Apprenticeship is said to have begun in the 1300’s, but I don’t buy that. It’s much older than that.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t so structured until then, but didn’t it really begin when a skilled, experienced person decided to teach somebody else – probably a younger person?
If you look at the Bible you read the story of a young prophet, Elisha, taking the mantle from the older prophet, Elijah. We’re talking 9th century BC – well before the 1300’s. Older people passing on the skills, wisdom and experiences, and the responsibility to the next generation.
From artisans to prophets, not every craft was the domain of everybody who wanted to hang out a sign advertising themselves to be something they’d not yet learned. These were the days before this whole “take permission” mess. Nobody would dare take permission without first earning the right to know what they were doing.
Imagine the blacksmith opening up without knowing how to properly shoe a horse, or fix a wagon wheel. Possession of a hammer and anvil doesn’t make a guy a blacksmith, no matter how burly he may be.
Poor guy. He needed to live in 2013. He can take permission without any talent, skill or no how. Forget that we don’t need blacksmiths any more. Minor detail.
Open the gate. Let everybody in. Just anybody.
Wait a minute.
Too late.
It’s happened.
And we’re not better for it. Where there is no barrier of entry, the crap can make it even harder for the competent, capable artisans to rise to the top. That gate is resistance that necessary to maintain the tradition of quality.
There are something like 3 million blog posts written daily. If one post requires 15 minutes of effort – and many of them likely require much longer – that represents 750,000 collective man/woman hours spent writing blog posts. Daily.
1. When in charge, ponder. 2. When in trouble, delegate. 3. When in doubt, mumble.
Winston Churchill once said,
If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.
A 1972 price tag
In 1972 I stumbled onto a terrifically dry, witty book by James Boren, When In Doubt, Mumble. Dry. Witty. Funny. I instantly liked it and it’s among many books I’ve held onto for a long time.
As a lifelong student of communication, Boren’s message resonated with me, especially within a few years after it was released. America had a small scandal called Watergate that resulted in congressional hearings. I admit it was my first foray into congressional hearings and the mumbling that goes in our nation’s capital.
Prior to that I just thought Boren was a funny guy mocking the bureaucrats. I had no idea he either taught the master class in mumbling or he was just so incredibly observant as to capture the true essence of it. It was remarkable communication and I was fascinated at the skill required to talk for so long – many of these hearings went on for months and years – and say absolutely nothing. Most congressional hearings accomplished even less — a feat that defies logic and the laws of science. Our government is truly extraordinary!
This week, as the United States government went on hiatus, I started thinking about Boren’s book again. Naturally, that sparked thoughts about our communication skills and styles. Which, in turn, sparks today’s podcast.
“Eighty percent of success is showing up.”
– Woody Allen
It’s the Pareto principle. Everywhere you look it turns up. The 80/20 rule. Wait a minute, what?
If 80% of success is showing up, does that mean we just need to show up 20% of the time? That’s about right. Seems like lately I’ve had about a 20% chance of getting service – of any kind. Twenty percent chance of getting an email returned. Or a phone call returned. Nah, wait a minute. That’s high.
If 80% of success is showing up, does that mean 20% of the people are succeeding? Maybe that’s right. But wait a minute. That means 80% are failing. Seems high, doesn’t it? Then again, I guess it depends on how you define “success.” Maybe 80% of us are failing. That would explain our level of misery and dissatisfaction.
If 80% of success is showing up, then what makes up the missing 20%? Yeah, that’s what I want to know. I know how to show up. I’m interested in what I’m missing – other than showing up.
And once again, I’m hit in the forehead with professor Sutton’s seminal work in The Knowing-Doing Gap. If people know they have to show up to succeed…well, to be fair, if they know 80% of success is determined merely by showing up, then why don’t they? Show up, that is.
They know it, but they don’t do it. See, it’s that infamous gap that continues to plague us. We’re so busy chasing our tail to learn stuff we don’t know while the stuff we do know goes UNdone. Makes no sense, but it happens all the time.
