August 7, 2026

Business by the Book

Proverbs 4:7  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

It is one thing to get understanding, but sometimes you must make someone else understand. Some things are too important to leave to misunderstanding. There are situations in which a person must make someone else understand something they are not readily accepting.

One such situation happened to me. Years ago as a businessman I was responsible for a large purchasing contract. Part of this agreement was an accrual fund that our company was to set up for each individual customer participating in that agreement. Each month I submitted a report to senior management detailing the various purchasing agreements I was responsible for, their status, problems, etc. During the first year of our agreement with this large, nationwide customer I continually included in that report that an internal reporting system needed to be created to keep up with these accrual balances.

About six weeks prior to the deadline for mailing these accrual statements to the customers - several hundred probably - I received a call from my boss. He asked me about the status of these accrual statements. I told him that nothing had been done on them and reminded him of my monthly reports that detailed the internal roadblocks I was encountering. He became upset and said something that I will always remember: “Sometimes things are so important that you must make me understand.” 

It took a lot of overtime, bullying, weeping and gnashing of teeth, but the statements went out on time. From then on a month to month reporting process was implemented to ensure this “emergency” never took place again. I learned a valuable lesson: in life, sometimes you just have to make others understand.

Dr. William Howe