Happy Mother’s Day!

This post is a surprise Mother’s Day gift. For my mother and all the other inspiring moms out there.

my next blog post to be about Bay Country Rentals’ take on being a small business employer, and it will be, but first I felt I needed to take a little foray into the nature of small businesses and family as a way to celebrate Mother’s Day and to continue my trend of transparency here. I have to admit, an article on syracuse.com titled, Central New York daughters share Mom's best advice for Mother's Day, inspired me as well.

There’s no doubt that our small business community is also a community of family and friends. My connection? Alice Reid over at Compassionate Tax Service is not only my mother, but she has been an excellent mentor over the years and also my employer a few times.

I can’t tell you the best advice she ever gave me because we’ve had so many amazing conversations over the years about life, love, and happiness that I wouldn’t even know where to begin… and because as pernicious readers, it’d be too hard to figure out what was a quote from an author and what was something original. But, I can tell you that her example as a business leader has taught me a lot.

An Attitude of Service Cultivates Success

My mother’s generation of women were the one’s that wanted to have it all. The preverbal glass ceiling wasn’t something to be feared anymore, it was something to be smashed. And many did just that. I’m not suggesting that my mother smashed any glass ceilings that you all should be aware of, but she did confirm for me what a lot of other mothers confirmed to their daughters at that time: it was something that could be done, it was something that was being done, and you can do anything you want now. What an amazing gift.

As women were running about smashing glass ceilings and trying to have it all, her generation (and those now following it) started trying to figure out exactly how to balance their work lives and their families. It’s been a tenacious debate over the years and I’d dare say it has spurned many popular women’s movements.

Before Compassionate Tax Service was a business on Main Street, it was Alice Reid working out of her home, most of my life. I grew up watching her attempt (and succeed) to juggle work, family, and charity. Whether she worked for a charitable organization or just simply giving because it made her happy, she has always been involved in service, in one way or another, and she brought the lessons she’s learned over the years into her business practice and into our home. I think that’s where the success comes in.

Impossible to juggle all those things separately, there was a somewhat necessary overlap of work, charity and service, and I saw her succeed over and over again at being amazing at all of those things. What secret of success did she teach me?

When you have sincere desire to help others they will have a sincere desire to help you.

Thanks mom. I love you!

Use the comment board below to tell your mom on ReisterstownPatch.com what she taught you! (Sign up is easy and only takes a second.) Let’s celebrate our mothers!