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Parting Shots

By Wm. R. Lowry
Editor & Publisher, MiBiz
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Quotable quotes

“Yet that man is happy and poets sing of him who conquers with hand and swift foot and strength.”

- Pindar, Greek poet, 500 B.C.

“Almost every part of the mile is tactically important. You can never let down, never stop thinking, and you can be beaten at almost any point. I suppose you could say it is like life.”

- John Landy, second man to break the four-minute barrier in the mile run

“I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known.”

- Emil Zatopek after Olympic Marathon win

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

- 2 Timothy 4:7

“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

- Steve “Pre” Prefontaine,

U.S. multiple distance recordholder

“Racing teaches us to challenge ourselves. It teaches us to push beyond where we thought we could go. It helps us to find out what we are made of. This is what we do. This is what it’s all about.”

- PattiSue Plumer, U.S. Olympian

“There is no ‘Y’ in running. Believe in the run.”

- Nike

run & done

Perhaps I should title this rendition of Parting Shots as a “Letter from the Original Guy” in recognition of my brand new position with MiBiz: Former Editor & Publisher. While abdicating my long-held, lofty-sounding role — along with sole ownership of the paper — may have come as a surprise to some, the underlying rationale is really quite simple. As I often quip to family and friends, “Twenty-three years is quite a run for a guy with a seven-year attention span.”

Small business ownership, it turns out, is quite like the long distance run. I should know, having long participated in each activity. Pardon my long since relevant bravado, but my very first high school athletic letter was earned by manning the third leg of our conference championship mile relay team. Not unlike a startup company, the contest begins when the gun goes off, with each pass of the baton marking a new phase of the mile-long sprint by a rested colleague.

The analogy gets tripped up a bit when one considers that in the race called business, competitors do not start simultaneously from the same point, and others can join the competition whenever it suits them. The business race differs too in the respect that there is no stated distance to be completed and the very cheese being sought after is in continuous motion due to uncontrollable variables including innovation, market trends, economic conditions and, of course, differing personal goals.

In the final analysis, it’s really been about the run itself for me: the fulfillment and pride of breathing life into a publication; assembling and guiding a team of capable, energetic professionals; gaining access to scores of highly successful business leaders; and innovating on a dime. Add to that the satisfaction derived by having faced down 23 years of myriad challenges placed squarely in my path that have required all my strength, ingenuity, knowledge, skills and dedication to overcome. So you see, I’ve got my cheese in spades — and I am not ashamed to admit that the ole legs have grown a tad heavy in the process.

My sincere thanks go out to all who helped me carry the baton over the years, whether staffer, reader, advertiser, columnist or vendor. It has taken a concerted and coordinated team effort to achieve the success MiBiz enjoys, and I will always hold my fellow “Bizzers” in high esteem.

Yes, I’ve passed the baton called MiBiz. My race here is over, but that’s what you do when you are a relay runner — do your absolute best to put your team in a position to win and execute a smooth exchange to a fresh runner.

Looking forward, I fully believe that the next leg for MiBiz holds great promise for readers, advertisers and the region alike. I will certainly enjoy viewing the race from the sidelines for a change while I catch my breath and rest my legs a spell. I will still don my spikes briefly once a month to contribute to the discourse via my Parting Shots column. And who knows, you may even catch wind of me trying my hand over at the pole vault pit one of these days.

Always did want to pole vault.

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