The sad thing is, you’re not even up to the Sucking Level yet.
Yep, I’ve expressed that to business owners before. And salespeople. And waiters or waitresses. And store clerks.
“Man, you grumpy old man,” you must be thinking. And I am, in some ways, but I’m not hateful. Intolerant of poor service? You bet. I’ve never had a stomach for it – the curse of starting a career in sales when I was 16.
People have too many options. Getting customers is too hard. Helping people make a decision to buy from you is tough work. This business stuff isn’t as easy as falling off a log. Then again, I wouldn’t know, having never fallen off a log. Doesn’t seem pleasant to me. Or easy, for that matter.
Let me tell you two stories of my recent experiences. The stories stem from a quote I read back during the inflationary years of the late 1970’s when I was in the early years of my business career. People were fighting hard for business. In one of the business magazines of the day I remember reading a quote by a lady management consultant who said, “We’d all buy a lot more if we could just get waited on.” It’s been almost 40 years since I first read it. I think of it almost weekly – every time I encounter poor service.
Disclaimer: I admit I may have a superior expectation when it comes to customer service. Not high maintenance kind of stuff. Not ordering off the menu type of stuff. Just solid, “do what you’re supposed to” kind of behavior. It’s shocking how difficult it is for some people to just show up.
• Salespeople, get a cell phone from your company. If they won’t buy you one, use your personal phone. Do not trust the switchboard at the office. Don’t assume the voicemail at the office works. Be available when prospects or customers need you. And if you’re not available when they need you, at least give them the chance to leave a message directly with you, knowing you’ll get it.
• Call people back promptly. Not all calls need a fast response, but some do. Return phone calls based on the promptness required. Without exception!
• Use email. Push it to and from your smart phone. Be available via email because many of your customers prefer it over the phone. Besides, you can reply quickly and set a more precise expectation. “I got your message. I’m in a meeting for the next 2 hours, but I’ll be back in touch by 4pm today.” Two sentences tells me all I need to know as a prospect or customer. Now I can move on with my life ’cause I know you’ve got the ball and I’m going to expect to hear from you before 4pm today.
• Give me the rules of the road and it’s likely I’ll comply with them – and be happy in the process.
Whether it’s on the phone, via email or in person – 80% of success is showing up, but it’s showing up on time, prepared and doing what you’re supposed to. There’s a lot to showing up. Most – that’s right, I said, “MOST” – can’t or won’t do it. I’ve got a lifetime of business experience and I can attest to the fact of my statement. It’s just not that hard to show up your competition because no matter what space or industry you’re in – most of your competition is barely able to answer the phone before the 5th ring. And if they pass that test, most of them won’t be able to call you back within 4 hours. Nobody will call you “right back.”
You don’t have to go back to school. You don’t need any high dollar training or consulting. You need to get your act together and start acting like you want and need the business. You need to let prospects see how much you appreciate their attention. You do that by being there to serve them when they’re ready.
When the tank is empty you can fill up with a higher grade fuel.
I quit. Again. Not my first time. Doubtful my last.
I’d invested 40 years sharpening my business building skills. You don’t survive four decades doing something if you suck at it. Of course, surviving it doesn’t mean you’re great at it either. But I was both a survivor and great (tongue firmly in cheek).
Careers usually don’t have the ideal hockey stick curve. Mine sure didn’t. There were up’s and down, but mostly the overall trajectory was favorable. Accomplishment was the fuel that drove me. Not income. But I was highly compensated because I was a faithful steward to every man who hired me and I was great at running their businesses so they didn’t have to. It was my personal business model that I had fallen into in my early 20’s. It remained my business model until I quit. The first time.
That was back in the spring of 2008 following a tough 3- year period where I ran the business full-time while trying to buy the company so I could convert it into an ESOP (employee stock ownership plan). Running the company and working feverishly to make a deal exhausted me. I chalked it up to sprinting hard for over 3 years. That would run anybody’s tank low.
