The worst offenders in the list of truly aggravating
features of our industry seem to occur during the
bidding and building phases of construction.
Industrial & Commercial
www.LodgeLumber.com
1.800.856.6679
SQUARE & ROUND CUSHION BLOCKS
FORM LUMBER | PLYFORM
HEAVY TIMBERS | CRANE MATS
LODGE LUMBER IS A LEADING PROVIDER OF
PILE CUSHION BLOCKS
We have served the Marine and Highway Construction
Industry for over 70 years by providing quality products
and superior service.
We all make it work somehow. But our price is too high. In
a college class in hydraulics, I learned one of its immutable laws.
Under the effects of gravity, excrement flows downhill. We all
know where it lands. Contracts don’t mean a thing. Taillight guarantees
(only good until the company’s last truck’s taillights fade
out of sight) are the only thing you get for your money anymore.
Payment clauses are ignored. People will outright lie to make a
problem someone else’s. Construction managers won’t manage.
Followers will follow to their doom. To sum it up, the golden rule
applies: he who has the gold makes the rules. This is not how I was
taught to behave or to run my business.
At times, I wonder where all the fun went. At others, I wonder
why I even bother. My wife asks me, “…and you’re in this business
because?” I have always been an optimistic sort, so if it sounds as
though I am whining and complaining, I am. I apologize, and I
will stop now. Once again, I was not taught that way. As my kids
say amongst their friends, “Cry me a river, build me a bridge and
get over it.”
In spite of it all, there remains a way that you and I must perform
our functions in the industry. This is the way I am sure most
of us were taught. It is getting nigh on impossible to do so without
prostituting ourselves to the new norm, but we cannot stoop to that.
It’s time for the excrement to be pumped uphill.
During my outgoing PDCA president’s speech in 2011, I
referred to being a bridge builder both literally and figuratively.
Now, more than ever, we need to do this. But we must all be the
standard bearers and act together in doing so, or the acts of a morally
bankrupt and corrupt few will take us down with their ship.
Now more than ever, PDCA stands guard for the scrupulous
owners, and for us all, provided that we maintain the strength of
our membership, and the membership stands with PDCA – help
us do something about any problems that stand in our way. With
this type of thinking, we will all survive and thrive, even though
these may not be our father’s companies. And speaking for myself,
it’s not even remotely close to my grandfather’s. In fact, it’s so far
from close, that the light from close will take 2.4 billion years to
get here. t
Do you agree or disagree with Buck? Write a letter to the editor and tell
us what you think! Send your opinion to jharris@lesterpublications.com.
BUSINESS
62 | QUARTER 4 2016
/www.LodgeLumber.com
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