It’s a simple enough statement. But it wasn’t clear.

At first, I was disappointed. It seemed they had a limited schedule.  But after a second, I realized they were open all week – every day but Tuesday. 

Who decided to list their open days in this fashion? And why was it hard for me to translate the days when they were presented this way? We are programmed to view a week from Sunday to Saturday, so I was required to make a mental translation in order to make sense of the information.  If I hadn’t taken that extra second, I might not have realized that the museum was open on Sunday, when I planned to visit.

So what’s the point? Words are important. Your arrangement of words when you form sentences can change their meaning. Take time to review your written word. Think before you speak. Strive to be clear when you communicate. Be efficient with your words and re-read that e-mail before you push the send button.

How many other ways could we describe the museum’s schedule ?

• “Open weekends and weekdays (except Tuesday). “
• “Open every day but Tuesdays.”
• “Open weekdays except Tuesday and all weekend.”
• Here’s how it appears on the website : “10 a.m. 5 p.m. daily, Closed Tuesdays and major holidays.”

Which one is easiest for you to understand? What about visitors from other countries, which version is easiest to translate?

Around seven years ago, before I expanded my lawn into what had been my vegetable garden area in the interest of making my house more “marketable”, I had the space to grow twenty varieties of heirloom tomatoes.  Now I only have space for ten, so I must be ruthless in my selection.

Every year I keep a “tomatobase” of information regarding my favorite crop.  The information that I track includes the number of fruits produced by each plant, the date of the first ripe fruit, and the characteristics that I particularly like or do not like about the variety. 

Okay, you can quit laughing now.  I mean, after all, is it really that big a jump from being a “bean counter” to counting tomatoes?

 The purpose of accumulating all of this information is to help in making the selection for the coming year’s plantings.  As an example, if a variety produced a high number of fruits, but they tasted like an old sponge, it probably won’t be back this year.  A lower producing variety with incredible tasting fruit will be more likely to make the cut.  (Does this remind anybody else of hiring employees?)

I try to get a broad spectrum of fruit characteristics, cherry tomatoes and standards, and fruits in a rainbow of colors – red, orange, yellow, green, and purple – in my selection. Most of my fruit is eaten fresh, or shared with friends, and my two dogs Ace and Blue look forward to eating fresh cherry tomatoes while standing in the garden on a warm summer evening. Blue, clever boy that he is, will even nose around under the tomato leaves trying to find an extra ripe fruit to be eaten on the sly.

At the end of the growing season, the remaining unripe fruit is converted into green tomato chutney and pickles and canned. These items are included in Christmas boxes mailed to various relatives around the country including a bunch up in Alaska.

So what lessons have I learned from my tomato obsession?  Grow what you love, grow what works best for you, share what you grow, and remember that dogs appreciate good things too!  All of these lessons can be applied to your business or life in general.

And most of all, whatever you do, have a good time while you’re doing it.

We came up with 4 primary tenets: People Matter (hence our tagline), We support our community, We like what we do (even on April 14th), and We fulfill dreams. 

We were inspired by training we received from www.mentorplus.com and a video on TED by Simon Sinek. Our firm has already been talking about our passion for the wine industry and the role we play in it, but this video got us thinking specifically about  “why” we do what we do rather than our normal focus on the “what” and the “how”. 

You might think it would be hard for accountants to find meaning behind tax returns and financial statements. But our firm does much more than that.  We see our role as supporting the people of the wine industry so they are free to make magic happen all over the Napa Valley.  We might do it with calculator tape or lead pencils, Excel spreadsheets or financial forecasts, scorecards or dashboards but at its core, what we do is about helping people live their dreams. 

 If you take the time to think about what you do each day, it probably isn’t about generating revenues or earning a living, it’s hopefully about something else that goes deeper.  We tend to get too caught up in the “doing” and forget to think about the reasons that give our actions meaning.

There is an old saying that when life gives you lemons, you should make lemonade.  Last year, a new job opportunity resulted in my having to make a fairly significant daily commute. For someone whose previous “commute” was less than four miles and took about ten minutes, this could be considered a “lemon”.

My new commute from the north end of Santa Rosa to St. Helena takes around forty-five minutes. It is a route with minimal traffic but one that requires a driver’s attention and focus. Fortunately, I have always enjoyed driving the two-lane back roads with their spectacular vistas and overall serenity.

One morning, I had forgotten to recharge my MP3 player and as a result was faced with a music-free drive. Like most folks, my first (printable) thought was “what a drag not having music to listen to”. Strangely enough, I discovered an interesting thing about being focused on driving while in a “noise free zone”.

My innovative side began to occupy available mind space as all sorts of ideas began popping into my head. Mind you (no pun intended), none of these ideas was “huge”, but I enjoyed the feeling of free-floating spontaneous creativity so much that I no longer listen to music during my commute time. Most of the ideas for my blogs have been developed during this drive time (no, I will not put the music back on).

Now when I arrive at the office, I quickly put my thoughts into writing before they vanish like the mists that hang  over the landscape in the morning. At that point I can fashion them into a blog as time and energy permits. What this experience has taught me is that, like most people, I get so busy dealing with life (work, chores, pets, family, friendships, e-mail, to tweet or not to tweet, etc.) that the noise and drama tends to drown out that joyous little creative voice.

Thanks to my  two forty-five minute “quiet times” each day, that voice has started to sing and I find that I am really enjoying my own music. The “lemon” of having to spend time commuting has been converted into “lemonade” and it is truly delicious.

Imagine the new ideas that you might generate for your company or business in a noise-free zone…

The most significant discovery I made during that long-ago film class was the genre of the silent movie. Prior to that time, my limited awareness of silent movies was due to a television show which featured silent films run at the wrong speed (with silly captions inserted) strictly for comic value.

In this film class, the silent films were played at the correct speed and frequently had an added orchestral soundtrack to simulate the original live piano accompaniment. The lighting and photography in these films was frequently superb, but the truly amazing thing was the ability of the actors to communicate action and emotion without words (beyond the occasional – and largely redundant — title card). Facial expressions and body language were the primary means of telling the story.

Perhaps in the days before the media barrage that is so prevalent today, people were able to read or “hear” the body language of others more readily than they do today. So much of any situation is in what is NOT said – the raised eyebrow, a clenched jaw, or the failure to make eye contact. These actions can frequently impart an entirely different message than a stream of words pouring from somebody’s mouth. Frequently, the body language tells a truth that the words may not.

In the business world, it is critically important to listen to what others are saying. But while you are listening to the words, also make the effort to “hear” what their body language is saying. This additional information could aid in your decision making process or at least make you aware that all might not be as it is presented.