Two woodcutters made a bet.  Whoever produced the most wood in a day would win. So both of them started chopping away at their fastest possible speed. After an hour, one man suddenly stopped. The other continued to cut down his trees and even quickened his pace. Later, they were both back to chopping, when the same woodcutter stopped again. The other continued, confident in his victory. This went on the whole day, but in the end, the man who had periodically stopped chopping won the contest handily. The other asked, “How could you have more than me? I heard you keep stopping!”

He replied, “Every time I stopped, I sharpened my ax.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.”

Like many of you, I set aside some time near the end of each year to rest and reconnect with my family. Unlike many of you, however, much of my family is over 7,000 miles away. This time is sacred to me. It is how I “sharpen my ax” for the beginning of each new year. This helps me to keep the quality of our work up to the high standards that we strive to maintain for the benefit of our clients. This year’s journey was an unusually special one, as I am happy to explain.

The reason for my distant loved ones is that my mother spent the first 20 years of her life in Thailand, so half of my family is there. Though I have been visiting her ancestral home with some regularity over the last 12 years, I have never once been able to spend time there with Mom. For all of my childhood, her stories were my only connection to Thailand, and yet she had never been able to show me her homeland firsthand. This year, with mom creeping up on 80 years of age, we were able to make it happen. I am so very grateful for this fact. I am certain that the memories we made are ones that we will both cherish forever.

Thank you to the people who support Upleft, and made this truly special life event possible. Josh deserves to be at the top of this list, as he runs the Port Angeles office when I work remotely. Thank you to our investors for their understanding, when our conversations can’t happen in person right away. I’m grateful for the technology that allows me to bring my work with me halfway around the planet, and for my wife who understands when I continue to put in the hours while we travel. Expressing this gratitude is the first reason I am writing today. Thank you.

The second reason is to offer a pair of wishes for each of you, as we enter 2024. I wish you all the opportunity to step away from your day-to-day grind for a little while so that you can periodically “sharpen your ax.”  I can’t think of a more appropriate time for such renewal than the ringing in of a New Year. My second wish is that each of you can create some opportunities to make your own special memories to last a lifetime.

Happy New Year.