The Road Not Taken

Racing bikes seems to be at the forefront again, I have logged over 10 hours on the bike this week and its only Saturday morning. I am heading out for a quick 50 with Pfoodman Racing Team in about a half hour, regardless of how late I stayed up last night. This in between working/playing nights at the Wolf. This is the time of year when all things come together in the business, cash flow returns, thank gad.

Indeed, Pfoodman starts launching froward in August and there are huge sales increases this year because of a lot of groundwork laid a couple of years ago. It has been a tough summer in many ways and I am thankful for my employees staying with me. This fall marks the conclusion of some very unconventional ground work that included the opening of the Lone Wolf Coffee Company and the development of several brands created for the purpose of advancing our sales, someday.

Bottom line, it cost buckets of money to do what we did. And it was untimely, the opening of the restaurant in the middle of the recession and the outlay of funds for the development of the new brands. Few businesses made it through that tough time, few are making it now for that matter. Btw, in case you didn't know, there is still very much a recession that us business owners have to navigate, compete against. It is a different way of thinking, entrepreneurial.

But heck, The Wolf is getting a lot busier and the staff there continues to embrace what has become one of the most interesting places in the city. This on the heels of a new food court created for Lindenwood University, an unconventional project from the little company, Pfoodman, that could; the branding and conceptualization of six new restaurant concepts for use in the most exciting campus community in the state.

So I sit and write this morning about things. This morning is no different. One of my favorite poems, back when I studied poetry while attending Lindenwood, was a classic poem called The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost. It pretty much sums up the way I feel towards that which is mainstream, already tapped, the cliche, that which is conventional and/or somebody elses idea. It represents my position on culture, art, independence, triumph, perseverance. That which goes against the grain, that which is tougher, harder, uncertain. Choosing a path less taken requires a thought process separate from others. The unknown that fuels the need for adventure, a puzzle to figure out. It promotes a little more adversity in life, that which keeps things spirited.

This is what th poem means to me anyway. The need for wonder lust divided into two choices. One with more certainty than the other, simply by the way it appears.

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Please enjoy a quick video of a project now completed...