Over the Easter weekend I traveled to visit with family, both living and deceased. I wanted to visit my mother’s grave site on this trip. However, I was not prepared for the range of emotions that overtook me. Needless to say, I was stunned by the emotions that came over me as a stream of memories played before my eyes like a preview to a movie. By the end of my visit, I felt confronted by one of the most fearful words in the English language –“mortality”. I don't like to think about my own mortality and what it means, but mortality is complex and multifaceted. At the core of every individual is his or her character, and one’s character intertwines with mortality. In truth, one’s character is comprised of the values and beliefs that shape the very being and the images left behind. Our character is the one element that is left for others when we face our mortality. We strive to evolve and become more and more perfected in principle through the years from birth to death.
 
You see that evolution of individuals through their businesses. Even businesses have a birth and a death. For entrepreneurs, that business is merely an extension of the principles that the business was founded upon. That entity grows, matures, deals with changing economies and trends, based on the founding principles of the entrepreneur. However, sometimes changes are so profound that businesses lose their relevance like coal to gas or CB radios to cell phones. Even the most principled businesses can have an end outliving their functionality. Maybe it's all about the same things as in Michael Josephson's phrase, “Business ethics might imply that the ethical rules and expectations are somehow different in business than in other contexts. There really is not a different set of business ethics. There is just ethics and the challenge for people in business and every other walk in life to acknowledge and live up to basic moral principles like honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and caring."
 
Work hard, be productive, and above all else stay positive.
 
 
Peggy White
Executive Director
Pulaski County Chamber of Commerce
peggywhite@pulaskichamber.info