My, my, my! What a wonderful place Appraisal Scoop has become! So many excellent columns: highlighted by Patrick Egger's great "Outside The Boxes" additions. I’ve read every one of Pat’s words and learned so much to apply to my business! And the active commenting that has developed, centered on “they who cannot be named”, but now branching out to create an interesting dialog on so many issues! A rich tapestry has been spun here, all to Brian Davis’ ever lasting credit. I knew he could do it: never had a doubt.
My posts have been limited of late. I think now is a good time to return. I think I can contribute. We’ll see. You be the judge as always. My original Runt Rant was an introduction….of me, my background, my biases, my limitations. It also stated my objectives for the space I’m taking up here. I’m a business owner first and foremost. That is also my limitation. I try to give perspective of managing a business, and only that. Luckily, managing a business, especially an appraisal business, allows so many excursions into back avenues and dusty trails, into ideas and ideals, into managing change. And managing change is my strong suit; by nature and by experience.
Today we'll talk about some aspects of management of change. As always, it gets a little personal, I don’t like that, but my experience is really all I have to share. I’ll suffer the discomfort if it helps others. I have Leukemia. Specifically Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, aka CLL. Diagnosed eight years ago. As cancers go, it’s a good one to have.
CLL is incurable, but only mildly affecting life style in its early stages. Treatment consists of quarterly visits to the Doc to monitor certain chemical and biological markers. Chemo therapy sessions are mandated when the markers get too out of whack. I’ve had four such Chemo sessions over that span. They were mild poisons, few side affects. One week of infusion, markers back to normal, back to normal routine.
This year my markers have progressed into more advanced stages and a more lethal Chemo regime was in order: a trifecta of powerful poisons. A five month cycle of infusion treatments was required. The regime consists of a week of infusions, followed by three weeks of recovery, then another round. I’ve completed two of the cycles, and will enter the third next week, if all goes a planned.
It’s been an interesting adventure, especially this year’s. One of the more insidious side affects is Chemo Fog: the poisons typically affect the synapses in the brain, causing them to misfire or not fire at all. Mental acuity is degraded, but since the patient’s mental capacity is the one affected, he/she can’t detect the degradation unless they know to look for it. The Fog hit me totally by surprise years back when I did the first round of infusion years ago. Now, I’m aware, and it’s the main thing I look out for.
This time, because of the more lethal cocktails used and because of the multi cycle nature of this regime, I alerted Brian, the owner of this wonderful Blog, that I’d likely curtail my Runt Rant contributions in addition to other activities in anticipation of my going nuts for a period.
While The Fog is indeed descending, it’s not a bad as I anticipated, and I think I can return to Runt Rants, adding to the subject list the management of a business under such unusual circumstances.
For as much as we’d all like to ignore it, such unexpected events are to be expected in each of our lives, and we should prepare and organize our businesses to include them. Our businesses represent income sources for the families who are involved. Our Clients depend upon our businesses to continue to provide service. If we can set a goal to organize our businesses to continue uninterrupted when such events occur, we will reach a higher level of business stability, and therefore a more valuable business.
I’ll try to address these concepts in the next few Runt Rants. But always with the image that accompanies this column….the Fog Clown. That to remind the reader that I’m to be taken less seriously than before; to remind the reader to challenge my thoughts, words, conclusions more than normal. The Fog Clown will be my warning to you until my personal fog lifts.
The author is the owner of Acorn Appraisal Associates, a 22 year old firm offering a wide range of quality appraisal services to the Financial and Business Communities. kverrett@oak-acorn.com
I have the right to remain silent. Anything I say will be misquoted and used against me
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