be for sale as soon as we get electric to it, and two homes ¾ finished to complete. That gets us through 2026 profitably without a problem - just show up and execute. Considering just 3 months ago, I had slowed my business down to its slowest pace maybe ever because I had just failed so miserably to rebuild my office team after 2 years of effort, this is a pretty grand achievement.
I always like to step outside myself and look at my actions as a manager, in order to disassociate and learn from my efforts - and the big takeaway here is to be careful fixing problems with band-aids and duct-tape and coverup makeup, because the rot you introduce is real and can just prolong the inevitable shakeup. The real problem with my business, and keeping it staffed, is we don’t mess around. I expect a lot, everyday. The consequences of mis-steps are visible and transparent. I expect people to improve, regardless of their current talents - even the great can get greater.
Just bought 5 pieces of land in SuCo for just under $500k, just bought 2 pieces of land in Ulster for just under $200k, have a 4000 sq ft home on 30 acres being built in Kerhonkson, client-based homes going on in North Branch, Catskill, Kerhonkson, Saugerties and Bearsville. There are many things important when you start to move this fast, but primary among them is your attorney, and your finance guy - that’s the oil that keeps the motor humming safely.
Almost two hours of writing. Guess I was feeling peculiar.