I was reflecting on this time of my life closing in on 50 years on this planet. I will hit the big 50 this week, which really is not a big deal for me. Hitting 40 really didn’t make an impact either. I think it has to do with perspective.

When I became a born again Christian at 21, I knew then as I know now, that my life here was temporary and better things await in Heaven. My faith has never wavered and is even stronger now. My biggest concern is to whether I have accomplished what I need to accomplish up to now and are there better things ahead in the next stage of my life? I believe there is.

After selling my Company last year, it has been a bit of a struggle trying to ” fit in”. What I mean by that is that is I know my strengths lie in Marketing and Sales, but is that where I should be? I am working now on some contract and consulting here in Calgary and I really enjoy being creative and helping clients with Web Marketing. I am good at it and have been very successful doing it. There still seems to be something missing if you know what I mean.

Being 50 reduces the already small time left here on the planet to accomplish all that God had intended for me. I want to make sure that I am where I need to be and doing what I need to be doing to conform to what the Lord has planned for me. I know it is natural for us to second guess whether we have accomplished or will accomplish all that is set out for us and I want to make sure I am open to whatever is set before me. I am ready!

I want to encourage you as well that we cannot change what we did or didn’t do last year or the years prior to that…we can only now be responsible for what we do with the years still ahead of us. Here’s to moving forward and completing the ‘good race’ set before us.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark

After over 20 years of being in Sales and Business, you learn allot. You also gain allot of wisdom and discernment as to what things to pursue and what things to let go of. After 7 months in my current contract position, I knew it was time to “let go’”.

The Company I was working with had gone through some changes in the last few months. Mostly personnel and Management. I would have to say that I was actually optimistic that the changes would be a move forward for the Company. My optimism soon waned when I saw some policies and changes being implemented, that effected the Sales Team and how we are being compensated for sales. A ‘NEW’ contract was presented to me that was explained as the best remuneration agreement in the Industry. I knew when I first viewed it, this was far from that.

As an Area Sales Manager, it is my responsibility to know what my competitors were up to and also how they were paid. My new presented contract was far below the others. Don’t get me wrong…I am not a greedy guy. I know my value and effort in my position and should be remunerated accordingly. At first this was an emotional response ..”How could they not see my experience and dedication and they are offering me this? After that, wisdom and experience kicks in and it becomes a logical response based on facts.

I know I am at the peak earning years of my life based on my experience and knowledge. I had to evaluate what would be the best use of my experience for this new decade and whether staying where I now, was the best use of that experience. It was not and the decision was easy.

My point in all this is to not to sell yourself short and actually be proud of what you have accomplished and your Industry value. I am confident that I can take my 20+ years of wisdom, experience, success and discernment to where it is needed and valued.

Onward and Upward!

Larry J Clark

After over 24 years of raising 3 children, this is our first day as ‘Empty Nester’s’. Our eldest, Courtney, has moved up to Northern Alberta with her boyfriend to pursue job prospects there. Both or our son’s live in British Columbia and have made lives for themselves there. Our eldest son, Adam, was with us Christmas week and yesterday we drove him to the airport for his return home.

Well, there you have it. What do we do now? Personally, I have been looking forward to this “freedom” for a few years now and I am excited about spending more time with my wife and not having to include children in decisions. My wife on the other hand, is having a hard time letting go of the fact she has no kids at home. I am trying to understand her side and to be supportive. It will be  change in our life that I know in time we will both embrace. the kids need to make their own lives and futures with their parents cheering them on from the sidelines. I guess we can look forward to Grand Children now.

A week from today we are off to Mexico for our Vacation! I am really looking forward to getting away from winter and to work on a new business development plan. (more on that in a later blog). You want a hint? O.k, it has to do with marketing online using video. Here is a link to a web cam at the Akumal Mexico beach which is just north of our Resort, The Gran Bahia Principe Akumal. 

http://www.locogringo.com/Upload/akumal-beach-cam.html

I will be developing a daily blog from Mexico and will post the link on this blog starting next week as well.

Happy rest of your Holidays,

Larry J Clark

I kept getting calls on my cell phone from an Ontario area code, and when I went to answer it, they hang up. I thought this was some solicitation thing so I called the number to get them to stop.

