RH
A note from Dr. Hendrix
Across forty-five years I have been “fired,” in one sense or another, about a hundred times — because I have always known when my time somewhere had run out, and I learned to finish hard rather than cling. I wrote it because knowing when to leave, and how to end well, is a skill nobody teaches and everybody needs.
— Dr. Roger Hendrix · We share these stories so you can know the family behind GreenTeaHP.
I have always known when my time
has come to an end.
Also, I’ve known when there’s a lot
more time
until the end.
When it has, I pressed hard to finish
hard at the end.
If it hasn’t, I continue on and enjoy it
until it ends.
I was a full time employee once.
It was short of fifteen years,
I taught religion in those years.
I knew when I wanted to go, and
I did what
I wanted until I decided to go.
After that I became a management
consultant – radio commentator too.
In thirty years, I’ve had well over
100 clients.
The shortest contract being a week.
The longest being twenty years.
The average being somewhere around
six to seven years.
When I realized the average was
six to seven years, I learned
to pick up on clues that
told me my time was coming
to an end.
I would slowly cut down, and
when it was time to go, there
was another
ready to go.
I can’t tell you how there was
a new one ready to go.
Probably, I subconsciously
started
looking around.
In thirty years of consulting,
I have never been without
clients, contracts,
and money coming in.
When does it come to an end?
When I’m one hundred years old,
that’s when it
will come to an end.
I’m already
planning what
I’ll be doing all the way
up until the end.
I’ll be writing to the
end.
I will collect those one
thousand essays I will
have written by then,
bind them,
sell them
as wisdom for working
until seventy five years
draws closer to the end.
I’ll continue
to own some of
those companies
I have helped
create.
Right now, it’s green tea,
the oldest
drink on earth.
It’s about aroma and health –
longevity too.
My church will recognize this
and refine
Its word of wisdom too,
reforming what has
been defined.
With each contract that ends,
there’s a little hole
created in my soul.
I become invested in what I do.
I take it personally when I’ve
run my contract through.
That’s why
I feel I have been fired one hundred times.
At this point it’s forty five years
I’ve worked
with only thirty years until the end,
If it ever ends.