When I finally made the decision that I was no longer going to chase the buyout, I hunkered down to really focus on my role of leading the company. I thought it would re-energize me. We had done good work for nearly 20 years. The company had a stellar reputation and a unique place in the Dallas retail landscape. There was much to be proud of and I put my head down to push our company’s accomplishments to new levels.
After almost 9 months of intense efforts to “do the work” I realized how miserable I was. I was simply sick of the game. My tank held only fumes. It was a first for me. I’d never experienced it before. Not really. Being tired is one thing. Being empty is quite a different sensation.
Success can foil greater success. It did for me. Success can prevent you from doing something different, something better. Something for which you’re better suited. Because as we all know, you can’t argue with success. Well, you can, but nobody does!
Success caused me to run on empty. By the Spring of 2008 I was 52 and highly compensated. Everyman has his price. You don’t like to think so, but that’s just because you’ve not yet hit yours. Trust me. You’ve got a price. And it may not be money.
I had been running on empty for too long. We’ve all done it. Kept going. And going. And going. Watching the needle slowly (or quickly) descend.
Growing more anxious as we boogie down the highway at night looking for any sign of civilization, life and a gas station.
Hoping to see one soon.
Then the overwhelming relief we feel when we spot one and navigate successfully to the pump before the engine dies.
Other times we run out on purpose because the fuel we have isn’t the fuel we need, or want.
For years I’ve driven little 4-cylinder high performance cars that require 93 octane fuel. There have been times when I could only find 91 octane. It’s just not the same. The sooner I could burn that tank full of 91, the sooner I could refuel with 93. And be back on the high performance I wanted. It involved an intentional, purposeful running the tank down to empty. When your tank is full of an undesired fuel…you’ve got to empty it so you can refill it with what you want.
I hadn’t been happy for a very long time, but I was successful and responsible. And I wasn’t a quitter. Yet.
Serendipity happened. I hit my ceiling price tag. The details are unimportant except to tell you that I faced a non-negotiable standard. Most of us have those. We may not know what they are exactly, but when we’re faced with choices…there are things we simply won’t do. Actions we won’t agree to. Decisions we’ll refuse to make. Without so much as a phone call home, I resigned.
Unlike the gas tank in my car, I wasn’t able to pull up to a pump and just fill it up. I thought I could, but I had never known an empty tank. I was unprepared. Completely.
Empty meant lost. For a long time. Years.
I had devoted my life to management, marketing and all the stuff involved in building businesses. Now, I couldn’t find sufficient energy to do it. I did the usual consulting and helping people. Clients told me I helped them, but it was incredibly unrewarding. I poured myself – as much as possible – into their businesses and their challenges doing everything I could to affect improvement. Mostly, it frustrated the soup out of me.
Fast forward to December, 2012. I’m sensing the tank is empty. Sick and tired of being sick and tired. Frustrated with a client (my largest) who was determined to be miserable (“it’s never going to be any better” was his daily battle cry), I was miserable. So I fired myself. Or him. Again, I quit. I wished him well and began a quiet, unannounced hiatus while I searched for my next move.
By the time May 12, 2013 rolled around I was spent. It had been coming for months, but in the early morning hours I got a text that I had been expecting. It simply said, “He’s gone.” I’ve said and written all about it. You’ll find it here.
I’d love to tell you running on empty was intentional, but it wasn’t. It just happened. In part, because of my own foolishness. In part, because it’s a stage of life I’m going through that has more to do with experience than age, but I’m not sure about that.
It has everything to do with coming to grips with important issues that everybody faces. It has to do with contribution, service, passing it on, helping and making a difference. It has to do with figuring things out.
Finding answers is tough work. Finding good answers is still harder. Finding great answers is harder still.
So it is with habits, too. Whether we’re trying to change something temporarily or permanently, it’s tough to shake things up.
It means avoiding some things, reducing some things, eliminating some things and starting some new things.
It’s been almost 4 months since the funeral. I’m starting to feel normal again. Kinda. Sorta. More days are easier than hard. So that’s progress.