Turns out it was American Express Canada and they had a problem with my account. Problem…?, I always pay my bill. Their so called “problem” was they were uncomfortable with my spending limits and froze my account (I had no idea) and wanted to let me know that my ‘unlimited’ Amex card was in fact now limited. What? ...when did this happen? Well according to their phone rep, now. I had purchased our Trip to Mexico on the card , which they approved, and now they are uncomfortable with me carrying the balance on my card.

Let me tell you what challenges I have been having with Amex for the past 6 months. First, I have had 2 American Express cards for over 6 years. Never had a problem. About 6 months ago or so, I started to see the card get declined for simple purchases like gas at Costco. I called them and they tell me I have a payment due. Wrong, payment was not due… their mistake. Payment was made they had not entered it. OOPS! Sorry. We book our trip..Travel Agency says the card needs verification and cannot go through? WHAT? I call Amex…they tell me I am carrying a $1200.00 balance and they would PREFER I pay that out so I can add the Vacation package. OK, I did that. They raised the limit and all is well. NOPE. Today they are uncomfortable with me carrying the balance which they gave me and yes, my card is frozen again.

Solution, I paid out my balance and canceled both the cards. Sorry to be a ‘uncomfortable’ client American Express. I hope you find better clients than me to deal with.

Good thing MasterCard and Visa are comfortable with me…

Larry J Clark

Officially Grey Cup Sunday here in Calgary and we are experiencing a “Chinook” from the West bringing some nice warm air to town. Currently 8 degrees Celsius so should be a pleasant day for Football. Now personally, I really don’t care who wins as I am a BC Lions fan. Most of Calgary seems to be siding with the Riders to keep the cup in the West. Should be a great game.

On the home front, I heard from my youngest Son the other day, Joshua, who informed us that we are going to be grandparents! Can you believe it?! Yes, our Josh and his wife Rebecca have confirmed she is pregnant and this will be our first Grandchild. Excited for both of them and of course Robin is beside herself with excitement. I will keep you posted on a due date.

Just finished booking our Winter Holiday on Friday. Going to Mexico for the first time and have chosen the Mayan Riviera and the Resort “Gran Bahia Principe Akumal”. Reviews seem good and we leave the first week of January for 7 days. Looking forward to some sun/beach time and just relaxing. Told Robin we would book a holiday once the business sold so the pressure was one. I bought a waterproof housing for my ‘FLIP’ camera so I can take some video and pictures while snorkeling…should be fun.  Plan on seeing some Mayan ruins down there but not much touristy stuff. Just sunning, eating and reading. Keep an eye oon this blog in January for videos and pictures while we are down there.

Above is the picture of the  Resort and beach from the website. Looks nice to me!

To your weekend and next holiday,

Larry

Well we have come upon the Season in Calgary that I call “Fa-Winter’ as we have seemed to have skipped past Fall and have gone right in to Winter. Good grief….have I repressed my memories of living here 11 years ago that I forgot about what happens here in the weather scene. Have I conveniently forgot that Calgary has a record of snow falling EVERY month of the year?

Today, the temperature has hit 0 Celsius and there are snow flurries. I booked the G37 for snow tires next week thinking I was being proactive. Oh well. Break out the long johns it going to be a cold one.

I have inserted a picture from last week showing some fall colours looking at Cochrane Alberta (where I drive out to for work everyday) and now those same mountains have snow on them. Pretty but you won’t see me skiing down them anytime soon.

Off the topic but I was looking at my scar on my leg from the accident 2 1/2 years ago. Although noticeable, the scar is fading. It got me thinking of some decisions we have made or that we could have made that caused a permanent ‘scar’ in our life. Things we have to or may have to live with forever.

Scars are quite noticeable in the beginning but eventually the red tissue fades to regular skin tone shows up but  sometimes you tweak your knee and pain reminds you the scar still exists. Life is like that. Sometimes you are reminded of past wounds/scars even though they are not visible and you thought you have moved on. The best cure when making a decision in life is whether that decision will leave you with a lifetime reminder, and take it from me, it will remind you constantly. Make great and wise choices, especially character choices, and leave the scars of life behind.

Thanks for reading.

