The first question really ought to be, "Where the hell have you been?"
I'd certainly deserve it. After all, it's only been a month... Well, almost a month. I could share a bucket filled with excuses: "I've been busy... Had other deadlines to deal with... Had a business to run... Was busy feeling sorry for myself... Was busy feeling sorry for others!"
I could do that... All of those excuses are equally valid and pretty much useless. Sure, I've been getting up earlier and working later, I've been involved in chaos: some contrived and some visited upon me by others. But, the truth of the matter is simple enough to understand, and that is until tonight I just couldn't find the strength or the inspiration to even visit this part of my life. I've been frustrated, angry and upset and no one needs to listen to that. Or, at least that's the way I've felt up until today.
The worst part of not showing up was and still is the guilt! Even though writing a blog is elective: something you choose to do, it still brings with it a responsibility... a responsibility to communicate, and not just when you feel like it. Anyone can communicate when the mood strikes or they feel compelled to. A blog is the commitment to show up even when you don't feel like it.
In any case, I'm here now and that may just have to do. Why? Because, something miraculous just happened! Someone I haven't heard from in years, someone I have thought of often and fondly, just left a message on an earlier blog post. Someone I went to High School with and I graduated High School almost fifty years ago!
Has that happened to you yet... Someone you've thought about, wondered about, even looked for - maybe, not aggressively or in earnest. But, someone you tried to 'search' here or there without success. Suddenly, I was sitting in the Shakey's Pizza parlor that used to be at Fairfax and San Vicente (Or, was it Olympic?) waiting for all hell to break loose. I was back in High School - not among the most pleasant memories I drag around with me - and hanging out with my buddies: the Breakfast Club, our breakfast club, before there was a movie. And, maybe that's what it takes to get you writing again (Actually, I never stop writing... I just failed to stop by and write something here!).
In any case, I'm back now and ready to get back to it. To what? To the business of life and living. That's what it's all about, isn't it: What has happened in the past... What is happening right now... And, what is likely to occur in the future.
Just another way of saying the present is the past of the future, I guess.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Milestones...
I just sat down to organize my thoughts and share the events of the past few days... here, as a matter of fact. I had a plan: an agenda, and then the phone rang.
I don't know about you, but I get distracted easily - there are times I don't mind. But, when time is at a premium and I have a laundry list of things to do - which is most of the time - and, Lesley is busy getting ready for the holidays with her own laundry list of things to do which often conflicts with mine (any man reading this who is married or in a committed relationship knows whose list will take precedence...), it can be a problem. Nevertheless, I answered the phone. It was our son, Ryan, who is his post-L.A. Marathon Iron Man training 'leave of absence,' at least until tomorrow. He was calling from the South Bay and you could here giggling in the background and the excitement in his voice. He had just asked his young lady to marry him...
Now, the fact that he asked couldn't have been a surprise to anyone who knows them... they've been through hell and back trying to define the nature of their relationship and having made it across the ribbon of hot coals they were forced to cross, it was a given they would be together. The surprise was the "when" and "how" of it.
Ryan is at heart a romantic of the first magnitude... In many ways, I guess I am as well. The difference is that Ryan has style. I'm not sure the same can be said for me. I've always been too busy trying to figure out how to get from here to there without destroying myself in the process: an ongoing theme throughout my life. So, where Ryan planned an incredibly clever and convoluted subterfuge in order to surprise our future daughter-in-law, I asked his mother to spend the rest of her life with me in what was, perhaps, the most lame and awkward manner on record.
After establishing a meaningful relationship over the most intense six weeks of my life, and then recognizing the thought of Lesley in school four hundred and fifty miles north of L.A. and possibly dating someone else was unbearable - I decided to act. For anyone else, that would have involved 'a plan.' Anyone who knows me... or, knew me at that time in my life, would tell you that I was absolutely incapable of formulating anything that even remotely looked like a plan, let alone disciplined enough to carry one out. Instead, I fumbled around trying to explain how I felt - something I'm still not especially good at anyway - until Lesley finally took matters into her own hands and asked me what the hell I was talking about!
I told her I didn't want her dating someone else while she was away - that I couldn't bear the thought of it. The unanswered question hanging in the air was what exactly did that mean. I fumbled around some more until it became obvious to anyone but me, that I was asking Lesley to become involved in what today would be considered a "committed relationship."
