Thursday, May 20, 2010
Beneath this pediment are two large concrete monuments. The monument on the right reads: To Jake and Betty. He promised. She delivered. It’s the perfect formula for building trust. To make a promise and to keep it.
But more important is the collaboration of two great minds that were committed to making unique and meaningful promises and making it their joint mission to keep those promises everyday. And they did. In their marriage. In the raising of their family. To their co-workers and to all those people who put their trust in them along the way. They were great people committed to doing great things in a great way.
When my father died, a good friend and co-worker at Jacobson Rost, Bob MacDonald, came up with an idea as a tribute to my father. “Jake’s Cafe”. It was really meant to be a place where the JR staff might get together from time to time for a cup of coffee. With one another. With clients, friends and even the local businesses that we relied upon for support everyday. Bob produced some great architectural drawings, a logo and even some coffee cups to thread the needle on the project.
It took awhile...but fifteen years later, the cafe has finally opened. A little bit different than Bob had originally planned, but with the same spirit of adventure that Betty and Jake started Jacobson Advertising in 1957.
A few months ago, as my daughter Christiana was preparing a scholarship essay on where she hoped to be 10 years from now she wrote some simple words which I’ve often repeated when others have asked the same of Jake’s Cafe. “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to be ten years from now....but I do know the kind of person I’m going to be.” It made me a little teary-eyed. So, I’m not exactly sure what Jake’s Cafe will be ten years from now...but I do the kind of people we will be.
We’re going to great people. Committed to doing great things. In a great way! We’ll talk about the monument on the left tomorrow.
