Imagine that your garbage collection worker vanished. No one takes that person’s place.
Life would get pretty smelly, bug-and-rodent infested pretty quickly, right?
Picture that you’re a supervisor at a production center. The team you manage quits, and no one will take their place.
Your favorite breakfast, lunch or place-for-a-beverage spot loses all their workers. No one takes on those roles. You, those businesses owners that served you and others are all SOOL (Sorry, out of Luck).
You own or manage a manufactured home community or a MH retail center. The grounds keeper/lawn mower stops coming, the maintenance guys leave, as does the office worker, sales/leasing, and service personnel…
Those who make deliveries and installations vanish, and no people – or robots – take over…
Ouch, right?
Or the firefighter, police officer or EMT walks off-the-job, and no one steps up. No one to protect the people and property in that town, city, or county.
The soldier, sailor, airman, marine, medical or support people…gone, and no one is left to defend the nation.
The spiritual leader says, “to hell with it,” and leaves only hell in their wake, because no one takes that vital role that encourages good vs. evil.
Whether you are a billionaire, broke, or in-between, we all need other people.
R2D2 – Yes, Seriously…
The above is supposed to be part 2 of previous Masthead reflections (Reflection part 2 or “R2”). The “D2” observes that reflections should lead to Discussions and Directions too (D2).
In our industry, or any other, there’s no job that’s unimportant. The person at the hospital who empties bed pans or cleans floors are different in their role than the MD. But how sanitary would the hospital be without those who keep people and buildings clean?
The MD needs those “keep it clean” professionals, and those custodial and others involved in sanitary conditions need that MD.
That’s solidarity and subsidiarity in-a-nutshell.
We all need others, period. We all need to work with others, and those efforts are the most efficient at the lowest possible political, familial, or economic level.
“The List” in MHVille
With the above in mind, we won’t make a list of “who is who” in manufactured, modular, and PreFab housing. All who perform some meaningful, necessary work are important. That’s true, even if they never read this – or even if they can’t read this.
The investor is as necessary as the doer. Each should respect the other, because each requires the other. The principles and examples noted apply to any arena of life.
Are there some “professions” which have no redeeming value at all? Perhaps the criminal? The identity thief or hacker?
Irony! Problems Create Opportunities
Crime, properly understood, is unnecessary.
But the fact that it happens reminds us of the reality of
- good and evil,
- the need to correct errors,
- every sinner’s needs for salvation.
Wrong or evil activity reminds us of the need to provide safeguards to defend rights and effect justice when rights are harmed.
Ironically, the fact that our profession is misunderstood is precisely what creates tremendous opportunities. That’s generally more true in manufactured homes, but is also accurate to lesser degree with modular housing too.
Precisely because:
- there is a shortage of qualified labor,
- there is a shortage of quality, affordable homes,
- there are limits to federal, state and local affordable housing budgets,
- incomes are mostly down or flat, but demand for quality affordable housing is rising,
what our industry performs and offers are necessary and good.
Understanding, Misunderstanding and Communications
In that mix of human needs, is the reality that even if you or I “get it” – meaning, understand – but that:
- reporter,
- public official,
- consumer,
- neighbor,
- investor,
- worker,
- friend or family doesn’t understand or fails to accurately portray the facts,
that’s why the huge MH Opportunity exists.
MHVille is a classic – take the lemons and make lemonade scenario.
The unexpected MHProNews service interruption described here resulted in calls and numerous messages. One of my favorites was this one.
“Tony, when the Journal announced they are closing down, it was a sad moment for the industry. When your site’s service was disrupted last week, it made me think how often I turn to MHProNews for information I may not see anywhere else. Glad to see the publishing resuming, even that brief break in service was too long! My thanks to you and all who make your work possible! Have a great new year.”
That’s very much appreciated, and brings me back to the point that we all need each other.
Without the input from readers, pros, experts, sponsors, and our team members, we couldn’t produce the same level and quality of content we currently do.
That’s another case of solidarity and subsidiarity.
What we’ve worked towards – one-step-at-a-time for over 7 years – is to advance within and outside of manufactured housing a clarity that brings understanding and stronger bottom-line MHVille results.
Our original logo for – MHProNews – above reflected that all three of those skills are needed for a company or the industry to advance.
A handful of times over the past 18 months, we’ve been invited to private meetings with various industry leaders, executives, and investors. We were asked to discuss how MHProNews and MHLivingNews.com could be tweaked/used to take MHVille to the next levels.
Why? Because good trade publishing and industry growth feed each other.
For far less than most professionals believe, manufactured and modular housing could produce local level results that boost individual business results, and thus grow the sales and profits above the local level.
That’s Solidarity and Subsidiarity at work, professionally.
We have evidence suggesting that every million invested in enhancing results in local markets could create about a billion dollars in increased sales. Don’t believe it? There’s evidence for those in-the-know.
Trade publishing is vital to any industry or profession, just as other roles in MHVille are vital.
Solidarity. Subsidiarity.
Together, we advance. More on this in the days ahead.
Let’s work increasingly together to make 2017 a year to remember. R2D2. Seriously... ##
If you missed the part one of this Masthead post, click here.
(Image credits are as shown above.)
