What It Takes
1 of the first times I can remember doing taxes was my senior year of high school. My grandparents, Raif and Grace Wilson, asked for help with their income taxes, so I took a seat at their dining room table and got to work.
To tell the truth, I had no idea what I was doing. As a junior, I had taken a bookkeeping and accounting class and earned an A, which was rare for me. So, as far as I knew, I was a tax expert. Later, as a young college student, my step-grandmother, Viletta Mixon Bailey, gave me a proper introduction to accounting and inspired me to major in it.
Let’s face it, when most people think of accountants, they probably picture someone like Bob Cratchit from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Or, worse, you might think of Ebenezer Scrooge. I’ve always said that CPA stands for “cheapest person alive,” and even I have to admit that does sound like Scrooge.
For me, being a CPA led to a career in public accounting and later the electric cooperative world. But one thing I never understood is why the government set April 15 as the tax deadline. It’s a date that already held significance as the day Abraham Lincoln succumbed to his wounds in the early morning hours. Maybe they thought they would honor one of our greatest presidents by making April 15 the day we fund the union he saved.
April is also Lineman Appreciation Month, but I can tell you I don’t need a special occasion to appreciate all the work our linemen do for this cooperative. They get ripped away from their families at some of the worst times to work in horrible conditions.
So, I’d like to offer them a simple thank-you for everything they do for our members. Trust me, they deserve it for a job well done. I hope you’ll do the same if you see one of our linemen working in the field or out at the grocery store. If you have complaints about your service, bring them to me, not our linemen. They’re out there every day working hard to bring you the best service they can.
That’s the goal for all our linemen, and all of us at South Alabama Electric Cooperative (SAEC) want them to be the best, too. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from listening to former Alabama football coach Nick Saban — and it pains me to write former — it’s that everyone wants to be the “Best”, but are they willing to do what it takes to be the “Best.”
As a cooperative, we provide your linemen with the training and equipment they need to be at their best every day. I feel they are the best at what they do. But the thing about being the best is that you can never stop, and the same is true in our personal lives. Building better habits, being disciplined, looking for your weaknesses, and humbling yourself to correct them never ends. Establishing these attributes requires persistence from all our employees, myself included.
You might be thinking that sounds a lot like never being satisfied. But I’m not talking about being content with your life. God gives each of us a special talent to serve him, not ourselves. Whether that talent is being a great lineman, customer service representative, accountant, engineer, board member, or even CEO, we owe it to God to use that talent as best we can. Anything less is cheating God and ourselves.
As your cooperative, we’ve made a promise that we will always work to improve our service to the members. Over the coming year, we plan to share more information and services that will make us a better cooperative for you.
In the meantime, don’t forget to file your income taxes. And maybe spare a moment to think of President Lincoln this tax day and the tremendous leadership that brought our country through terrible times in the Civil War that ended on April 9, 1865, just before Lincoln’s death. Until next month, please be safe.