President’s Letter
Dear Friends,
I know you expect the President’s Letter to be filled with pearls of business wisdom — new ideas, current trends and partial blueprints on how to grow and make your business more successful. And I’m sure that in the future, this one will be all that.
However, I have recently returned home from six months in New Orleans doing restoration catering and have found that my life has changed in every aspect. The experience made me come to terms with a question I’d been struggling with: What is happiness, and how do I define it for myself?
Recently, A friend of mine sent me an article about a new and very popular course at Harvard University that “teaches” happiness. I found it funny that people thought they could be taught happiness, and then it occurred to me that we are always being “taught” happiness in one way or another. My experience in New Orleans was a lesson in the simple truth that life is sweet, and that instead of our day–to–day complaining, we should be relishing our successes, large and small; accepting our mistakes (large and small); and taking responsibility for our personal actions, as well as those of our companies.
We can’t “learn” happiness unless we can recognize it and then act on it, even though our first reaction to it might be fear of the unknown. The time in New Orleans taught me that great love and achievement involve great risk, and that there is no risk greater than no risk at all.
Mara Routh
ICA President
MOE Restoration Catering, Michael’s Gourmet Group,
Sarasota Florida
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