Now what?
It’s time to create art. Again. Something I haven’t done since I was a teenager.
It’s time to give more. Again. Something I have done my entire life.
• Checking Facebook no more than twice daily
• Checking Twitter no more than twice daily
• Checking email no more than three times daily
• Writing something – anything – every single day
• Taking photographs of something – anything – every single day
• Talking with somebody about something emotional – happy, sad, frustrating, thrilling, etc. – every single day
• Reading fiction regularly
• Reading biographies regularly
• Avoiding books, articles, blog posts, podcasts or videos that are all about business and only business
• Listening to more music
• Singing more (why don’t people sing more?)
• Drawing (I used to do this all the time)
• Picking up my guitar and for the first time with purposeful intention to learn 5 cords (G, D, C, A and E)
• Relaunching the podcast over at Leaning Toward Wisdom (I did that, even though I’m not terribly regular at producing content.)
• Interviewing at least 3 people a week for the project – Chasing DFW Cool (I’ve already smoked that goal. I just started this a week ago and I’m already past 5 with more on the schedule.)
• Intently focus more on my paying clients (this will be hard because I’ve always been an “all in” kinda guy with people who hire me to help them, but I’m still trying to up my game)
It’s that next to the last thing that is the professional thing. I say “professional” and not “business” for a reason. I have no idea about making money with it. That’s not the point. I don’t even care about it. I’m going to launch Chasing DFW Cool because I want to. Because I know I can do it…and do it well. Because I know there are tons of people in this area – Dallas/Ft. Worth – doing cool things. Because I want to tell their stories.
It’s the last thing that is the money-maker. That provides the income, and has since I stepped away from running companies. It started out coaching executives, but I’ve narrowed it further into coaching and working only with CEO’s or business owners. There’s enough creativity in that to keep me juiced in that endeavor, but Chasing DFW Cool is the bigger creative outlet.
I’m determined to fill my tank with high octane fuel.
Yes, I have to make a living. Thankfully, it doesn’t take much these days. I have one client who will get all my business focus. That’ll pay the bills. I’m letting everything else go!
In the meantime, I’ll be running on better fuel than I’ve run on in a long, long time. Fuel that gives me more energy, more horsepower and greater thrills. Without any thought about money. Because I can.
I’ve spent 40 years running on the fuel of business building. I found success. I figure I’m smart enough that what I don’t know about this new adventure – I can figure out. Eventually. And I’ll do it as I go.
Cause that’s how I’ve now decided to roll.
“If you wanna run cool, you got to run On heavy, heavy fuel”
Hey, it happens. Drains get clogged and we’re suddenly stuck.
I’m not a professional (or even an amateur) plumber, but I am a professional plunger! For business owners.
Being stuck is a universal problem. It happens to everybody…sometimes.
Business problems are like most problems. They vary. Sometimes we’re really seriously stuck and nothing short of sharp-shooter professional help will get us unstuck. Sometimes it’s less serious and we can grab the nearest can of Drain-O or Liquid Plumber and presto! Problem solved.
Here’s the reality of getting unstuck. We have to shake things up. We have to do something differently. We usually have to insert some force.
When our plumbing is stuck – clogged up – we have to exert force via a plunger or a chemical or a Roto-Rooter man.
Force it.
Not in an unsafe way. Don’t go to your garage and grab the first container that says, “ACID.” I’ve known people who did that with horrible results. They just made the problem worse. Bad move.
Most of us naturally do the same thing with a plumbing clog. We grab a plunger. Or we go buy a can of a chemical drain unclogger! We know that running more water into an already clogged sink won’t likely help it drain. We know we have to remove that clog and we know that’s going to take using some new force.
Your business clog isn’t much different. Drastic action is often needed. That doesn’t mean you get dynamite and blow things up, but it does mean you need some element of force. That’s what today’s show is all about.