I'm not sure that I was sure what that meant as we discussed it, but I know Lesley did. I stuttered and stammered my way through asking Lesley if she wanted to "go steady," which would qualify as "World-Class Lame" by today's standards, and Lesley's only question was... "You mean for the rest of our lives?"
I didn't think about what she was asking... or, what that meant: not for a second. I answered with a "Yeah... I guess so." Or, something equally as awkward, knowing that the thought of being without her had become unthinkable. Her reply was classic, "You mean for the rest of our lives?" And, my response was equally as articulate, "Yeah... I guess so."
It wasn't especially romantic. But, in retrospect, it's pretty apparent that forty years later it was the right answer.
Now, my eldest son (only son, actually...) is engaged. He is as happy as I have ever seen him... less confused than I was when I realized that I had inadvertently asked his mother to marry me... but, happy nonetheless.
It is a milestone... both for Ryan and Stephanie, and for their respective families: and, like so many of life's milestones, it just appears as we stumble through life. There is no map. There is no accompanying set of instructions. There is no plan, at least none that anyone can depend on. Life isn't that simple. Nor, is it predictable. Most of the time, it just 'is.' All that is really important is that you mark these moments appropriately. They are a big part of who we are when they happen. But, perhaps, more important, these milestones are a bigger part of who we can become as life unfolds beyond them.
There was no one in the universe less prepared to become engaged at the end of the summer in 1968 than I was. I'm not sure there was anyone less prepared to get married a year-and-a-half later, either. But, I can also tell you without hesitation there was no one in the universe more determined to ensure that it would work once the commitment was made: that it would be 'good,' and that it would last, than I was.
And, maybe that's what milestones are all about... stopping to mark where you are when they occur, and then making a commitment to the journey that lies ahead: wherever that may take you and despite the obstacles life is likely to place in your way.
There is one other thing, I guess; something I'd like to share with both my kids and their 'significant others' as they get ready for their "next logical steps:" something I've discovered along my journey. Milestones are important for another reason. They are important because they are almost always associated with decisions: big decisions, important decisions, decisions that help define the legacy you leave for those who will follow as you move through life.
When you are young, just starting out and fighting your way through life, legacies are the last thing you are likely to think about. As you get older and receive phone calls like the one Lesley and I just received, legacies are just about all you think about...
I don't know about you, but I get distracted easily - there are times I don't mind. But, when time is at a premium and I have a laundry list of things to do - which is most of the time - and, Lesley is busy getting ready for the holidays with her own laundry list of things to do which often conflicts with mine (any man reading this who is married or in a committed relationship knows whose list will take precedence...), it can be a problem. Nevertheless, I answered the phone. It was our son, Ryan, who is his post-L.A. Marathon Iron Man training 'leave of absence,' at least until tomorrow. He was calling from the South Bay and you could here giggling in the background and the excitement in his voice. He had just asked his young lady to marry him...
Now, the fact that he asked couldn't have been a surprise to anyone who knows them... they've been through hell and back trying to define the nature of their relationship and having made it across the ribbon of hot coals they were forced to cross, it was a given they would be together. The surprise was the "when" and "how" of it.
Ryan is at heart a romantic of the first magnitude... In many ways, I guess I am as well. The difference is that Ryan has style. I'm not sure the same can be said for me. I've always been too busy trying to figure out how to get from here to there without destroying myself in the process: an ongoing theme throughout my life. So, where Ryan planned an incredibly clever and convoluted subterfuge in order to surprise our future daughter-in-law, I asked his mother to spend the rest of her life with me in what was, perhaps, the most lame and awkward manner on record.
After establishing a meaningful relationship over the most intense six weeks of my life, and then recognizing the thought of Lesley in school four hundred and fifty miles north of L.A. and possibly dating someone else was unbearable - I decided to act. For anyone else, that would have involved 'a plan.' Anyone who knows me... or, knew me at that time in my life, would tell you that I was absolutely incapable of formulating anything that even remotely looked like a plan, let alone disciplined enough to carry one out. Instead, I fumbled around trying to explain how I felt - something I'm still not especially good at anyway - until Lesley finally took matters into her own hands and asked me what the hell I was talking about!
