There are only a very few people one can “trust” during one’s life.  I have only two people I trust completely.  Sometimes we are hurt by those we trust, but I believe it never happens intentionally.  I define “someone I can trust” as somebody I can tell my troubles too and never feel I will be judged too harshly.  I expect feedback, even if harsh - but never harshly judged. 

I have very, very few people I define as “friends”.  I can think of two - and they are not the same two as noted above.  Both take me as I am, and not for what I have accomplished or what I will try to accomplish going forward.  They are not impressed by past accomplishments, although they recognize these accomplishments as important milestones in my life.  They also understand that failure is not related to friendship and consider failure to be just another form of learning.  These two are indeed friends - but I would never characterize them as “friends” since they are closer than that.  

I have many who could be considered an acquaintance, be they business or social.  We can all learn from each other, and I have yet to meet anyone from whom I couldn’t learn something.  Everyone has something to offer from their own experiences in life.

Recently I attended the wedding of someone I have come to learn alot about - or, at least I “thought” I knew alot about him.  I was very surprised to learn new things about this person during the few days surrounding his wedding.  I thought I knew him well….. and yet - I found the revelations about him to be positive and enlightening.  I didn’t know he was a country western music enthusiast.  Didn’t know he was a Harley Dude….. I knew he rode motorcycles - but didn’t realize his affection for Harley’s.

To get to know a person, one has to be observant and be a good listener.  What you see on the surface may not be what is underneath.  The public persona may not be what is underlying and more important to the overall personality of the person being observed.  Outsiders rarely know the truth behind the person, and we are often too quick to judge based upon rumor and innuendo.  I surely do hope I am better than that.  I think I am.  I hope I am.  This recent wedding brought home that I have some work to do in this arena.

I have no need to share other people’s “secrets”.  Alot of people confide in me.  They have learned that I don’t share confidences.  I  have no need to let others know what I know about people I associate with.  I keep secrets.  I once heard someone define a “secret” as a little known fact (or non-fact, rumor) that gets passed around, one person at a time.  I find that about half the “secrets” handed to me are based in “fact”.  Most are “opinion” rather than fact.  Passing around such opinions leads to rumor and innuendo…..something I detest.  That might be why I keep such things to myself.

The first sign of intelligence, is silence.

Having set up this blog a couple of months back - I wondered (for a long time) if this would be something I really wanted to do.  At one point, many years back - my life in the snow industry was an open book.  I hid nothing, shared everything, and generally spoke openly about my personal challenges as well as business challenges that occurred during the life cycle of the business(s) I was involved in at the time.  Some would say this came back to bite me as many, many folks like to think themselves superior when another within the same industry experiences some heartache - utilizing the opportunity to tear someone down when (the perception of) hard times come upon them.

After having been removed from the industry for awhile, I began to hear from some who wanted me to become reinvolved in the industry, even if on the outskirts and fringes of the industry as a whole.  Given my directional change from being a contractor heavily involved in the snow industry, to a manufacturer of specialty equipment for the industry - I wondered if anyone really cared what my opinions might be on any subject, much less the snow industry as a whole.

So….. we give it a shot.  At the insistence of others I had the “blog” developed and placed on-line.  I did nothing with it fir several months, but “looked” to see if there was any activity from others who might wish to type my name into some search engine and find out what came up.  Surprisingly, several hundred hits came to the blog and some considerable movement around the site was noted.  I found it interesting.  As such, I shall begin posting comments, thoughts, observations, and some events about my activities as they relate to the snow industry as a whole, and we’ll see how it goes.

I welcome spirited discussion and feedback, negative as well as positive.  It is unlikely my life will become the open book it was during the formative years of the Snow & Ice Management Association’s early years, and that is to be expected.

Please understand, I am brand spanking new at this blogging thing, and some mistakes are bound to occur.  Hopefully, none so bad that they cannot be rectified with some experience and experimentation.  Let’s see how it goes for awhile.