Do me a favor? Do you prefer really short show notes (blog posts to accompany a podcast) like these? Or, do you like blog posts that will stand alone without the audio? That sounds crazy, huh? I mean, this is a podcast, but I know some people like to read. I want to make the show notes beneficial to you. I’d love to hear your feedback. Just use the contact form or hit that “send voicemail” button to the right. Thanks!
A terrific collection of some of Godin’s best posts
Small Is The New Big
Five years ago I was winding down a 35 plus year career spent in retailing. Becky McCray, a small town entrepreneur maven, mentioned a terrific blog post. I wasn’t terribly familiar with Becky at the time, much less the fella who wrote the post, Jon Swanson. The post dealt with Jon’s role in helping a retail cooperative during some training exercises. He provided the consumer’s perspective. He ended his post – dated March 14, 2008 – like this…
Big is about consumers. Small is about artists. Big is about changing people to your world. Small is about preparing people to change their world.
I began to trust Becky from then on because she bestowed “best small business blog post ever” on Jon’s post.
I’m not sure why, but the other day I remembered the post. I hadn’t read it in years, but I went back and read it over again. I had to visit Becky’s site to find it, but there it was…as powerful as I had remembered it.
When the post came out I was part of a major merchandising and marketing group that represented billions (BILLIONS) of buying power. Retailing was in my blood and had been since I was 16. So, it resonated with me as I suspect it might anybody involved in independently owned retail. I was leading a small business, but it was a big, small business with revenues under $20 million. The whole “big box vs. small retail” was one very familiar to me.
Today, I’m no longer involved in retailing, but I’m still an advocate of small business devoted to helping small business owners successfully face their challenges.
I began my business career as a teenager selling hi-fi gear in a local stereo shop. Instinctively, I engaged people because I shared their passion for music and the gear we all needed to play our favorite records. It was easy because I wanted them to hear their favorite music like they had never heard it before. I was excited to sit down with a shopper, put their favorite record in a turntable and have them enjoy the record on a system unlike anything they had ever owned before. But mostly, I enjoyed helping them build a system that wouldn’t break their budget, but would still be far superior to anything they had. I was an audiophile, but I was an audiophile salesperson with a purpose – give the customer so much value that they’d have to spend a lot more to get something better!
Shoppers appreciated it, but I suspect they first appreciated how into it I was. That passion lasted for a long time as I spent my entire life involved in the consumer electronics industry. But it wasn’t about retailing, or stereo gear, or the consumer electronics business.
It was and still is, about helping people get something valuable.
When I was a kid I was confident enough in my knowledge of what I was selling to know I could help shoppers better than anybody. It didn’t hurt that I was so competitive either.
Today, with a lifetime of business building experience behind me and a lot of energy and passion still in the tank, I’m even more confident in my abilities to help provide value. For me, small is about being more discriminating in who I help. But as I re-read Jon’s post I was taken back to the days of my youth and I remember specific encounters with shoppers I tried to help who we called “the magazine readers.” These were the people who didn’t really know stereo gear, but they were so fearful of being duped they spent time learning just enough about the specs involved in various gear to be dangerous (i.e. the sound pressure level rating of a loudspeaker which indicated how efficient it might be – translation, how much power it might need to play loudly). Sometimes they could be difficult, if not cantankerous. In the first few months of selling, I tried to sell everybody. I stopped doing that – not because anybody trained me, but because I figured it was a waste of time for all of us. The shopper and me!
There is no point in selling if you can’t provide value.
Well, okay. That’s not entirely true. There’s a point in making money, but that’s not my primary point. I hope it’s not yours.
How are your customers benefited by what you do, or what you provide?
What value do you provide that they can’t get elsewhere?
Why should they choose you over somebody else?
These are all questions that too few business owners wrestle to the mat. It’s a grind. I’ll warn you up front, if you’ve not spent time duking it out with these questions (and many others like them), then you’re not putting in the necessary work to build a sustainable business with predictable success.