I told her I didn't want her dating someone else while she was away - that I couldn't bear the thought of it. The unanswered question hanging in the air was what exactly did that mean. I fumbled around some more until it became obvious to anyone but me, that I was asking Lesley to become involved in what today would be considered a "committed relationship."
I'm not sure that I was sure what that meant as we discussed it, but I know Lesley did. I stuttered and stammered my way through asking Lesley if she wanted to "go steady," which would qualify as "World-Class Lame" by today's standards, and Lesley's only question was... "You mean for the rest of our lives?"
I didn't think about what she was asking... or, what that meant: not for a second. I answered with a "Yeah... I guess so." Or, something equally as awkward, knowing that the thought of being without her had become unthinkable. Her reply was classic, "You mean for the rest of our lives?" And, my response was equally as articulate, "Yeah... I guess so."
It wasn't especially romantic. But, in retrospect, it's pretty apparent that forty years later it was the right answer.
Now, my eldest son (only son, actually...) is engaged. He is as happy as I have ever seen him... less confused than I was when I realized that I had inadvertently asked his mother to marry me... but, happy nonetheless.
It is a milestone... both for Ryan and Stephanie, and for their respective families: and, like so many of life's milestones, it just appears as we stumble through life. There is no map. There is no accompanying set of instructions. There is no plan, at least none that anyone can depend on. Life isn't that simple. Nor, is it predictable. Most of the time, it just 'is.' All that is really important is that you mark these moments appropriately. They are a big part of who we are when they happen. But, perhaps, more important, these milestones are a bigger part of who we can become as life unfolds beyond them.
There was no one in the universe less prepared to become engaged at the end of the summer in 1968 than I was. I'm not sure there was anyone less prepared to get married a year-and-a-half later, either. But, I can also tell you without hesitation there was no one in the universe more determined to ensure that it would work once the commitment was made: that it would be 'good,' and that it would last, than I was.
And, maybe that's what milestones are all about... stopping to mark where you are when they occur, and then making a commitment to the journey that lies ahead: wherever that may take you and despite the obstacles life is likely to place in your way.
There is one other thing, I guess; something I'd like to share with both my kids and their 'significant others' as they get ready for their "next logical steps:" something I've discovered along my journey. Milestones are important for another reason. They are important because they are almost always associated with decisions: big decisions, important decisions, decisions that help define the legacy you leave for those who will follow as you move through life.
When you are young, just starting out and fighting your way through life, legacies are the last thing you are likely to think about. As you get older and receive phone calls like the one Lesley and I just received, legacies are just about all you think about...
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A HEALTHY SERVING OF GOALS AND OBJECTIVES...
As I've just mentioned, I just returned home from an incredible five days in Florida...
No, not on vacation, although vacation is an interesting concept. This was business: and, high-level business at that.
Have you ever tried to condense thirty hours of fast paced, very intense, high level learning in a single conversation? You know, the kind of conversation that follows one of those... "So, how was your meeting?" or, "So, what did you guys talk about?" questions. It's impossible so don't try.
Instead, I've broken it down into what I consider 'bite-size' pieces and started the process Monday morning as soon as parked my car at work. If the truth were to be told, I actually started the process during the meeting trying to determine exactly what I would be bringing home in the first place. Refined it somewhat at the airport and then a bit more Sunday evening after watching our son finish the L.A. Marathon and taking everyone: son, future daughter-in-law, daughter, future son-in-law, future daughter-in-law's best friend and one of Ryan's (son) co-workers and his wife, to lunch and then visiting my Mother on the way home...
Note to self: Celebrations are cool! Create more reasons to celebrate! We need them...
I managed to get through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated during the week I was gone, signed the checks that needed to be signed and mailed the bills that needed to be mailed. I survived yesterday and managed to meet Frank - my Service Manager - for breakfast this morning to de-brief last week's challenges and events. In the process, we established a deeper understanding of where we are headed, what we believe it will take to get there, the role a new set of Goals & Objectives will play in creating the operating model we will need to embrace in order to "Get 'er done!" and how last week's meeting impacted all of the above.
It was a great meeting! I'm not saying that because I think Frank will stumble across this blog... I'm not even sure he's aware of it. I'm saying it because it was a great meeting.
