Randy Cantrell

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The owner is angry. Extremely. Business is good. Revenues are up. That’s usually what we mean when we say, “Business is good.” But if we look at the whole thing – the big picture – business is in trouble. And this owner knows it. 

“I’ve never seen this in 26 years,” he says. “It’s incredible. Look at this,” he hands me a stack of complaints. I begin to thumb through them. They all seem fixable. In fact, they seem pretty simple to fix. None of them are complex. Over the next few minutes, I digest them, making mental notes. Except for one – involving a product failure (it happens) – the rest appeared totally preventable on the front end. But I hold my opinion until I make sure I understand what’s happening. 

We talk about the issues, when things seem to go south and what the owner thinks may be happening. Before I conclude that story, let’s talk about your customer service. It’s the second leg of the trifecta of successful business building.

1. Getting New Customers
2. Serving Existing Customers Better
3. Not Going Crazy In The Process

Customer service is really about one major thing – paying close attention. Very close attention. 

It’s details, details, details. It’s the many little things that irritate customers. Think about your own experiences. We’ve all got plenty of complaints and mostly, they’re things the business could have easily prevented. 

Customer service is about one other major thing – let’s just focus on these 2 – commitment. How determined are you to dazzle your customers? It shows so don’t tell me you care when my experience is more likely to be lackluster than not. Don’t tell me you care when your customer reviews are filled with 1 and 2 stars and all sorts of negative feedback. You can’t preach one thing and live another. Nobody is buying your sermon. 

I’ve recently been battling some swimmer’s ear. I figured I’d find an ear, eyes, nose and throat specialist. So I asked another doctor for a recommendation. I contacted that doctor’s office and tried unsuccessfully three times to navigate through the automated phone system. Each time I got to the option of “new patient,” and the phone would then ring, and ring, and ring. One time I let it ring over 30 times. Nobody ever answered. 

I jumped on their website and used their contact form, telling them I was a new patient trying to get an appointment. Three days later somebody called. Left a voicemail. I returned the call. An automated greeting answered, then promptly disconnected me. I tried two more times. 

Talk about friction for customers (patients)! I reached out again using the contact form to tell them about my experience. My hope was that the practice manager would see my challenges and help out the doctor, who came recommended. I confess, my hope is very low. I strongly suspect this practice manager isn’t terribly concerned. It’s likely the doctor has plenty of patients. Like so many businesses, where business is GOOD (meaning we’re hitting that first leg of the trifecta), they’re not likely thinking of how much better it could be. It’s not about potential. It’s just about keeping up. Bully for them!

I tapped out. 

The other day my wife and I are wanting to grab lunch. We didn’t want some big, long, drawn-out affair. Just a quick, go in, sit down and enjoy 30-40 minutes. She suggested Panda Express. We’re fans and usually, we get it to go and take it home. But on this day we wanted to go inside. We had somewhere to be a bit later. 

We get our food, sit down at a table for two. The food is fine. The place is clean. It’s perfectly good. But details matter.

In case you’re unfamiliar with Panda Express inside (and I’m not talking about a mall food court location), they have a drink bar where you get plastic forks and napkins from dispensers. About halfway through our lunch, some customer drops a napkin on the floor. These are the things that grab my attention. I can’t help it. 

I notice the General Manager is in the store. He’s maneuvering around with a clipboard in hand, talking to various team members, one of whom I assume is a manager of some sort. He grabs a small cup and goes to the drink bar to get a drink. I’m thinking, he’ll pick up that napkin. Nope. He goes back toward the register area with his drink, pointing things out to team members. A bit later he and an employee go back over to the drink bar, where he refills his drink. Now we’ve got 2 employees, one of whom is the guy in charge. Surely one of them will pick up this napkin on the floor. Nope. 

He takes his drink, says goodbye and out the door he goes. The employee goes back to her post. Fifteen minutes pass. Five separate employee interactions with the napkin produce no action. As we’re leaving, my wife and I top off our drinks, put lids on our cups and I tell my wife, “I can’t stand it anymore.” I bend down, pick up the napkin and throw it in the trash. 

