Like many of you
I was fortunate to spend the Thanksgiving holiday with family. And like many of you we began our meal
with sharing what we are most thankful for. Many of the thoughts included things like faith, family,
health and mashed potatoes and gravy (from my 12 yr. old son). What came to my mind when the fork
passed to me was Opportunities.
Not only am I thankful for my new opportunity at the HHH but I am also
grateful for the freedom to pursue paths that interest me.
In his
unpublished autobiography George Hormel describes an opportunity he was given
in 1879 when we was just 19 years old.
After being told there were no jobs available at a Kansas City hide and
wool company, the business owner had a change of heart and told him “Go to the
office and see McDonald; he’ll equip you for the road and give you a
routing. Good Luck.”
George writes
“Speechless with surprise and relief and also fright at this sudden turn of
fortune, I stumbled into the office to be supplied with report sheets of
various kinds, a telegraph code book, and a book of drafts to use in payment
for the hides, wool, and furs I was to purchase. On the assumption that I already knew what these things were
for, I received a few brief directions on the firm’s methods of handling the
various transactions, but I remembered nothing of what I heard when I left the
office beyond the indisputable fact that I had been hired as a buyer by Major
J.N. Dubois, late of the Confederate Forces. I shouldn’t even have believed this if it were not for the
code and draft books clutched in my perspiring hands.”
George was
thrilled with this opportunity at a time when jobs were scarce and he was in
desperate need. Throughout his
writing he mentions several times in his life and career when the freedom to
attempt something, however risky or scary, often led to his greatest
successes.
Working in the
space that was once George and Lillian’s porch reminds me that opportunities
often come along when we are least expecting them. They can bring challenges and hurdles but will always
provide a time of learning and growth in an individual. And so, I am thankful for
opportunities!