What constitutes a great meeting? Well, the obvious answer would be great results... And, that's always the goal. But, in this case, I would define a 'great meeting' as a meeting in which ideas, information and a deeper level of communication occurred. If that definition is accurate or adequate; this was a great meeting!
It will be followed by another great meeting involving our whole team in which we - both Frank and I - will show them how all these new goals and objectives will impact all of us as a team and each of them as individuals. I'll let you know how that goes after we get everyone together.
The most interesting part of all of this is the incredible energy I brought home with me from Florida, but then again with high winds and fifty degree weather, energy is just about all I could bring home. After all, there was no sun and consequently no chance for a tan!
We've already started one exercise guaranteed to improve both our internal communications and a sense of consistency on the shop floor... I'll talk more about that later.
Right now, I'm too excited to get back to work to write anything else... I'm not sure, but I think it's a result of the healthy serving of goals and objectives Frank and I had for breakfast.
No, not on vacation, although vacation is an interesting concept. This was business: and, high-level business at that.
Have you ever tried to condense thirty hours of fast paced, very intense, high level learning in a single conversation? You know, the kind of conversation that follows one of those... "So, how was your meeting?" or, "So, what did you guys talk about?" questions. It's impossible so don't try.
Instead, I've broken it down into what I consider 'bite-size' pieces and started the process Monday morning as soon as parked my car at work. If the truth were to be told, I actually started the process during the meeting trying to determine exactly what I would be bringing home in the first place. Refined it somewhat at the airport and then a bit more Sunday evening after watching our son finish the L.A. Marathon and taking everyone: son, future daughter-in-law, daughter, future son-in-law, future daughter-in-law's best friend and one of Ryan's (son) co-workers and his wife, to lunch and then visiting my Mother on the way home...
Note to self: Celebrations are cool! Create more reasons to celebrate! We need them...
I managed to get through the mountain of paperwork that had accumulated during the week I was gone, signed the checks that needed to be signed and mailed the bills that needed to be mailed. I survived yesterday and managed to meet Frank - my Service Manager - for breakfast this morning to de-brief last week's challenges and events. In the process, we established a deeper understanding of where we are headed, what we believe it will take to get there, the role a new set of Goals & Objectives will play in creating the operating model we will need to embrace in order to "Get 'er done!" and how last week's meeting impacted all of the above.
It was a great meeting! I'm not saying that because I think Frank will stumble across this blog... I'm not even sure he's aware of it. I'm saying it because it was a great meeting.
What constitutes a great meeting? Well, the obvious answer would be great results... And, that's always the goal. But, in this case, I would define a 'great meeting' as a meeting in which ideas, information and a deeper level of communication occurred. If that definition is accurate or adequate; this was a great meeting!
It will be followed by another great meeting involving our whole team in which we - both Frank and I - will show them how all these new goals and objectives will impact all of us as a team and each of them as individuals. I'll let you know how that goes after we get everyone together.
The most interesting part of all of this is the incredible energy I brought home with me from Florida, but then again with high winds and fifty degree weather, energy is just about all I could bring home. After all, there was no sun and consequently no chance for a tan!
We've already started one exercise guaranteed to improve both our internal communications and a sense of consistency on the shop floor... I'll talk more about that later.
Right now, I'm too excited to get back to work to write anything else... I'm not sure, but I think it's a result of the healthy serving of goals and objectives Frank and I had for breakfast.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
A.D.D....
If I were a kid in school today there is no telling just how medicated I'd be. So medicated, the very thought scares me!
I'm sure they would try their best to muffle the chaos in my head: chaos I just couldn't wait to share with everyone in the classroom either by accident or on purpose. If I had to paint a picture of what's going in there it would have to look a little like those television editing booths they sometimes show on screen. You know, the ones with two dozen screens showing two dozen different shots of just about everything going on around you.
Well, that's pretty much the way it looks and feels to me... With a producer shouting, "Give me Two on my count: three - two - one - Now!"
I've got an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of white paper taped to the filing cabinet across from my desk with the words "STAY FOCUSED" printed in 60-point, bold type; but, it might as well say, "Pink Bunny." Or, better yet, "Squirrel!"