Larry J Clark

I just developed and uploaded a new blog yesterday called “Sunset Ridge View“. It is based on the Community I sell new homes in Cochrane Alberta.

I want to blog about the Community and hopefully will get input from the residents of events and interesting facts that I can add. Maps and pictures will also be included along with information about the great Town of Cochrane.

Have a great weekend!

Larry

Well, it’s been one official month here in Calgary. We officially took possession of our new home here July 1st. Robin has been doing a great job of “nesting” and putting everything in it’s place. I thought we had gotten rid of allot of ’ stuff ’ but it still seems we have too much. The house is great and we are really taking advantage of the big yard. It has a hut tub we inherited, and I have been doing my best impression of a handyman to get it going, but to no avail. It has a mystery leak near the pump that only a service guy can fix. Hopefully they will call me back for a time to come out.

Looks like we may have the old home in Abbotsford sold. It is pending a few conditions that come off Monday, so please pray that this will close and we turn the page on the BC life. The boys are still living there but seem to be doing well. Adam is coming out for his Birthday this week so it will be great to see him.

The new job is doing great and I am adjusting well. I am pleased with my progress even though I am hard on myself when it comes to results. I know they will come in time and I heard once that there is no such thing as luck…just hard work and opportunity coming together. I know all the effort I am putting in will pay off for myself and for Calbridge Homes. I am running my first sales meeting tomorrow and really looking forward to it.

The weather here has taken a bit to adjust to. It is finally summer here but the first few weeks were cold, rainy and windy. Not necessarily it that order. I don’t remember the weather like this when we used to live here, but maybe I repressed those memories on purpose! The drive out to Cochrane every day just got easier with the opening of a new highway (Stoney Trail) and the views of the mountains are spectacular. There are allot of crazy drivers here and everyone has a pickup. No kidding. Redneck Capital of Canada as well.

So there you go. The mid July update from Larry Clark Blog. I will add some new pictures to the next post as well. Take care and thanks again for tuning into the every changing and adjusting life of the Clark’s.

Enjoy your summer,

Larry

Well, the wonderful world of Telus Communications has done it again. I asked that my old business number be transfered to my partners who are now following up all the calls. This was requested on the 15th of June and I was told it would be 24 hours “...thank you sir and thank you for calling Telus”. Not done.

I called a week later once I was told they were not getting calls and I was told the Telus technical dudes forgot to put a “1” in front of the re-direct number to Alberta. “no problem sir, this is our technicians error and we will have this fixed within 24 hours…thank you for calling Telus and have a good day”

Fast forward to today. Still not done and and I went through 3 different departments to get this resolved and guess what I heard…” no problem sir, we will have this fixed within the next 24 hours and thank you for calling Telus and have a good day” Have a good day? Get serious!! I was on my cell phone for over 15 minutes and was put on hold at least 4 times. Whats up with these big Corporations? They spend millions of dollars on training people to be good listeners, resolve conflict and customer service, why not spend millions of dollars to integrate your Company communications so I don’t have to go through 3 departments to resolve one phone issue?

On top of all this, they charge me a 75 dollar fee for the priviledge of re-directing this number which was never done. For a fully integrated Company they sure are disjointed when it comes to each Department. I am guessing some top executive ‘learned’ how to run a Company in business school. Next time ask someone who has run a Company how to do it and maybe listen to those tapes you record when you say “this call maybe monitored for quality assurance”. Maybe then you can attempt to cut down on needless calls and customer frustration.

This is still going to be a great day,

Larry

I was watching a sermon online and the Speaker, who used to be a Pastor but was called into the marketplace, stated that there were three categories of Mankind:

1. those who cannot be changed
2. those who are changeable
3. those who are called to make change!

I thought this statement was quite profound as I have found myself in all of those categories in my life. I recently interviewed for positions and although I felt the interviews went well, I picked out a few statements that I had made that really spoke of a “unchangeable” mindset. My success in life has always been when I was humble enough to change and then think of ways to spearhead changes that help people and business grow.

What a great reminder this morning that our focus should not be on how we have always done things (not changing) but on being open to change and to lead in change.

I hope this encourages you this week.

Kind Regards,

Larry J Clark