No, I’m not complaining. But I’m pointing out how easily remedied these things are. It’s largely opening our eyes and ears. Paying close attention. I’m going to tell you that MOST businesses don’t do it. Or they don’t do it well consistently. I’m fanatical. I admit it. Years of operating successful retail companies will do that for you. I’d have fired that General Manager on the spot. If you’re blind enough to nearly step on a single napkin occupying the floor in front of you…twice…then you’re not observant enough to work for me. But I’m serious about customer service. Most aren’t. 

Back to our owner. Do you know what the majority of the complaints were involving? Guess.

They weren’t complaining about pricing. They weren’t complaining about rudeness.

Almost 80% of the complaints were a lack of follow through. Employees didn’t do what they said they’d do, when they said they’d do it. 

One complaint was about a product that failed (again, it happens), but when you examined it more closely…that really wasn’t the complaint. The complaint was the employee took too long to make it right. The customer had to jump through hoops like I did trying to make the doctor appointment. Here was a prime opportunity to really dazzle a customer (in an upcoming episode we’ll talk about how valuable the opportunity is when a customer has a problem), blown. 

The rest of the complaints were what I’ll call “nobody cares” complaints. Things like phones not being answered. Or not answered promptly. Emails were not replied to. Simple matters of neglect. 

The good news is 100% of these problems were easily fixed. Simple really. 

The bad news is that the owner had inadvertently generated big problems inside his company. He structured a bonus program based on revenues with a manager who was driving sales as hard as he could. Like a Pony Express rider, the manager was riding this horse for all it was worth. Happy to put the horse down at the end of the quarter when he’d collect his fat bonus. His bonus didn’t hinge on another other than driving up sales. It was completely the owner’s fault. And his responsibility. 

Be careful what you wish for. Be more careful what you reward. 

As business increased, so did the complaints. The owner was wisely now fretting over the company’s reputation. Social media reviews were hammering his company like never before. He was experienced enough and smart enough to know sales wouldn’t remain good unless he fixed this problem. 

So he finally got sick and tired enough to try to figure out how to fix it. What about you? When will you get sick and tired of it? And if you’re getting complaints, be thankful. Most customers just leave without saying a word. Or they go online to slam your company. It’s not an overstatement to say that if you’re not fanatical about customer service then you’re not doing it right. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Great is the descriptive term I use because other terms like “best” are comparison terms. Comparison to others. Or something else. Great, in the context I mostly use, is only in comparison to yourself. It’s your greatness. And your greatness has nothing to do with anybody else. Or anything else. It belongs to you. It’s your responsibility. 

That doesn’t’ mean others can’t contribute to helping you. They can. And do. Who we surround ourselves with matters! The people we allow in our lives make a big impact. For good. Or bad. 

Growing is my verb of choice because it’s present tense, just like the title verb I use, GROW. It’s a now verb. It doesn’t care if you failed yesterday. Or if you’re planning to do something different tomorrow. Do it now. 

Yes, I want to encourage you to keep doing it, but right now is all we have. Let’s make the most of it. 

Growing great isn’t for wimps because wimps spend time comparing themselves with others.

Cowards won’t grow great because they’re busy feeling better about themselves by putting others down. Or by choosing lower standards of comparison. It’s judgmental and foolish. So I’m really supposed to feel good because I can single out somebody who is suffering, or less fortunate, or has had fewer opportunities? That doesn’t sound like the path toward growing great. 

Cowards won’t grow great because they’re busy feeling worse about themselves by exalting others. Sometimes our cowardice isn’t judgmental in the negative sense. Sometimes we’re busy admiring others and excusing our own lives. It’s jealousy. Envy. It fosters bitterness, but it comes at the price of feeling badly about ourselves. If we were only as lucky as them? Or as educated? Or given the breaks they were given? Then we’d be great, too. 

