Every summer, you will find me writing a blog or two from my parent’s house in Wisconsin. I consider myself very lucky to have a place to go to on a lake in the summertime. I enjoy spending time with my family in a place that offers a splendid view and very few responsibilities, other than clearing the table at dinnertime.

As I write this particular blog entry, I am sitting in an Adirondack chair down by the water, staring across the bay at a rock wall.

The neat thing about this rock wall is that it is huge. It juts out about a quarter-mile into the lake and is covered with towering pines and many layers and styles of rocks cut by thousands of years of flowing water. It has obviously been here a long time, a symbol of things more powerful than man.

At times like these I am reminded that work is insignificant in comparison to the power of natural wonders. We spend so much time at work, and so little appreciating the things that have nearly always been here.

Yes, I’m slagging HR a little bit and I don’t mean to get all transcendental here. After all, I am just staring at a big red rock with some trees poking out, but I want you to think about the significance of these things:

• What can/will you build that’s lasting and meaningful to others, just like a giant rock that divides a bay?
• How will you attract, retain and motivate people who will commit to and/or contribute to something lasting in your business?
• How will you build something that is adaptable, capable and yet able to stand up against the high tides while feeding the vegetation during the low ones?

Like many of you in HR, even when I am off duty, I never really shut off completely. This was just a few thoughts that came to mind while staring at a rock wall.