Once upon a time there was a traditional mill town. As traditional mill towns were, the mill was located at the end of Main Street, not far from the center of town. The grand majority of the townspeople worked at the mill in various jobs.

In the town was a clock shop. The clock shop was on Main Street across from the Town Square. The clock shop was run by Mr. Davenport, which kinda-sorta makes sense since it was named Davenports Clock Shop.

Mr. Davenport was a fastidious shop keeper. Each day he dusted, cleaned the shops windows, wound his clocks and set them such that each clock was working well. His shop was spotless and shoppers would frequent his store to see and hear the magnificent display of sites and sounds which occurred on the hour as large and glorious grandfather clocks, cuckoo clocks and others chimed harmoniously.

You see, the clock shop had been run by the Davenport family for decades. It was started by Mr. Davenports grandfather who was the son of an old world, craftsmen clock maker. Davenports only handled fine, handmade, heirloom quality clocks at their store. There was no finer clock shop in the land than Davenports and everyone knew that. In fact, it was a point of pride for the mill town, as was the mill.

Mr. Davenport started working at the clock shop as a school boy. He was in awe of the preciseness and intricacies of each of the clocks. All the clocks were his favorite, from the smallest cuckoo clock to the largest, majestic grandfather clock. He took joy in watching each of them work as he puttered about the store busily dusting, cleaning and assuring all was well with each of the dozens of clocks on display there.

One morning Mr. Davenport happened to be cleaning the windows when he saw a man stop outside the shop, look in the window, adjust his watch and travel on. This was a common observance for Mr. Davenport with various passers by except for this man. You see, Mr. Davenport had been seeing this man do this for months and nearly each day Monday through Friday. And, while Mr. Davenport was familiar with nearly everyone who lived in the town and surrounding countryside, he did not know this man nor had he ever met him.

All he knew of this man was what he seemingly saw frequently each morning. And, while he wondered who this man was and why his routine was always the same, things being what they were, he hadn’t had the chance to meet or converse with this person.

Curiosity being what it is, Mr. Davenport decide that one day he’d endeavor to meet and speak with this man and so he did. What Mr. Davenport decided to do was to be cleaning the windows when this man approached. To do so, he devised a simple plan. He got the store a few minutes early that day and would be busily cleaning the outside of the windows when the man approached as this would provide an excellent opportunity to meet this man he thought.

That day Mr. Davenport was busily cleaning the windows as planned. As he worked, he saw this man approach. Like clockwork, pardon the pun, this man stopped, peered in the window, looked at the clocks, adjusted his watch and began to move on.  He did so just as Mr. Davenport had seen countless times before.

At that point Mr. Davenport spoke. “Excuse me sir, my name is William Davenport. This shop was opened by my grandfather and has been run by my family for decades” he said. The stranger was a bit taken back and surprised. He replied “Oh, I wondered who Davenport might be. My name is Thomas McDonald, it is nice to meet you. And, might I add, you have a fine clock shop sir.” Davenport smiled and said “Thank you sir.”

He continued, “Our family has been in this county nearly two hundred years. We know everyone but I don’t know you Mr. McDonald. Who are you and what do you do?” he inquired. “Well”, said Thomas, “I work at the mill”.

“I figured so. I see you each morning”, replied Davenport, “but tell me good sir, what is it that you do at the mill?” he asked.

Mr. McDonald perked up at this query and responded, “Well, I have an important job at the mill. I’m in charge of the payroll department and one of my responsibilities is to assure the accuracy of our time clock system.”

“Oh, so that’s why I see you checking your watch each day, isn’t it” said Davenport.

“Precisely” said McDonald. “We must know our time clocks are 100% accurate such that the noon lunch whistle goes off at exactly 12 noon each day” he added.

“Really”, said Davenport, “Each day when I hear the noon whistle, I adjust all my clocks to 12 o’clock.”

Perspective and reference point can be important things for us to consider folks. Think about how this applies to your business and your work . . .

Best wishes to all for a really great day ! ! !