ED SAID -Don’t worry, be happy

I was brought up at a time when service meant something. Sure there was money involved in the decades up until probably the eighties there weren’t so many options for service in industry. If you didn’t work you didn’t get paid and any agreed price or payment was just that – agreed – and generally one dealt with their local supplier without too much question. 

Any questions or disputes were settled, in most cases, by man-to-man discussion, a handshake, and life went on. Though it’s always been said ‘there’s no sentiment in business’, customers meant making a living. And keeping customers, as both clients and friends, was an important part of that equation.

Today everything seems to be calculated in monetary terms above all else. Today loyalty through thick and thin is a rare commodity indeed, not just in business but even within families. Today, however, we accept that fact. It’s a user pays society and wherever and whenever we can negotiate a better deal we will generally take it – until another comes along.

Much of the ‘service’ edict applies to The Focus. We are pleased and proud to have a widening and loyal readership and advertising base though, being a bi-monthly paper, there are things locally whose newsability (is that a word?) has expired by print time. However our facebook page includes a number of these as will our new website in time. Though most issues are 16 to 20 pages we pride ourselves in having many times more readable articles than any other local paper. This issue of 24 pages simply demonstrates that there is plenty of optimism happening with the harbinger to summer.

Being a free paper, The Focus survives entirely by advertising revenue. This actually means that production costs are met first and foremost and whatever is left over gets shared among the worker bees. Usually that’s not much but, we like to think that’s ‘service’ and the effort put in is rewarded largely by the satisfaction of a good product, the people we meet and the compliments we receive in return. They say if you enjoy doing something then it’s not a job and life goes on without angst, barring odd periods of pressure which beset us all from time to time.

I recently found this little gem which carries a very poignant message:

“There comes a time in life when you walk away from all the drama and people who create it. Surround yourself with those who make you laugh, forget the bad and focus on the good. Love the people who treat you right and pray for the ones who don’t. Life is too short to be anything but happy. Falling down is part of life, but getting back up is living.”

It’s a great recipe and one well worth putting into effect starting on this long weekend. We hope it works for you.

Cheers,