A different kind of resolution

Phil Cobb

This year, I resolve to maintain a positive attitude no matter what the circumstances.

After all, we should all know that no matter how wacky this roller coaster ride gets here on Earth, the Man upstairs has it under control.

If I were going to put 2016 on a scale with the rest of my 47 years, I’d have to rate it near the worst in several categories.

Sometimes it seems like the deck is stacked against you.

And sometimes it seems like the people you think are on your side… really aren’t.

That’s all I’ll say about that.

I seemed to have come out just fine on the other side, so I don’t know what I was so worked up about.

Those who know me the best realize there were days in 2016 that were among the darkest I’ve had.

Due to a wide range of circumstances, we lost some damn good employees last year.

Dalton Vitt, Jessica Allen, Jennifer Ditlevson Haglund, Dustin Henggeler — one after another.

I’d hire any of them back in a heartbeat.

So, I was already reeling, wondering how we were going to keep this business going — wondering when, or if, it would stop.

The most difficult part — by far — of running this business so far has been acquiring and keeping good employees.

I was having all kind of thoughts: Should we sell the business? Should we go less days a week? Yes, the thought even crossed my mind that if we couldn’t find enough people to replace those we lost, we might even discontinue the newspaper.

But we did find people, and were able to stabilize things.

That was before the worst of our losses.

When we lost Jim Fall to a stroke in August, it changed everything.

I went through all those same thoughts again.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to do this anymore.

For awhile, I thought it was the final straw.

But something kept me going.

Maybe it was because, even though we lost some great employees, we still had our core group, the same group that has been there since the beginning, that has persevered through the good times and the bad.

They are the ones who kept me going.

And now that I can look back on it, I am so glad they did.

Now I know that by going through all that, it made us much, much stronger.

That should make it easier to live up to my resolution.

One of my biggest weaknesses is a tendency to develop a negative attitude when things don’t go my way.

That’s going to change this year.

We have enough to be thankful for that nothing should throw us off course.

So far, we’re off to a great start.

We have some very exciting things happening at Cobb Publishing as we kick off 2017.

We’ve expanded into the Chillicothe market, by adding three more full-time salespeople, and starting another version of The Post.

In a couple of weeks, we’ll be introducing the new managing editor of the Maryville Daily Forum.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been this excited — and positive — about the future of this business.