We Also Have a Dream at LifeStyle Homes

Melbourne, FL – January 15, 2012 – This weekend, we at LifeStyle Homes will join in remembering the life and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many of us know Dr. King primarily by the signature phrase of his address delivered on August 28, 1963, to the multitude gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial as part of their historic March on Washington for Civil Rights.  It is interesting to note that the uplifting phrase, “I Have a Dream”, which opens a rolling expression of hope for the future, was not spoken until the final third of the speech. What preceded it was a sorrowful recounting of the hardships, disappointments and broken promises endured by Blacks in America in the 100 years that had passed since the Emancipation Proclamation was issued. We tend not to remember that part of the speech so much. Perhaps this is a sign that positive messages are more powerful than negative ones.

Due to technical difficulties, we were not able to post this blog on its intended date. We apologize for this and hope you will agree that the message is worthy of being shared, even if not shared on the correct date. Please continue reading. We have a favor to ask of you.

We, at LifeStyle Homes, are home builders. By no means are we heroic social advocates like Dr. King. Certainly, we have no desire to diminish his legacy by borrowing his iconic phrase to use in a mere home building blog post. Nevertheless, we also have dreams for the future that we think are important. So do you. Perhaps the real opportunity in this national holiday is for us to recount our dreams and re-dedicate ourselves to achieving them.

Please allow us to share a couple of our dreams with you right now. Perhaps you will decide to share some of yours by commenting on this blog post. We hope you will.

Here’s a positive dream. Someday our political and business leaders will be able to see beyond their own selfish interests and actually work for the good of us all. It is evident we need everyone’s cooperation to fix our suffering economy before it reaches some sort of downward-trending tipping point and things get even worse. To make progress, we need politicians to stop bickering for supposed short term personal and party advantage and get behind a coordinated, cooperative recovery plan that makes sense.

Likewise, we need our business leaders to temper their lust for ever-rising quarterly earnings in favor of creating longer term good that benefits more of us. Dr. Frederick E. Webster, Jr., a distinguished professor of marketing at Dartmouth College and the University of Arizona,  earned hero status in our estimation by challenging the conventional wisdom that the only proper motivation for business leaders  is to increase profits for the benefit of shareholders. The idea he fought for his entire career is that profits are the reward for satisfying customers. What a concept!  How different our business world would be if satisfying customers became our number one goal.

Here’s another dream of ours. The American dream of home ownership, that has contributed so much to our economic prosperity and family well-being, will remain strong and true for all Americans, and that over time more and more Americans will have the opportunity to live in clean, healthful, energy efficient homes that are good for them, good for us  and good for our planet. Maybe that’s more than one dream, but you get the idea, right?  Fortunately, we find ourselves in a position to do something about this dream. You have just got to know how satisfying it is for us to offer a positive difference to our customers in our guaranteed HERS 60 SunSmart(SM) homes and our multi-award-winning Net Zero Energy SunSmartPV(SM) homes. We are grateful for the opportunity to turn our efforts not only to our own good, but the good of our customers and our country also. Maybe, Prof. Webster’s idea in action?

We hope you will enjoy an extra day off to honor Dr. King as we will also. Would you join us in using part of this day to refresh your own dreams for the future? When you do, would you please share them with us?

Thank you.