Wimps won’t grow great because they’re not able to see themselves accurately as they continue to gauge their lives by how others are doing. Put any guitar in Mark Knopfler’s hands and he’s a master. Put a guitar in my hands and I’m not even able to successfully fret a chord. He spent years learning, playing and practicing the guitar. I’ve spent years listening to guys and gals like him play. It’s an unfair comparison. But when young Mark was learning guitar, a younger me was learning about sales, marketing and operating business. We both love the guitar, the comparisons of our lives are completely worthless. 

Growing great isn’t for wimps because wimps spend time wearing a mask.

Sure, we all want to put our best foot forward. We want others to admire us. Sometimes the masks are necessary, if not downright helpful. I’ve met with people or stood in front of a group and not felt at my best. I don’t stand up and make an honest declaration, “I really don’t much feel like talking to you people today. I didn’t get much sleep last night. So I just want you folks to know that right now, I’d rather be just about anywhere other than here.” I may feel like that, but that won’t help me, or them. So I grind it out. So do you. That’s hardly hypocrisy, but it is a mask of sorts. 

Then there are other masks that aren’t helpful. Or honest. 

Some years ago I remember hearing a social media guru urge people to use various media logos on their websites and personal profiles. He taught hacking tips on how you could get yourself on the websites of places like ABC, CBS, and NBC. Then he’d encourage people to alter their profiles to say, “As seen on ABC.” If I put “as seen on ABC” you’d think I had been on a TV show, some news interview segment or something more legitimate than simply appearing on the ABC affiliate in Gotibow, Texas website. By the way, there is no such place. And I was never on their website. Or their TV signal. 😉

But we want to impress people. So we often misrepresent ourselves with embellishment, keeping that chinstrap tight on our mask. We can’t afford to have our mask inadvertantely, or intentionally knocked off. It’s our everything. And it’s wimpy. 

Fake it ’til you make it might have some degree of validity if you ever made it. But the practice of faking it mostly supersedes the activity and behavior necessary to make it. Old habits can be crazy hard to break. Faking it is a habit. 

Growing great isn’t for wimps because wimps won’t intentionally and purposefully surround themselves with people who can help them grow.

Wimps prefer people who will support them or sympathize with them no matter what. Wimps enjoy the company of people who will feel sorry for them. People who will listen to their excuses without challenge. 

Wimps do this because in the short-term it feels good. We enjoy getting sympathy. The problem is it’s unprofitable over time. It doesn’t serve us, except at the surface level. It’s superficial.  

Growing great isn’t for wimps. It’s for the bold, audacious, adventurous and courageous. It’s for people like you. Why else would you be listening to a podcast with a title, Grow Great?

Business leaders – bold, audacious, adventurous and courageous leaders – willing to grow great (or to grow greater) are willing, even anxious, to put in the work. There are some things they know that others haven’t yet learned. 

1. What others have, or do, has no bearing on their performance, leadership, business or lives. 
2. That knowing what they’re good at – potentially great at – is unique and not dependent on the strengths of others. 
3. That putting themselves in the company of people with whom they can be completely transparent is vital to their growth. We all need people who won’t judge us without our mask.

How willing are you to step up so you can give yourself bigger opportunities to grow great? You’ll grow older no matter what you do. You may as well spend that time growing great.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Likable is powerful. And it’s so ridiculously easy. Or should be.

Back when dinosaurs roamed the planet and I got my first real #1 job running a company – a retailing company – I knew something that didn’t seem apparent to my competitors. For that matter, it didn’t seem it was being practiced by hardly anybody who served the public. It was 1982. I was 25. I held a morning meeting with just one focus, being polite. I remember saying, “Who knew there’d come a time when manners would be a competitive edge, but here we are?” For half an hour or so we talked about making sure we always (100% of the time) incorporated, “please” and “thank you” and “sir” and “ma’am.” 

Politeness pays.

It’s at the core of being likable. Without it, we don’t even get out of the gate successfully. It’s true in our personal relationships. And with our customers. And with our employees. 

