People over Ponds

I love ponds but I love people more. When I plug in a waterfall that I just strained for hours to create and the homeowner I just built it for sheds a tear of joy, I have immense pride in what I’ve just done. But when I see my 13 year old dig deep to run a personal best, the level of pride I feel in what he just did isn’t even comparable. “The greatest satisfaction in life comes from helping someone else reach their fullest potential.” Wouldn’t you agree?! That’s why I’m bursting with pride today after Aquascape’s winter training event, Chicagomnoium. I saw people reaching their fullest potential and it felt damn good to know I could be a small part of it. Even better was the fact that Jennifer Zuri, our Marketing Communications Manager, could be a part of it too. After all, she had the herculean task of teaching old dogs new tricks by getting contractors to comprehend social media for their businesses. And you know what, she did it and today she’s better for it. Her “potential bar” just got notched up a level!

The world will soon be seeing what I and many of you already know and that’s how talented of an artist Brian Helfrich is. Whatever pride he felt showing off his latest masterpiece at the Chicago Flower and Garden show paled in comparison to the pride I had in seeing him reaching his fullest potential (at least until next year anyway.)

I could go on and on about the people I saw reaching their fullest potential during Chicagomonium. From Jeff Payton who has the amazing gift of turning complicated matters into simple digestible nuggets or George Janowiak having the cojones to share his financials with not only a roomful of peers but a world of peering eyes on a live camera feed! Are you kidding me?! That’s balls!

I could go on and on but will conclude with this only for the sake of brevity; My mom walked into the room during our marketing session (if you could call it that). I said something to acknowledge her and she didn’t hesitate to jump up on stage and for all intents and purposes steal not only my microphone but also the show. She weaved together whatever I was trying to say much more eloquently than I could. She said something about the five layers of success with the pinnacle being Pride.

As my mother she has, what I hope all mothers would have, immense pride in the man her boy has become. Without her constant mentoring, her leading by example I wouldn’t be half the man I am today. She should have pride too, after all I put her through! I have immense pride in calling her my mom; and Ryan my son, and Jennifer, Brian, and Jeff my Teammates, and George and maybe even you my customers. My greatest wish for all of you is that you too can experience the level of pride I get doing what I do, by doing what you do too!

Carpe Diem,

The Pond Guy