Summer 2013

Working Together is the Key

 

Dear Reader:

This morning, I was playing one-on-one basketball with my nine-year-old son, Owen, when he said that it wasn’t a fair game.

When I asked him why, he stated the obvious, “because you are bigger and taller.” Then he continued, “but if Anna (his twin sister) and I played against you together, then we could beat you.”

This is exactly the point I want to make. If we work together, we can achieve more than we could alone. This may seem like a somewhat basic philosophy, but I think that it needs to be extended past finishing the job at hand.
In third world situations, uneducated people often have trouble thinking past the “now”. Meaning, if they don’t have enough money for food, they will work all day to make enough money to buy food to eat but, will not go to work the next day.

Why would they go to work? They already have food. In North America, we have food in our refrigerators yet, we still go to work the next morning. We are thinking beyond the “now” and planning for the future.
Those of us who work at Canada Pump and Power or Pacific Pump and Power, work hard every day to please our clients, but we also have another goal that we are working toward. We are looking past “keeping our own refrigerators full” and toward the greater good.

As a company, we like to contribute to local charities and sports teams. In doing this, we are building a community to help us stretch our goals even further. We are working toward eliminating systemic poverty in the world through Work for All, our non-profit public foundation.

Eliminating poverty in the world is a big and intimidating goal that we cannot achieve alone. However, like Owen, we know that if we partner with other companies that can contribute various skills and resources, we will achieve our goal.

It is important that we learn how to use our skills and resources most effectively. Time and money are both valuable and it is important that we don’t underrate either one. When we spend money, it comes from our time, so we must learn how to make the most of both.

For example, a friend of mine went overseas to volunteer his time to build a school. He spent days digging the ground but noticed an excavator just across the way sitting unused. The program had no money to rent the equipment.

However, if my friend was working in his skilled area at home, a few hours of his pay could have covered the cost of renting the equipment to do the work that took a few days of his time.

At Canada Pump and Power and Pacific Pump and Power, we already employ and work with people and companies that are making us capable of achieving this goal. We have made great progress with Work for All and are excited to see what we will achieve as we grow.

– Jeremy Leonard