friends, intimate friends and acquaintances .

I was sitting in one of my classes this week and I heard the teacher say "there are 3 types of people in the business world, acquaintances, friends and intimate friends." He then said, "you may have a hundred acquaintances, ten friends and you are lucky if you have one intimate friend." I've been thinking of this all week. With the recent passing of my cousin I have been seeing my thoughts turn rapidly to how can I be a friend to all? I've decided there are two main ways to be a friend to everyone.

First, listen. Simple as that, let them talk to you and listen to what they are saying. If someone needs advice the and is willing to ask me for it as a friend, I can only give them good advice if I listen first.
Second thing to do is support them. If I see someone who needs help, support them in their time of need. I think of a friend who text me this morning telling me his uncle had passed away and I thought to myself, "how can I help him?" I text him back and said, "if you need a someone to talk to, let out your anger or console in, I'm here for you man."

I think that by listening to what he had told me in the last week and by giving him my support even when he didn't need it I was able to be a good friend and hopefully help him. Hopefully as I progress in my life and gain many more acquaintances I can develop these friendships with many of them. I would much rather have 100 friends, 10 acquaintances and 1 intimate friend.

So I guess what I want to say here is that if anyone reads this, they'll take the time to listen to at least one person and give them support, even when they don't need it because friendship is part of the backbone of life and I think that we gain many things beyond relationships from being a friend.

Thoughts on agvocacy

I recently went through a quick, two day social media training at the National Pork Board office withsome fellow pork producers and agvocates. We were all given opportunities to expand our social network or "family" if you will through new outlets such as facebook, twitter, friendid, blogging and other things. But I want to focus on the word agvocate in this blog.

Agriculture is an important part of life, agreed? I thought so. I think the ag community is a wonderful source of knowledge and information about consumer goods. I mean if you have a problem and you call the help hotline you get frustrated because you don't want to talk to the person in the cubical assigned to you today. No, you want answers and they come from the producer. (people making your product) Ag is no different, we are all more than willing to impress you with our knowledge of what we do and how we do it because in all honesty it is impressive. Even to another producer. I'm not sure to dubbed the term "agvocate" but man did they hit the nail on the head! The term pretty much sums up what most people involved in agricultural production want to do when they talk to consumers. We (agvocates) want to promote our industry and our way of life, for our own survival but also for the survival of others.

Some people have a passion for their work and those people tend to weed themselves out of the crowd in the industry and are usually the best promoters for what they do. These agvocates are outgoing, sincere, passionate, honest and open minded. they are a tool or a gift to both consumers and other producers. I sat in my meeting with four other pork producers and gained new knowledge from some of these passionate promoters and I want to thank them for their time because I realize as I grow up, that the survival of the industry and the change in markets is going to become my responsibility someday soon and I think I have a chance to survive because of my early roots in agvocacy. I have recognized a growing passion in myself for agriculture and hope that I can continue to be a fountain of knowledge for consumers, producers, friends, family and anyone who wants to talk about the industry.

So here's a cheer to agvocacy, another to the people that have helped me, and lastly to the public because without them we wouldn't be in business at all. Good or bad.

Let's continue to show care, interest and passion for whatever we are promoting because we each play an important role in the future of our industry, country and world.

Now a blogger

I'm getting more and more into the social media and networking and I have created this blog as a way for me to spread news, knowledge, ideas or just my thoughts. Hopefully people like what I have to say and will respond to me.