We could direct any discussion about being likable to a host of worthwhile points. It’s such a valuable quality you’d think it’d warrant more attention. Maybe it just seems so elementary people discount it. 

But once again, I’m going to say what I remember first saying 36 years ago. Who knew there’d be a time when being likable would be a competitive advantage? Truth is, being likable is always – and has always – been an advantage. 

To be liked by some requires a willingness to be hated by others. 

That means you’re going to stand out. Stand apart. Growing up, it’s not something many of us wanted to achieve. High school taught us how invaluable that could be. The pressure was intense to be like everybody else, and not stand out. Fitting in was the objective. We wrongheadedly thought that was the path to success. 

Then life showed us how foolishly wrong we were.

It’s funny. Through the years I’ve talked with people about their 10th, 20th and even more advanced high school reunions. No, I’ve never been to one. My family moved to a different town when I was in the middle of my junior year so I was forever scarred by a horrible high school ending. 😉 (yes, I’m kidding)

People often talk about the people they thought would rise to the top of some endeavor because they were so popular in high school. Sometimes it happens. Often times, based on the stories they share, it doesn’t. I pretty regularly hear people say, “It’s like they peaked in high school I guess.” What a sad time to peak, huh?

Some of those kids were snooty. Unapproachable. Downright mean. 

And sometimes those sweet, kind kids were seen as weak. 

I’m old. I hope things have changed since I was in high school. Something tells me kids can still be cruel and mean. And popular at the same time. Just consider the venom being published today. The comedy shows that feast on a President, and making fun of anybody else available…well, is there a show that doesn’t follow that model? Insulting people is a full-time job for some. A part-time hobby for others. 

Civility is gone. Popularity is King. And being likable isn’t polarizing enough to be popular. Last week the President decided to slam LeBron James using his favorite medium, Twitter. Trash talking has reached galactic heights, or maybe it goes the other way. Maybe it’s reached abysmal lows. No matter, it’s a professional pastime. 

Back in January 2013, NPR’s Alix Spiegel wrote an article entitled, “No Mercy For Robots: Experiment Tests How Humans Relate To Machines.”

In the article, Alix cites some research going back to the late 90’s where computers interacted with people with politeness versus computers that were more direct without the niceties. She quotes Stanford professor Clifford Nass…

“Every culture has a rule of reciprocity, which roughly means, if I do something nice for you, you will do something nice for me. We wanted to see whether people would apply that to technology: Would they help a computer that helped them more than a computer that didn’t help them?”

When robots/computers were polite people behaved in kind. In fact, in one experiment where people were told to unplug the computer if the computer begged politely for them to not unplug…people displayed an apparent moral quandary. They’d engage in dialogue with the machine as though they were speaking with another person. Proof that likability pays, even if it’s our digital devices like Siri, Alexa, Echo or some other digital assistant. Do you say “thank you” or “please” to your digital assistant? 😉 

Politeness is a big part of being likable. It’s part of our ability and desire to connect. 

I see it every day during early morning walks. There are people I see almost daily. As we pass each other, they’ll make eye contact, smile and reply to my greeting, “Good morning.” There are other people I see almost daily who never look up, clearly wanting to avoid eye contact…and others who are looking up, but acting as though they don’t see you. Uninterested in replying to your, “Good morning” or your subtle wave. There are about 3 people who have never responded to me, but I keep greeting them. It’s a challenge to see if one day they’ll become more polite. So far, they’ve chosen not to.

I see it every day in the gym. Except there the circumstances may warrant different behavior. If a person is dialed into a weight lifting session, etiquette requires the polite thing to do is to give them space and don’t distract them. It’s interesting to watch people selfishly invade somebody’s space. Politeness fosters likability. Impoliteness (aka rudeness) fosters us being annoyed. 

I’ve never seen a person or company gain new customers, much less serve existing customers better, by annoying them. I’ve seen annoying people make a sale, but never create a happy customer, which is the first leg of hitting the trifecta of successful business building. 

