Some readers already are aware that I checked into the Springfield Business Journal retirement home earlier this month.
After 37 years at my desk, it is a fact with which I have not yet completely come to terms. Who among the ranks of “working stiffs” does not relish the prospect of freedom from dark morning commutes, endless parades of deadlines, and the headache-producing and stomach-churning difficulties inherent in most every aspect of business and professional management?
But I have always believed work must have meaning. Otherwise, why would we devote ourselves to it for a lifetime?
I have often said I would find an easier way to make a living, if I could just think of it. I never could.
Since I was never smart enough to marry for money, I’ve had to make my own way. And while I was at work, making a living, I found a life. It has never been easy, but it has always been filled with fascinating people to love, work worth doing and challenges that presented themselves time and again until I was strong enough to meet them.
One of the greatest benefits of being a weekly newspaper publisher is the opportunity to make a better publication each week. If our errors or omissions were not too grievous or our revenues too abysmal, then we had a chance to improve ourselves in the next issue. I am proud this is a tradition that continues.
And so, I am a most fortunate entrepreneur to see the business I founded continue in the hands of good and talented people. And I will be around to cheer the staff on, but not participate in day-to-day operations. It’s the people – on staff and in the community – I will miss the most. At the business journal, all I had to do was wait for readers to call or visit our office. But now I will learn to take an active role and seek them out to continue their friendships and also to express gratitude to the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who encouraged the SBJ staff and me, personally. You have made the difference. SBJ is going strong today because of you, because you were there when we needed you.
Each day, I have a list of notes to write, and I’m reading James Michener’s “Hawaii,” a project that will take me the rest of the winter. We’ve got a couple of trips planned, a developing ornamental grass garden to plant and there is plenty of peeling paint to chip away around our 100-year-old lake properties, but I am casting around for a new plan. I think this is part of what Editor Eric Olson wants me to write about in a series of columns this year.
One door must close before another one opens, I’ve always believed. I’m actively watching all doorways and will inform you of new opportunities as soon as I know of them.
Retired friends have warned me not to jump into a big volunteer project during the first year. I think this is good advice. It’s an emotional time, and I could go off the deep end. God knows, I have never been as worried about our nation as I have been in the last couple of months. In fact, trying to figure out what I will tell friends in Mexico when I see them in the days ahead is keeping me awake at night.
Creating this column will be freeing. I never would have written this if I were still on the SBJ payroll.
Dianne Elizabeth Osis is the founder of Springfield Business Journal and a director on the SBJ Publishing Inc. board. She can be reached at delizabeth@sbj.net.
