Restless

A loan officer at our bank once noted she would love to do what I do - when she retires. Months earlier at a swank social event, a fellow attendee asked me what else I did for a living. During the fifteen years I've developed Evins Mill into what it is today and will become tomorrow, I've fielded such comments and questions not with regularity, but sporadically enough that from time to time I've pondered the substance of my toils - for such remarks insinuate that what I do is not so much work as hobby, not so much business as pastime. Or that's how it feeeels anyway.

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And as far as feelings go, I appreciate the possibility that my defensiveness may well stem from some lurking insecurity I have no appetite to plumb, but that digression aside, I do wonder how often physicians or attorneys, or for that matter plumbers, face similar queries. On one hand, it may simply be a case of mistaken identity, for Evins Mill does in a few respects resemble a bed and breakfast, a worthy endeavor some couples do in fact take up in their golden years as a less taxing means of supplementing their income.

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On the other hand, while Evins Mill features the rusticity and quaintness commonly associated with a B&B, leisure travel in truth constitutes less than a third of our gross revenue. With several thousand square feet of conference and reception space, complemented by a bevy of chefs, waitstaff, housekeepers, groundskeepers and event planners, the majority of our business actually flows from corporate retreats - a weekday clientele that allows us to field a first-string team we can then avail to our "bed and breakfast" guests.

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So what exactly is Evins Mill if not a B&B? It's not an idle question - my wife just recently asked me how to respond when people ask her what I do. I suggested she say I manage a "boutique resort." She was nonplussed, and I don't blame her. Do you have any ideas? Maybe there's a contest here just waiting to happen. Whatever the appellation, I know who we are and what we do and am confident that a majority of our guests are pleased with both - which in the end is all that should matter.
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Which is to say, this should be a fitting end to the story, though I remain restless. I am after all the scion of a successful entrepreneur and attended one of the nation's finest business schools, many of whose graduates went on to pursue sexier careers in high finance, consulting, commercial real estate and the like. I may have built something more than a quaint bed and breakfast, but still, what I've created is relatively diminutive. Am I playing below my grade? Maybe I should have been a CEO, a titan of industry - a "contender" as it were. As it is, I chose the path of a shopkeeper, who every day opens and closes his store by changing the voice greeting to reflect the current date.

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Shopkeeper or not, most would agree that it is one hell of a shop. This, and the fact I built much of it, is a welcome though not necessarily needed boost to the ego. I feel better now - and a good thing too as my time is up.