HAROLD'S WISDOM: PART 3 OF 3

Written by Harold Cornock’s Nephew

I started out helping Uncle Harold with his bees. I thought I was just working for him. But I soon realized that he was giving lessons on life as well as on the bees. While we were tending the bee hives he would talk about many things and when we returned home in the evening he would ask me questions about what we had discussed. That was his way of making sure that I was listening and learning.

He used the bees as a metaphor for many lessons. I remember that he had some bees that were really ferocious and as we were getting stung I suggested that we kill the whole hive. Uncle Harold said no. Instead he bought another queen bee and had it posted to Sydney from Queensland. He then killed the queen bee of the hive and introduced the new queen bee. As working bees only live for about 14 days, and as the queen lays 2,000 eggs a day, within about two weeks the ferocious bees and all died and had been replaced with bees from the new queen.

My lesson here was don’t waste anything. Another lesson along the same lines was one time we worked all day on the bees and didn’t stop for lunch. Rather than waste the sandwiches that my aunt had made we ate them late in the day before we set off for home.

I learnt not be lazy. One time, after picking up rocks in a paddock, (in order to let the grass grow for the cattle to graze where the rocks had once stood) I thought I had finished and done a good job…. only to be told “you missed one”. Hard work and doing a job thoroughly was definitely the way to go.

Uncle Harold told me that early in his working left he had a job to collect the money for unpaid bills. He would visit the same households time and time again to try to get the money owed to his employer. From this experience he decided never to extend credit in business. He didn’t – he sold groceries and the money went straight into the cash register.

MY LESSON FROM THIS WAS ALSO NOT TO EXTEND CREDIT TO ANYONE. AND THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LESSON WAS “IF YOU CANNOT AFFORD IT, DON’T BUY IT”. “Save.” Save to get what you want. This may mean that you have to do without for a while.

Every day I take my lunch to work. This is not a hardship for me. The guys I work with buy their lunch every day and this costs a minimum of $80 a week. That is minimum $4,160 a year that I am saving.

DON’T GIVE UP.” THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY AROUND A PROBLEM IF YOU LOOK HARD ENOUGH.

“Don’t pay someone to do a job that you can do yourself.” Uncle Harold could easily afford to buy new bee boxes. Instead, he diligently made his own bee boxes out of old timber. One time he pulled up in the latest model Mercedes to inspect and collect some old timber that was on the sidewalk waiting to be collected by the community garbage service. A passer-by asked him what he was doing and Uncle Harold said he was collecting the old timber to make bee boxes. The observer asked, “How come you drive a Mercedes and you are collecting old rubbish.” Uncle Harold replied that it was because he did that sort of thing that he could afford to buy an expensive car. The passer-by retorted that he did not need a Mercedes that badly. “Doing a deal can often save you money.” The boundary fencing at one of Uncle Harold’s farms needed replacing. He did a deal with the neighbor whereby the neighbor paid for the fencing materials and Uncle Harold rebuilt the fence.

Uncle Harold told me that he used the Franklins self-service stores to get money. Stock was bought in bulk and the company did not have to pay the suppliers for four weeks. So, the money owed to the suppliers would be put out on the money market earning interest until payment was made to the suppliers four weeks after delivery of the stock. He explained that that was where the real money was made. This is a bit like paying for purchases on my credit card, therefore using the bank’s money until the account is paid on time, and no interest is charged to me by the banks. Using this lesson my wife and I have credit cards, but have never paid interest. It is also like people paying me rent for property - finding a way to bring in an income without going to physically work for it. Uncle Harold was very humble. He didn’t think he was as clever as he was. He just believed he worked harder than most other people.

I thought the world of Uncle Harold. He taught me so much. Among other things he taught me that no-one can buy my time. I decide when and to whom I am going to give it. He said the most important and valuable thing you can give is to give of yourself, and of your time. I absorbed so much that he told me, I think of him often and I still follow the principles that he taught me.

A lot of what I learnt about beekeeping (and life) from Uncle Harold cannot be found in books. Some time ago I was invited to lecture on beekeeping at Taffe College, and I was able to pass on some of the knowledge that I learnt from Uncle Harold. I have my own bee hives, and I don’t think I ever pick up a jar of honey without thinking of Uncle Harold.