It’s equally impossible to serve existing customers better without kindness, politeness and being likable. Being likable is marketable. And not just to prospects. It’s also marketable to potential employees, suppliers and anybody else we hope to attract. 

In short, being likable is attractive!

Being real, truthful, honest, forthright and human are just a few elements of being attractive. There are some elements of likability that may be less general, and more specific. When I was single, I mostly was attracted to blondes. I don’t know why. Sometimes we just like what we like. It works if we – and our company – are liked by the prospects we hope to serve. It doesn’t work at all if our likability factors aren’t congruent with the market we hope to serve. I’m attracted to candid conversation, but not everybody rolls that way. Some people are intent on keeping the mask of “I’m great, and everything is fine!” on. I’m disinterested in working with people like that, so I suspect neither of us find each other attractive. That’s fine. It works. For both of us. 

You’ve got to figure out who you’re attracted to, and who finds you attractive. It’s a big part of marketing. But for today, let me leave you with a challenge to incorporate being nice – kind, generous, polite and whatever other terms you want to incorporate into it – into your daily behavior and culture.

Be likable. Genuinely so. You’ll figure the rest of it out from there, and it may change your life and your business because it remains a competitive edge. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

P.S. Steven Page, one of the founding members of the BareNaked Ladies (now a solo artist), posted this a few days ago on Instagram. Fitting. “If you must, point out your politeness.”

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Deb Calvert named her company People First Productivity Solutions. Angela Maiers centers her work in education and business around the premise that you matter. No matter who you are. Claude Silver is the Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia, a title she crafted to replace what most folks would call “HR.” Three highly successful female achievers who all realize the power and importance of PEOPLE. 

Yes, there are some guys who feel the same way. Tim Sanders, best selling author of Love Is The Killer App does. Stanford professor (and one of my favorite business authors) Bob Sutton does, too. And so does another favorite author, Dr. Henry Cloud.

Two themes emerge in most conversations with leaders. It doesn’t matter if they’re in the business world, non-profit world, local government world, scientific world or creative world. The themes are CULTURE and COMMUNICATION. 

Bula Network, my company, is intently focused on 3 C’s – Connection, Communication, and Collaboration. They each contribute in some powerful way to a 4th C, Culture. 

And at the heart of it all are PEOPLE. Famed TV turnaround artist (The Profit), Marcus Lemonis concentrates on three things in each episode: people, process, and product. He puts people first in that list for a reason. 

There’s compelling evidence to prove that people make the single biggest difference. Bill Gurley is the number 1 venture capitalist according to CBInsights’ latest research. Like most, if not all, successful VC’s, Gurley knows the smart money invests in the founder. Here’s a Tweet he sent out last week about Zack Urlocker, a leader who has helped lead Active Software, MySQL, Zendesk and most recently Duo Security to billion dollar exits. As Gurley’s Tweet says about Urlocker, “One time might be luck. This feels like all skill.”

Hopefully, by now I’ve amply demonstrated how powerful, impactful and necessary PEOPLE are making great things happen. Yet still too many business leaders, owners and CEO’s practice quiet (sometimes, not so quiet) resentment toward people. 

I’ve read more than my share of leadership books by the likes of Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge. Few authors have written more, or better about the topic. Bright minds like these have contributed to forming my almost-lifelong belief that…

We manage the work. We lead the people.

Why then are so many business and organizational leaders trying to manage the people?

I don’t really care why. It’s just wrongheaded. Some may not know better. Others know full well how they’re acting. And don’t care. It boils down to ego, control, and fear. That’s my intuition about it. I could be wrong. I doubt it.

Leaders can be tempted to resent the success or failure of people in their organizations. They may resent the financial investment necessary to get and retain people with top-tier abilities. One reason I fell in love with sales (commission-based sales) as a young age is that it was apparent to me that it was an endeavor where a person could earn what they’re worth. If you performed well, you could earn more than if you didn’t perform well. Don’t resent people earning what they’re worth.  

