My wife and I were blessed with our fourth daughter last July. The fact that she is the fourth girl is by itself the source of much advice from customers, friends and family. Regardless, she adds nicely to our family. As she grows and develops, her personality is becoming more distinguished.

Editor's note: Click here to read Stewart-Peterson CEO Scott Stewart's review of Great by Choice. In January 2008, I sat next at the dinner table with a Colorado dairyman who was explaining the intricacies of his strategy to sell two bull calves for a heifer calf in order to rapidly expand his dairy herd size. The other dairymen dining with us were amazed by his scheme, which relied on a never-ending supply of capital, a bull market for milk (the all-milk price was $20.50 at the time) and lots of risk. Just over one year later, in the heart of the Great Recession, I read how that same producer’s business and his herd were being dispersed.

The byproduct of industry: Hundreds of thousands of square feet of commercial buildings have flat roofs. One style of roofing for these flat surfaces is what is called “ballasted” roofing. Yes, ballasted, as in weighed down. A ballasted roof means that the membrane and insulation is not adhered, nailed or stapled down. Rather, it is held in place by a layer of river rock that is several inches thick. So, when it comes to a tear-off, they remove the rock and take up the old roofing materials.

History becomes reality as one walks among the markers in Fairview Lawn Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Among the final resting places of Halifax notables lie the remains of some of the victims of the SS Titanic. Walking among the several rows of markers, one comes to understand that real, living human beings were brought to a sudden and unexpected end in one of the greatest sea-borne disasters. The nearly identical stones are universal in one thing – one after another states as the date of death, “April 15, 1912.” After seeing 121 of these, the enormity of the loss overwhelms.