Sometimes I encounter a business owner who wants to know a short-cut to the winning the fight. They’re looking for some knockout punch they can use to end the fight early. There is no such punch. This is a grappling match, not a fist fight. It’s down and dirty with lots of twisting on the ground trying to find the right hold. There’s a tremendous amount of straining and sometimes it’s exhausting. And it’s a mental fight where your head is telling you to just tap out and quit. Rest and relaxation are just seconds away if you’ll give up. That voice in your head can grow to a loud scream. And we find that we’ve got two opponents, not one. We’ve got the business challenge and we’ve got ourselves to overcome.
It’s not about you, but it’s all about you — and what you can do for your prospects.
Who are these prospects?
Who are your ideal customers? The people you most want to serve?
Can you define them in very specific terms?
• How old are they?
• Are they men or women?
• Do they reside in a specific geographical location?
• How educated are they?
• What’s their income?
• Are they married? With children?
• What do they do in their spare time?
• What kind of car do they drive?
• What books do they read?
• What TV shows do they watch?
• Are they Mac or Windows’ users?
• and many other questions (as many as you can think of and as many as you can quantify)!!
How can you provide value if you don’t know who you’re serving? How can you make sure you’re providing the best value for them until you first know who they are and what other options are available to them?
Published in 2002, it’s hard to believe it’s 11 years old
Tim Sanders‘ book, Love Is The Killer App, deserves a mention here. It’s a terrific book all about being valuable to everybody around you. It’s an ancient principle of giving to others without an expectation. It’s about being nice for the sake of being nice. As Sanders says, “Nice guys don’t finish last. They rule.”
It’s a more modern take on Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends And Influence People,” a book that holds up remarkably well.
It’s a time tested formula for improving yourself and your business. Help others get what they want and need. In return, they’ll help you get what you want and need. The key is to put their needs above your own.
And that ain’t easy!
But I have good news. Actually, great news! Because putting the needs of others before your own needs is so difficult – most people don’t do it. For many, it just doesn’t seem right. It doesn’t make sense to them. They don’t get it.
For others, they suspect it may be true, but they’re fearful it may not be true. Besides, look at all the evidence of pompous, self-serving Kardashian types who earn millions a year. They’re not providing value, we think. But they are providing value…to somebody. No, not me. I could care less about them, but when TMZ and all the other moronic shows report every Kardashian move, the value is in entertainment. People clamor to watch these people just like millions of people clamor to see the most popular YouTube vlogs of people who don’t provide me with much value. But, I’m not their ideal customer. That doesn’t mean somebody else doesn’t find value because the numbers don’t lie. At the time of this podcast, Kim Kardashian has over 18.3 MILLION Twitter followers. A lot of people are getting value.
Never assume that what’s invaluable to you is invaluable to everybody. This is the genius that is business. You can find your focus and seek likeminded people who will love what you do. Others will hate it. That’s okay. I don’t much think Kim cares about anybody but the millions who love her.
Is it easy to be a Kardashian? Man, I don’t know. We all may envy the money, but I sure don’t envy the lifestyle. Or the fame. Or the celebrity. Or the superficiality. But that’s just me. I’m weird.
What about YOU and YOUR business?
Can you put others ahead of yourself? If you can, you will begin to find yourself rising above the throng. It’s an enormous competitive edge, but you can’t fake it. It requires complete dedication. It demands you take it seriously every single day. Once you set out on that course, you can’t go back. Or you’ll fail. Miserably.
You can’t do the right thing by putting others ahead of yourself only when you know it’s not going to cost you much. You’ve got to do it even if you know you’ll be making some short-term sacrifices. I’m not talking about laying down to every scoundrel who would take advantage of you, but I am talking about doing the right thing even when it hurts. Because it’s the right thing to do. And you know it.
I’m also talking about that Kim Kardashian focus where you ignore the haters and naysayers. You’ve got people to serve. You’ve got people who need what you have. You’ve got customers who will have to settle for something of lesser value if you don’t serve them. Get busy doing the right thing by them so they can change their world.
Is your toilet clogged? Or maybe a sink?
