Landscape Management, June 2010

JACOBSJOURNAL DANIEL G JACOBS MANAGING EDITOR Milestones and forgiveness O ur family changes forever this month Our oldest child has begun attending a fi ve week program offered by Washington University in St Louis Josh returns home near the end of July and a few weeks later he returns to Wash U to begin his full time college experience Save for a few holiday breaks hell probably never call our house home again My wife Marci and I still have a teenage daughter at home so well not be at a loss for our share of angst and turmoil not to mention the nearly daily reminders about how little we know about well everything For more than 16 years weve guided Josh as best we could instilled our values and managed his path to adulthood But once he hit high school and probably long before many of the choices he makes are his alone Weve guided and cajoled supported and commiserated cheered and cried Josh has done a wonderful job and as far as we know in general hes made excellent choices Its been as much a pleasure watching him mature as its been a struggle waiting for it to happen And while hes still a work in progress arent we all Im confi dent he will continue to make good choices Thats not to say he wont take missteps I suspect there will be a number along the way girlfriends jobs ill conceived late nights Our only hope is that theyre temporary and short lived mistakes and most important that he learns from them Josh for the most part seems not to repeat his mistakes Samantha our 15 year old is a repeat offender To be fair its not the mistakes Im concerned about I still make plenty of those myself My issue is with my daughters response to them Josh has learned discretion is the better part of remorse He says hes sorry and moves on with his life trying not to repeat past missteps Sammie rolls her eyes sighs and immediately offers a dozen explanations of why its not her fault She contradicts every comment I make My favorite line is her response to the comment Sammie quit arguing with me Her response Im not arguing Please dont misunderstand my daughter my children are extraordinary I love them both equally and unconditionally And given what I hear some families are dealing with were lucky Its just in our home and nowhere else Sammie whines argues and complains I imagine having employees is a lot like raising children You spend time and money teaching training and supervising them but in the end you must let them do their jobs And most likely somewhere along the way theyll make mistakes How you deal with those mistakes and equally important how well they accept responsibility for their actions says a lot about your character and theirs How often have we heard celebrities apologize for their abysmal behavior with a line like Im sorry if anyone was hurt Its not an apology if theres no acceptance of responsibility How refreshing it would be to hear It was my mistake and Ill do my best to not let it happen again I know thats something Id love to hear more often from my daughter when she falls short And to my son its an extraordinary world I envy the journey youre about to begin LANDSCAPEMANAGEMENT NET JUNE 2010 48 Contact Dan at 216 706 3754 or via e mail at djacobs@ questex com I imagine having employees is a lot like raising children Somewhere along the way theyll make mistakes