This weekend, I took my daughter to our family place in Montana. She had not been there in three years and I had promised to take her over the summer, but the work got too crazy. So we settled for a long weekend and a little hooky from school.

We had a wonderful weekend. One of my favorite memories is when we took a little boat to go fishing out on the lake.  We were at the mouth of a creek and the water began boiling with jumping Kokanee salmon.  My daughter was excited and grabbed the one fishing rod we had and started casting and reeling.  “Now I have a real fish story to tell,” she exclaimed.  And it was a sight to behold and under any other condition, I would have been reaching for the rod myself, or at the very least fussing that I had not brought another one out, as well.

But, I actually enjoyed the not fishing. I actually enjoyed, teaching my daughter how to make a good cast, how to jig, how to make sure she cleaned off the seaweed “salad” she’d invariably hook in to.  We did not catch any fish that morning, but I did catch the satisfaction and gratitude of sharing an experience with my daughter.

Business is often all about doing, and doing invariably means personal achievement.  And it is true, we are measured and rewarded by our accomplishments.  What I hope we don’t forget is that sometimes our accomplishments are best defined when we don’t do anything but let someone else give it a try.  Not only do we grow as an organization because then someone else knows how to get something done, but you grow as a person.

And that’s a reward all to itself.