About the quotes:

December 17, 2004

Today is our big day at Jackson Kayak- we have, as
of this minute shipped out our 2,516th kayak, achieving and beating our
goal for 2004. Yes, tomorrow starts a vacation that lasts until January
18th, 2005, very cool. This is the reward to every member of the Jackson
Kayak team, well earned. However, are we there yet? Of course not, we
are simply at a marking stone that says, “good job, you made it
here on schedule, now keep on going.” This is perhaps the most telling
thing in life, I think. So often, I hear of people who aim to be happy,
and to be happy they have a benchmark to achieve, a salary to reach, a
house to buy, a car to drive, a vacation to take, or whatever. When they
get there, their mind has already thought about that goal so long that
it is no longer the important goal, but now the mind is off to the next
one. What that means to me is simply that we are always “there”,
and there is no where else to go. It means that achieving a goal like
we did today is important to provide us with purpose, to better ourselves
and those around us with clear objectives and struggles worthy of our
time, but achieving the goal, in the end is actually the biggest struggle
we face, because it is where we must change gears and say- “now
what?”. Luckily for all of us at Jackson Kayak, our vacation is
simply a time to recharge our batteries, bask in our successes this year,
so that we can come out full swing on January 18th with the drive to achieve
our 2005 goals. It is a cycle that I prefer to live on a calendar system,
and the company is set up that way.

I chose two quotes for “thought of the day”

“You never step in the same river twice.”
Heraclitus

“When you get there, there isn’t any there,
there.” Gertrude Stein

It is just a reminder, just prior to our celebration
(pizza and beer at 4:30 today and closing the shop), that today is just
a transition day from one stage to another, a checkpoint that says we
are achieving great things.

See you on the river!

🙂 EJ