They may resent the credit other people earn. Right here in Dallas, Texas, there’s a brilliant business person, Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, who is publicly notorious for wanting most of the credit, but in the view of some, not nearly enough blame. I don’t know him so it’s unfair to claim they’re right, but I’m empathetic to their view. Jerry is very public about his importance. And I bring him up because some leaders who practice resentment already have brought him up to me. Jerry Jones is approaching a net worth of $6 Billion. In a sport where success is measured in Super Bowls, his teams have won 3, the last one in 1996. The team hasn’t been all that successful in the last 20 years. I might argue (and I have) that Jones may have achieved greater financial and on-the-field success by curbing some of that arrogance and pride. 

In all the words that have been published, and spoken and all the research that’s been done on LEADERSHIP, nobody has yet to list resentment as an effective trait. For good reason. It leads to jealousy, bitterness and often hatred. Much of the time the focal point of it is PEOPLE. And for top leaders, most often people very important to the operation.

Conflict and debate can be good things fostering creative solution. Innovation is a by-product of positive, vigorous debate. But resentment fosters strife. It breeds contempt. Those are not forces for good. Much less greatness. 

You can do two things to help yourself and your organization when it comes to managing your own resentment of others. Don’t resent failure. Instead, be determined to serve in ways to turn it around to success IF YOU CAN. It’s not always possible. Sometimes people just don’t fit. Or perform as well as we need them to. Your job is to provide them the best opportunity to perform at their highest levels. Hire well. Fire only after you’ve exhausted doing your part. 

Don’t resent success. Celebrate it. Understand you are the chief recipient of it. Any and all success of the people inside your organization is your success. Nurture more of it. From everybody and anybody. Make success the habit of everybody in the company. Take pride in knowing the part you played, but take bigger pride in knowing these people did it as part of your team.

When you feel tempted to practice resentment toward somebody else, particularly somebody with whom you work, ask yourself, “Why am I feeling this way toward them?” It’s going to boil down to you resenting their failure or their success. Handle it accordingly, but appropriately. Lead people. Manage the work.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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If you’re new to the podcast, welcome. For businesses, I focus on helping entrepreneurs hit the trifecta of business building: 1) getting new customers, 2) serving existing customers better and 3) not going crazy in the process. Today’s show is about that third leg of the trifecta. 

In the last 48 hours or so Ohio State head football coach has encountered some major trouble regarding a longtime assistant coach on his staff who it seems habitually abused his wife. Ohio State has put the head coach, Urban Meyer, on paid leave while they investigate his role in hiring and keeping a known abuser. Just another case of seemingly low integrity behavior. 

Compromising morals, ethics and even legality can tempt any of us. Maybe high achievers more than most. The pressure to stay at the top is intense. I’m sure coach Meyer, who delivered one national championship to Ohio State was annually feeling the pressure to repeat the performance. I’m not excusing it, but I’m not naive enough to act like it can’t happen to you, or me. We can all fall prey to foolishness because these temptations can cause our compass to spin out of control. We lose our bearings when we surrender to poor behavior. Low integrity activities take a heavy toll. Coach Meyer may not survive this ordeal. 

From sexual misconduct to cooking the books, from illegal hiring practices to paying people in cash off the books…there are many paths to low integrity practices. Greed and ego provide much of the fuel. The proof is found in the powerful people who have suffered great falls, likely because they felt their power would prevent them from ever suffering for their foolishness. 

I could approach the topic from a conviction or faith perspective, but let’s just approach it from a practical, business viewpoint. Yes, I’m going to make a few simple assumptions. For starters, I assume you’re uninterested in breaking the law. Secondly, I assume you don’t find pleasure in living on the edge, wondering if the IRS or FBI or some other governmental agency is going to come knocking. 

