Valpo Leaders Teach Us That Work Is What You Make Of It

One of the coolest things that has happened to me since launching ValpoLife.com, is that I have had the fortune of meeting so many people, across so many groups in town, and feel like I am a sponge soaking up the knowledge that they have, the character they demonstrate, the life lessons they have learned, and the work that they do in their professional and personal life.

I have learned quite a bit from each of these groups or individuals, and am just flat out better off for the opportunity to have met them, or heard them speak.  While each of them has had a number of pieces of wisdom to learn from in how they go about their lives, this week I would say the common component among all of them has been the willingness to fill their work with passion, and their commitment to follow their passion in what they work on.

Whether they are working on good programs in the community, to University graduates, to business owners who are successful, to veterans who are incredibly humble despite having done some extraordinary things in their lifetime, every single one of them has grasped in their life, that whatever they would like to achieve, is absolutely within their grasp, as long as they truly work at it every day, and never give it, let up, or fail to leave it all on the field.

Here are a couple quick insights that I learned recently from people I came into contact with, that I think can bring some value to anyone working…..  on anything really.

Veterans and Soldiers

I stopped by the VFW and American Legion halls a couple of weeks ago hoping to interview a couple of veterans for the feature we are working on to say thanks to all those that are serving or have served in the military.  They allow us to celebrate a gorgeous weekend like this with our freedom.  To a man, not one of them wanted to be interviewed or featured themselves for what they had done, each saying in different words, “it is not about me, it is about the service”.  We got to meet a number of great guys, and learn a bunch about those organizations and how they help the veterans that we are proud of.  While much of the world looks to be on the front page for doing nothing, these guys did not even want to be mentioned in an article, even though they had done everything.  Every story we heard had honor mentioned somewhere inside of it, and none of them dwelled on the massive amount of sheer work involved with what they did, nor the sacrifice temporarily or permanently that they made, in their efforts to achieve whatever goal that our country laid out in front of them.  Humble, proud, and willing to bust their tail to help take care of their mates, both in battle, and now many years later, when someone needs medical help, a place for the orphaned kids of war, or a place to call home in their community that they can share some memories and a beer with the others that have served.

Bruce White – White Lodging Services

Bruce made a dynamic, straight shooting, funny, and disciplined presentation to the Valpo Chamber’s Insight event at the Valpo Country Club a couple weeks ago.  He shared some great stories about how nuts people thought his Dad was for wanting to build a hotel in the middle of corn fields at 65 and 30 back around 1970, and the respect he had for his Dad’s vision to see opportunity ahead of anyone else.  We learned just how much that family had laid it on the line for the business to be successful, and we could laugh at his stories of installing furniture till 2am in the morning before the opening, and filling in as bus boys when they realized that was one of those “to-do” items that they had just not gotten to, amidst the mayhem of launching a brand new business.  It was clear Bruce knows his business inside and out from a financial, service, marketing, and accountability point of view, and that despite his tremendous success, he gets up early to work hard each and every day, to fulfill his dream building a company that continually improves and grows, and because he has a healthy respect for the fear of failure that drives many of the best CEO’s in the world.

Jon Groth – Porter County Career Center

Jon is and always will be one of my favorite guys in town.  This man serves on more boards than any basketball player in the world that runs up and down a court full of boards every day.  He is an incredible mentor to all of the kids at the Porter County Career Center, where those kids learn not only a valuable and marketable skill set in addition to their academics, but also respect for adults, professionalism in the work place, humility through service, and responsibility for their lives and their actions.  He was one of the first to respond when I pressed for people to help us tell the story of veterans in the community, and no surprise to me, knew of quite a few to share with me and the background on each of those fine people.  He is a strong leader in community organizations like Rebuilding Together and the Kiwanis, and I have watched his patience with a 90 year old man that took 5 minutes to tell Jon that he wanted to buy one pancake breakfast ticket and helped him get the $5 out of his wallet for him.  I sometimes wonder how he fits all of that in, while having a great relationship with his family, and probably more friends in town than just about anybody that lives here, but he does, and I know his old fashioned work ethic is right at the heart of his ability to do so.

VU Graduates and their Parents

My memory of college is more remote by the day as I get older, though I remember the feeling at graduation of having gotten through everything that was required, as well as my mom telling me many times over, how much of the pride in that degree was hers.  She knew and made sure I did, all that she had done to make sure I made it every step of the way through childhood.  One of the speakers at the graduation ceremony earlier this summer, VU Professor Walt Wangerin Jr., gave an excellent speech about the importance for all of those VU graduates of respecting their parents and their grandparents for all of the work they had put into those graduates, whether directly or indirectly through the example they had set in their lives.  His really cool story about the mom and the son that sang a happy tune together when they were young, and the respect that the son had for his mom when they sang that tune together, however off key when she was in her waning days, reminded all of us of the bond with our kids and our parents.  It reminded me that being a parent though incredibly difficult work at times, is the most rewarding experience that most of us will ever have during our lifetime.

Steve Johnson – Johnson Garden Center

When many people think of private business owners, they imagine a life at fine restaurants, vacations in tropical places, and “the opportunity to relax and choose how to spend your time” that might come with owning your own business.  When I walked into Johnson’s Garden Center to drop off a folder about them potentially advertising on the site one nice summer day, the nice woman at the counter pointed to Steve as the owner with a couple big pots of flowers in his hand, moving things around so they are ready for the weekend.  Probably putting in as much physical labor to make it all go, as anyone on his entire staff.  In 60 seconds, you could tell that his hands and his heart were made for working, and the dedication to quality everywhere you looked was evident.  None of that comes easy.

Nicole Bissonnette – Restaurant Owner

Nicole is the owner of Bistro 157 restaurant in Valpo, Bartlett’s in Beverly Shores, and had a Chamber event and ribbon cutting for her beautiful new reception facility, the Venue, on one Thursday afternoon, located right at the heart of things in downtown Valpo.  She was busy throughout trying to connect with all of the guests, was simultaneously having her crew set up for the large Taste of Valpo event at the Porter County Expo Center that was going on that night, and was going to fit in some time with a long time friend that happened to be in town, but only for that night.  She was as cool as a cucumber in my book, and did not show the strain on what it is like to juggle all of that.  You could just tell that is what she is like, and what she does, naturally.

Brown Family – Valpo Velvet Ice Cream

These are some of my other favorite people in town, and not only because I am a borderline ice cream fanatic.  Their company has a great name, a great history, a great family, and great ice cream behind it.  Whether I see them at the store working the counter, back in the back where they are hand making the ice cream, or manning the booth at the Taste of Valpo and lugging big buckets of ice cream into and out of that very warm facility, they are always smiling, and are naturally some of the most positive people I have ever met.  I don’t know everything it takes to do what they do for sure, but from what I have seen, it sure does take a ton of work, a great attitude, persistence that lasts through generations of their family, and a never quit mentality that permeates not only the family but their wives and extended family as well, which you can see in Cathy Brown wherever she goes.