Letters From Leton: Huff and Puff and Blow Your House Down!

Our thought and prayers to you and your family as we continue the good fight.

Perhaps when you were a kid, or now as a parent or grandparent, you spent time reading fables.

Fables have been a part of humanity for centuries. In 600 BC, Aesop told of the Ant and the Grasshopper, The Brothers Grimm shared a story about a brother (Hansel) and sister (Gretel) in the 1800s, and so on.

One of my favorite fables is the story of the Three Little Pigs (from the works of James Halliwell-Phillips’ 1886 “Nursery Rhymes of England”).

First, you have to understand that the Three Little Pigs story I read as a child was, how shall I say, different than the ones I read to my kids. In the version I read as a child, two of the pigs were eaten (didn’t run away) and were returned to their brother via a “surgical procedure”.

Why the time today on fables and Three Little Pigs?

I think fables and stories from the past lead us to good lessons which lead to good decisions. Another aspect is the basic value of hard work and thinking out of the box.

What do I mean?

In the story of the three little pigs, one builds a home of straw, one of sticks, and one of bricks.

Undoubtedly, the house of bricks took longer to build. Heaving bricks and taking time to place them properly surely was harder than throwing together a bunch of straw or sticks. While his brothers’ homes fell to adversity (the wolf) the Pig who worked hard and built a strong structure survived.

Our Bank reminds me of the Pig who built his house of bricks. We have for 132 years constructed the kind of home we want to provide for our customers and staff.

Sometimes we add new bricks to the structure (SBA Payroll loans as an example) or we re-mortar a brick we already have in place (reminding customers they can call the debit card number to get an account balance 24 hours a day). 

Our strong and sturdy Bank has persevered through many hard times.

So let the COVID-19 Wolf blow – he will find that after he is all tuckered out, PVB will still be standing.

– Leton

____________________________________________________________________
“Letters From Leton” is a blog series comprised of the weekly updates that Leton Harding – President, Chairman, and CEO of Powell Valley National Bank, shares with the Bank’s team members. These newsletters are full of uplifting anecdotes and intriguing insights that are applicable beyond the Bank, so we want to share them with you.