Why We Do This

Today we lost our first family pet. The reason I am writing about this is because the entire time we were doing everything we could to help our little guy we had a big obstacle, our day jobs.

Our little guy was so cool. He is the first cat I know of that thought he was just straight up a dog. He had been with us for twelve years and spent every single day by our sides. Following us around, laying on the keyboard and being a cat (with some dog in there I am sure.) Luckily, I got out of work in time to be with him when he passed. We thought he had a liver problem and when they went in to check things out they found cancer everywhere. He died in my arms when they removed the breathing tube from him right there in the OR.

My wife was there too. She cancelled a business trip she had Monday and when she showed up at the airport for another trip Tuesday she broke down and could not leave the little guy. Thank God she was here. But what almost prevented that, her job. Through all of the vet visits, late nights and early mornings spent caring for the guy the one thing that made it more stressful was worrying about our jobs.

That brings me to the point of this post. Our jobs/careers are still spent serving the needs of some other company. And when push comes to shove, the company trumps all in the eyes of the guys at the top. The company trumps you and everyone that works with you. I know, I am one of those Executives but I fight EVERY SINGLE day to get the “policy makers” to work with the employees on flex time, job share, floating holidays and even wearing jeans one day a week.

Well, that’s why we do what we do here, right?

We want to live our lives and spend our days on our time. We own our businesses and we can be with family when needed. We can take some time off when we break an ankle and not worry about dipping too much into vacation time. We spend all the time we need taking care of our kids and babysitting nieces and nephews if needed. We can be free.

That’s what it’s all about. That’s what JL Scott’s REVOLUTION is all about. It’s about getting back those precious moments that you never have when working your 9 to 5. It’s about being where you need to be when there is a crisis. It is about love, family and freedom. I would have been here to take my guy to the vet that one last time. I would have given him a huge hug and kiss and told him to hang in there. I would have gotten to see him with big open eyes one more time.

That’s why I do this.

That’s what I am fighting for.

What are you fighting for?

RIP Midnight “Little Mo”

April 1996 – February 25, 2009