In the late afternoon of my career, 52+ years since its sunrise, I see beautiful reflections of life’s colors from early morning to the early evening that put a parenthesis around a career I hope will never end until the hearse driver arrives at the office to gently take the plier and wire out of my hand.
The main response to folks who think it is time to retire is that “retirement”, to me, is a word of entitlement which would rob me of purpose and meaning. It is an artificial economic adjustment foisted on workers from labor unions and big corporations which ignores the contributions of experience, judgment and wisdom. Why would an artist quit painting, a musician quit playing, an author quit writing? Bless Willy Nelson, he is still going strong at 85!
Now, my heroes are older gentlemen, many who finished their journey well beyond their eighties so finishing well is a strong motivation. I have amassed a treasure chest of experience and my staff of Suzanne and Christi are beyond exceptional, they are “gold medalists”. We work for you and with you in a comfortable unrushed family setting. There are no high volume multi-tasking business pressures to interfere with conscientious personal attention. I enjoy a slow pace and being precise, accurate, and accountable so that your experience with us is enjoyable with excellence as added value.
It is no rumor that my office building is for sale, not me or my practice which will need to relocate to a convenient place when appropriate. Now is the time to capture whatever value a new developer envisions for the property. Unfortunately, a small professional building in downtown St. Pete no longer makes economic sense.
You can rest assured that when the inevitable time comes when I need to pass the torch, I have the best back up orthodontist anyone could ever want. We have a special professional bond that has strengthened over the last few years and the final analysis is a win-win-win for all.
I look forward to what lies ahead until the sun sets and “ it’s over”.
John B. Harrison DDS, MSc
