I was asked recently to define T. Lake’s core values. And the best I can say is that our values are derived first and foremost from the land.
Both of my grandfathers and theirs before them and theirs before them were farmers and timbermen. They loved the land. They made a living from the land. They appreciated and valued it. It took care of them, and they took care of it. That’s the attitude I grew up with.
I consider myself part of the lineage of the first job God gave a human being, and that's to tend the garden. Humankind’s first job was to get our hands in the dirt. We’re here to be good stewards.
It’s a very pragmatic way of life that you learn growing up around farms and sawmills. You create, and you do it well. You use what you have. If you don’t have it you make it. If you can’t make it, you look for who has the best one, and you buy and use something that will last, because cheap is just that. When you are making an enterprise go you want something that will hold up and not cause you downtime and frustration.
That's the kind of people who built this country. People who had the ingenuity and drive and perseverance to get up and make things happen every day. It’s the classic American work ethic that sadly isn’t always easy to find any more.
But that’s the kind of people we look for here at T.Lake, both in our employees and in the people we serve. We value hard work. But by that we don’t just mean we like to get our hands in it. We value smart work, too, and we work hard at working smart. It’s about showing up consistently, and having the integrity to do what we say we're going to do.
These are the guidelines we use to decide who works here and who doesn’t. These guidelines define the kind of person we attract. (Reading between the lines, they also define the kind we weed out if they happen to get here by mistake.)
Here they are—not necessarily in order of importance, but just the way we spit ‘em out:
In order to achieve that, it’s important to be well matched to the people we’re working with and for. We want the people we work with to know up front how we’re wired. We don’t want to work with people who don’t also espouse similar values, because frankly it just won’t work out.
So, if after reading this you don’t feel like we’re on the same page, then I wish you well as we part ways.
But if you find that the ideals I’ve set forth here resonate with you, we’re going to get along just fine. If that’s the case, and you would like to know more about working with T.Lake, I encourage you to reach out. Just give us a call at 478-750-7733, or contact us online and we’ll get back to you soon!