Doing the right thing is always right. I’ll assume you agree with that, or you’re at least open to it. I hope so. For instance, a man who will cheat on his wife will certainly cheat me if I’m doing business with him. Yet so many people live as though they think a person is a “good” person, even when that person (in this case the cheating husband) does something “bad.” I’m not talking about perfect people because none of us are. But I am talking about people committed to good, decent, ethical and moral behavior. And I choose to think most of us prefer to live that way, even if we sometimes slip up. 

Rather than focus on the pain that our poor behavior might cause, let’s flip it around and focus on the wonderful benefits of behaving with the highest integrity. 

Weight loss advocates have long used a moniker that resonates with folks trying to drop some weight. “Nothing tastes as good as thin feels.” There’s no debating that many (if not most) things that are bad for weight control (or loss) taste pretty terrific. But the saying emphasizes the longer term over the short-term. Go eat a bucket of your favorite ice cream and it’s pretty stinking wonderful. It just doesn’t last very long. But the 4,500 calories you consumed will remain with you long after your taste buds have been satisfied. So it is with low integrity versus high integrity behavior. The price is too high, and just not worth it. 

Urban Meyer can have just about any assistant coach he wants. Why tolerate having a man on your staff who beats his wife? Frienship? Loyalty? Why would a leader compromise his own integrity and put his own career at risk for such poor behavior? I can’t say with certainty, but I’ve got some ideas. 

One, we don’t think we’ll be found out. We can be tempted to make a poor choice because we don’t think it’ll matter. Nobody will find out. Besides, in the case of this football coach, it’s not OUR behavior. Guilt by association? He probably felt that wasn’t likely. 

Two, hiding is easy when you’re a leader. As the person in charge, you’ve got privileges that you take for granted. Credibility, authority, power. And this likely provoked the football coach to think, “I’ll just leave well enough alone. I don’t want to open up a can of worms here.”

Three, we want what we want, when we want it. In a word, it’s selfishness. It’s about us. We want the money, the advantage, the benefit. It can blind us to the realities of negative consequences because we’re so focused on the benefit. Like that bucket of ice cream…it tastes so good. And when our waistline expands, we’ll just buy bigger pants.

Courage of Your Convictions

It’s Friday so we may as well ruminate about some highly valuable long-term things, right? 

You have convictions. How negotiable are they? Will you compromise them? Ever? Think more seriously about them. Is there anything that can influence you to surrender a conviction? A circumstance that might cause you to violate it?

The other day I was watching an episode of The Homicide Hunter. The show was about a guy whose drug addiction provoked criminal behavior, eventually murder. The star of the show, Colorado Springs homicide detective Lt. Joe Kenda said this, about illegal drug use, “So what’s the answer? Don’t start. Don’t start. And you’ll never be faced with the question, ‘How do I stop?'”

The same could be said about compromising our integrity. I’m betting coach Meyer wishes he’d never hired a guy who beat his wife. I’m betting all the big time corporate leaders who have fallen recently due to improper conduct wish they’d never started down whatever path led to their fall. Sexual harassment. Spousal abuse. Employee abuse. Unethical and immoral behavior require a price. A cost. And it’s often much, much higher than we ever thought possible. 

Perhaps the key, besides what Lt. Kenda says, “Don’t start,” is to forget about the short-term gain. If we pass on eating the bucket of ice cream we forego a few minutes of tasting something great. But we also forego adding more inches to our waist, creating something we’ll have to live with much longer than a few minutes. And the pain we’ll have to endure to get rid of those inches is a really high price for momentary pleasure. 

Peace and sanity (used strictly in the everyday slang way we all use it) aren’t worth giving up. Our lives are hard enough facing the ordinary everyday stuff that comes our way. Why make life more difficult? Why add more worry to our lives? Those are just practical truths that we each need to think about more seriously, especially if we’re wrestling with some decision where we’re questioning, “Is this the right thing to do?” 

Hint: If you ask yourself that question, give serious consideration to quickly kicking it to the curb. That way you can avoid the temptation to do something foolish and stupid. It’s why I end each show with 3 admonitions. The second one speaks to the topic at hand.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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