Final Thoughts

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s not enough to be busy, so are the ants. The question is, what are we busy about?”

That is something I have often thought about. I asked that question whether I was in school, at work, or even now in retirement. And it seems I have been busy doing something my entire life. On reflection I think my busyness mostly resulted in positive outcomes.

As a kid, most of my relatives worked in the food industry. My mother, father and grandmother would say things like “never walk somewhere with empty hands.” They were thinking as servers about how to minimize their steps when on the dining room floor. By the time I was 13 and bussing dishes, I immediately understood what they meant.

Once I started working in kitchens, staff needed to prepare for the rush that everyone knew was coming. In commercial kitchens, each person readies their station in advance by doing as much preparation as possible. It is called mise en place. One of the first things I was tasked with was peeling and chopping onions, parsley, celery, carrots, and mincing garlic.

Then I was taught how to peel a tomato skin to make a rose, carve a radish to have a flower, and flute a mushroom. I will admit I have let all three of those skills atrophy. Yet I was always very busy in a restaurant whether it was in the front or back of the house. And since it served a purpose, it wasn’t busy work.

I tried always to have a reason for my busyness. Time was too precious to waste. I loved to see how much I could accomplish for everything was about moving the dish to the customer in the right amount of time…not too soon that a customer would feel rushed but not too long that they feel neglected.

My early real estate managing agent position was working for a syndicator that turned buildings around and sold them within a year. Before the Reagan tax overhaul, professions like doctors and lawyers were high income individuals taxed at 70%. However, if they invested in income producing real estate, they could shield the income by having deductions.

The syndicator would create limited partnerships where he was the general partner and then sell percentages to highly taxed professionals. My responsibility was to do cosmetic work throughout the buildings and see if I could increase the value of the rent rolls. The buildings would be 100 or 150 units with rent control tenants.

I would change the boiler, redo the lobby, paint the hallways, refurbish elevator cabs, and most of the time paint the exterior of windows. Except for the boilers, nothing was long lasting. After a year the building would be sold, and everyone would make a decent profit shielded from taxes.

It was important that I had a team of painters, etc. ready to go immediately for all of this to be accomplished. I had to develop a system to satisfy the syndicator so he would hire me consistently. I ended up going into the general contracting business so I could always perform. I was busy constantly and so were 10 to 20 workmen.

Throughout my life I also saw many people who never had a system. Yet they were always busy. Too busy to have much of a social life. Too busy to have a home life. They often were working and standing still.

That is what Thoreau meant by the quote. My parents didn’t have much, but they knew to never walk away without carrying something. They instilled in me that expending unnecessary energy doesn’t accomplish very much. Have a plan, a way to achieve it, and accomplish the task with the least effort.

At some point, most of us know that being busy for busy sake is not making you richer or productive, just more tired. I learned to have systems in place that made the work day more productive and therefore lucrative. As Lao Tzu wrote, “Doing nothing is better than being busy doing nothing.”

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Friends and Neighbors of Martin County is your eyes and ears so that you know what is going on in Martin County’s municipal and county governments. I attempt to be informative and timely so that you may understand how your tax money is being spent. Though I go to the meetings and report back, I am no substitute for your attending meetings. Your elected officials should know what is on your mind.

Tom Campenni 772-341-7455 (c) Email: thomasfcampenni@gmail.com