A Riff on "If"
04/11/2024
Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” resonates with me more now than in times past, as we continue to navigate the modern economy and culture.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.....” is an apt plea to all of us these days. It is so easy to fall into a trap of melancholy and a “woe-is-me” mentality. So much seems beyond our control and we have no way to alter our path forward.
Mental health awareness is much in the news these days, and it should be. I look back at the decades of my life, my career, and family situations, and wonder “What if?”. The 1980s was the onset of my professional career in the agricultural lending industry. Talk about some tragedies and fallouts of farming careers. I remember it being talked about, but nothing as it is these days. A couple of farmer suicides come to mind, murders and family breakups were encountered, and professional careers derailed over failed institutions as well as the farm and main street business failures littering small-town America. (“Big town” America fared no better, by the way).
None of us are immune to despondence, despair and disappointments. It’s part of the human existence, since God made man.
Nothing is easy...in life, in personal relationships, in business, in anything.
As professionals working with farm and ranch producers, landowners and others working in agriculture-related fields, we encounter so many factors and attributes directly and indirectly connected to the issue we are hired to specifically address. We are not experts in many of the fields we touch upon in our work *. But we must be mindful of so many of these factors and attributes that are contributing to the problems, or solutions, at hand. We must know where the line is and our limitations.
Don Tyler, ASAC member and Northern Region Director, is a professional facilitator whose practice covers a lot of human relations work, with farm families and with companies having a sizable number of family and non-family employees. He will be presenting at the 2024 ASAC Conference in Fort Myers, Florida in November on the subject “ How to Switch from Consultant to Counselor”. This is a timely topic on which all of us need to focus our attention, education, and skill development. We must know our boundaries, and when to encourage others to bring in accredited professionals for a specific task or consultation.
“If” we put our individual and collective energies and expertise to work with our clients and others around us on a daily basis, maintain and promote a positive attitude and the determination that all the angst, anxiety and despair about the world will be overcome, then there is nothing to keep us and our clients from success and long-term happiness.
Join us in Fort Myers, Florida on Sunday – Thursday, November 3 – 5 at the Crowne Plaza Fort Myers Gulf Coast Hotel for ASAC’s 2024 Conference and Annual Meeting. We have a robust and educational program coming together for our enjoyment and professional development. Go to ASAC’s website, www.agconsultants.org, for details about registration, the program itinerary, and travel logistics. Come enjoy meeting professionals from across America, and hear about some exciting things happening in the Sunshine State.
*I personally refuse to use the term “expert”. To me, it means the designated person knows everything needed for the situation at hand and, in the words of someone once stated to me, “you can fix this”. Uhhhh, I couldn’t. I could help, I could facilitate conversations, and spur some fresh perspectives. The client could, and should, and did solve the situation.
***********************************
This article is the opinion and perspective of the author and may or may not be consistent with those of other ASAC Members. Endorsement of specific items mentioned in the article is not an endorsement of the individual, the company or the organization from which it originates. ASAC as an organization does not advocate opinions or positions on issues.
Pete Weisenberger
Weisenberger Agricultural Services, LLC
pete.weis0956@gmail.com
Past President
American Society of Agricultural Consultants
Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If” resonates with me more now than in times past, as we continue to navigate the modern economy and culture.
“If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs.....” is an apt plea to all of us these days. It is so easy to fall into a trap of melancholy and a “woe-is-me” mentality. So much seems beyond our control and we have no way to alter our path forward.
Mental health awareness is much in the news these days, and it should be. I look back at the decades of my life, my career, and family situations, and wonder “What if?”. The 1980s was the onset of my professional career in the agricultural lending industry. Talk about some tragedies and fallouts of farming careers. I remember it being talked about, but nothing as it is these days. A couple of farmer suicides come to mind, murders and family breakups were encountered, and professional careers derailed over failed institutions as well as the farm and main street business failures littering small-town America. (“Big town” America fared no better, by the way).
None of us are immune to despondence, despair and disappointments. It’s part of the human existence, since God made man.
Nothing is easy...in life, in personal relationships, in business, in anything.
As professionals working with farm and ranch producers, landowners and others working in agriculture-related fields, we encounter so many factors and attributes directly and indirectly connected to the issue we are hired to specifically address. We are not experts in many of the fields we touch upon in our work *. But we must be mindful of so many of these factors and attributes that are contributing to the problems, or solutions, at hand. We must know where the line is and our limitations.
Don Tyler, ASAC member and Northern Region Director, is a professional facilitator whose practice covers a lot of human relations work, with farm families and with companies having a sizable number of family and non-family employees. He will be presenting at the 2024 ASAC Conference in Fort Myers, Florida in November on the subject “ How to Switch from Consultant to Counselor”. This is a timely topic on which all of us need to focus our attention, education, and skill development. We must know our boundaries, and when to encourage others to bring in accredited professionals for a specific task or consultation.
“If” we put our individual and collective energies and expertise to work with our clients and others around us on a daily basis, maintain and promote a positive attitude and the determination that all the angst, anxiety and despair about the world will be overcome, then there is nothing to keep us and our clients from success and long-term happiness.
Join us in Fort Myers, Florida on Sunday – Thursday, November 3 – 5 at the Crowne Plaza Fort Myers Gulf Coast Hotel for ASAC’s 2024 Conference and Annual Meeting. We have a robust and educational program coming together for our enjoyment and professional development. Go to ASAC’s website, www.agconsultants.org, for details about registration, the program itinerary, and travel logistics. Come enjoy meeting professionals from across America, and hear about some exciting things happening in the Sunshine State.
*I personally refuse to use the term “expert”. To me, it means the designated person knows everything needed for the situation at hand and, in the words of someone once stated to me, “you can fix this”. Uhhhh, I couldn’t. I could help, I could facilitate conversations, and spur some fresh perspectives. The client could, and should, and did solve the situation.
***********************************
This article is the opinion and perspective of the author and may or may not be consistent with those of other ASAC Members. Endorsement of specific items mentioned in the article is not an endorsement of the individual, the company or the organization from which it originates. ASAC as an organization does not advocate opinions or positions on issues.
Pete Weisenberger
Weisenberger Agricultural Services, LLC
pete.weis0956@gmail.com
Past President
American Society of Agricultural Consultants
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