Between the incoming phone calls, the work I have to catch up on by close of business tomorrow, the work coming in, payroll, the constant barrage of problems, challenges, opportunities and solutions... Well, I don't stand a chance. In fact, it's a wonder I get to accomplish anything at all and I'm sure I wouldn't if it wasn't just a matter of sheer force of will.
The most terrifying part of all? I've been doing it so long that crazy seems normal: so long, I actually crave it!
In all fairness, it's a little worse because I was gone for five days and the five days I was gone were spent attending an industry conference that has me so pumped up it must look like I'm vibrating around the shop. It could have something with the "To Do" list I brought with me or the commitment I've made to continuing education and improvement. Either way, I know the people closest to me are going, "Buckle your seat belts: Here we go again!" And, they're right!
As a result of the conference, I've made the commitment to bring a number of the possibilities I was exposed to back to our shop, changes that are almost guaranteed to enhance our ability to serve our clients. In fact, I've already started implementing some of those changes.
The goals are relatively simple: expand, improve and serve.
Now, all we have to do is do it!
As the weeks and months go by I'll be bringing some of those changes here and then opening them up for discussion. If there really is anybody out there, you're more than welcome to join in.
Even if you don't join in, it should still be one hell of a wild ride: one worthy of your consideration, especially if we are successful.
I know that even though I don't know how it will end or what it has to offer, I still can't wait to get started.
I'm sure they would try their best to muffle the chaos in my head: chaos I just couldn't wait to share with everyone in the classroom either by accident or on purpose. If I had to paint a picture of what's going in there it would have to look a little like those television editing booths they sometimes show on screen. You know, the ones with two dozen screens showing two dozen different shots of just about everything going on around you.
Well, that's pretty much the way it looks and feels to me... With a producer shouting, "Give me Two on my count: three - two - one - Now!"
I've got an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of white paper taped to the filing cabinet across from my desk with the words "STAY FOCUSED" printed in 60-point, bold type; but, it might as well say, "Pink Bunny." Or, better yet, "Squirrel!"
Between the incoming phone calls, the work I have to catch up on by close of business tomorrow, the work coming in, payroll, the constant barrage of problems, challenges, opportunities and solutions... Well, I don't stand a chance. In fact, it's a wonder I get to accomplish anything at all and I'm sure I wouldn't if it wasn't just a matter of sheer force of will.
The most terrifying part of all? I've been doing it so long that crazy seems normal: so long, I actually crave it!
In all fairness, it's a little worse because I was gone for five days and the five days I was gone were spent attending an industry conference that has me so pumped up it must look like I'm vibrating around the shop. It could have something with the "To Do" list I brought with me or the commitment I've made to continuing education and improvement. Either way, I know the people closest to me are going, "Buckle your seat belts: Here we go again!" And, they're right!
As a result of the conference, I've made the commitment to bring a number of the possibilities I was exposed to back to our shop, changes that are almost guaranteed to enhance our ability to serve our clients. In fact, I've already started implementing some of those changes.
The goals are relatively simple: expand, improve and serve.
Now, all we have to do is do it!
As the weeks and months go by I'll be bringing some of those changes here and then opening them up for discussion. If there really is anybody out there, you're more than welcome to join in.
Even if you don't join in, it should still be one hell of a wild ride: one worthy of your consideration, especially if we are successful.
I know that even though I don't know how it will end or what it has to offer, I still can't wait to get started.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Home again... Home again... Jiggety, Jigg
"Honey, I'm home..."
Exhausted! But, home... And, let me tell you: There really is no place like home! And,those of you who know me realize just how long it's taken me to be able to say that and mean it.
After all, you don't just wake up one morning and decide your thirty-five year war with Southern California: Los Angeles, in particular; is over. It took two million miles of almost constant travel to finally realize that there is a reason people are still migrating here! Then, suddenly, on a Sunday afternoon flight home, I remember looking down at the L.A. skyline thinking to myself, "It's good to be home!"
Home! I'd never actually thought about Los Angeles as home before. Now, I'm thinking about coming home before I've left the house!
Even when you are having an incredible time, even when it's a conference that you've been looking forward to for a year, even when you're going to be with people you really enjoy, there is still something wonderful about your own shower, your own bed, and your own lumpy pillows that is absolutely magical!
Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the very best shop owners in North America: just about all of whom are within the top 2% of the repair community both here in the United States and in Canada: the top 2%!
You know that old saying about how hard it is to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys: Well, it's just as hard to remain on the ground when you are surrounded by eagles. And, I was!
You can add to that the seven or eight speakers: one better than the other and all of them world class! You can talk about the breakout sessions, roundtables and stimulating conversations that followed. What you're left with is enough information to keep you in sensory overload until SuperConference 2011, and all of it was focused on success and serving our clients which are pretty much one in the same.
More than anything else, there is the undeniable sense of unlimited possibility you experience when you are in the presence of those who are where you strive to be!
Now, comes the hard part... picking and choosing those elements we/I want to integrate into our business: that, and finding a way to integrate it into a comprehensive, coherent business model capable of exceeding everyone's expectations, including mine.
I'll let you know who that's working for us as we move into the Spring and through the Summer. Till then, I think I'll just sit here and think about how great the trip was, what I learned, and how good it is to be home!
Exhausted! But, home... And, let me tell you: There really is no place like home! And,those of you who know me realize just how long it's taken me to be able to say that and mean it.
After all, you don't just wake up one morning and decide your thirty-five year war with Southern California: Los Angeles, in particular; is over. It took two million miles of almost constant travel to finally realize that there is a reason people are still migrating here! Then, suddenly, on a Sunday afternoon flight home, I remember looking down at the L.A. skyline thinking to myself, "It's good to be home!"
Home! I'd never actually thought about Los Angeles as home before. Now, I'm thinking about coming home before I've left the house!
Even when you are having an incredible time, even when it's a conference that you've been looking forward to for a year, even when you're going to be with people you really enjoy, there is still something wonderful about your own shower, your own bed, and your own lumpy pillows that is absolutely magical!
Nevertheless, I had the opportunity to hang out with some of the very best shop owners in North America: just about all of whom are within the top 2% of the repair community both here in the United States and in Canada: the top 2%!
You know that old saying about how hard it is to soar with eagles when you work with turkeys: Well, it's just as hard to remain on the ground when you are surrounded by eagles. And, I was!
You can add to that the seven or eight speakers: one better than the other and all of them world class! You can talk about the breakout sessions, roundtables and stimulating conversations that followed. What you're left with is enough information to keep you in sensory overload until SuperConference 2011, and all of it was focused on success and serving our clients which are pretty much one in the same.
More than anything else, there is the undeniable sense of unlimited possibility you experience when you are in the presence of those who are where you strive to be!
Now, comes the hard part... picking and choosing those elements we/I want to integrate into our business: that, and finding a way to integrate it into a comprehensive, coherent business model capable of exceeding everyone's expectations, including mine.
I'll let you know who that's working for us as we move into the Spring and through the Summer. Till then, I think I'll just sit here and think about how great the trip was, what I learned, and how good it is to be home!
Monday, March 15, 2010
To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards...
I'm sitting at my desk trying to get a handle on my feelings about an impending business trip that will begin this coming Tuesday, March 16.
The problem stems from my participation in the group sponsoring the meeting itself. You see it's almost impossible to articulate or explain what the group is all about: at least, it is for me. You see it’s more than the sum of its parts. That really shouldn’t be a problem at this point as I’ve already been to a number of these conferences. Nevertheless, it still is.
I could say it’s a consulting company. After all, they do consulting. I could say it’s a ‘coaching’ company. I have a coach. I could say a lot of things about the company, but in reality it is perhaps the most important business resource I have ever found or employed.
More than that, it works! But, that hasn’t helped me to describe it to someone else or to get my arms around it on a personal level. The funniest part of it all is what is currently swirling around in my head: so strange, I’m not even sure I get it myself. What I see if I close my eyes is one of the final scenes of “The Wizard of OZ,” the Hollywood film classic.
Now, you’ve got to understand that as a kid growing up in the 50’s, “The Wizard of Oz” was magical: everything about it. Each element was indelibly etched in my memory: the subtlety of going from Black & White to Technicolor, the characters, the Wicked Witch, the Winkies, the Palace Guards, the Wizard himself, Dorothy, the special effects – which really seemed pretty special at the time, all of it.
So, in a way, my being fixated on a specific scene as I sit here and agonize over leaving shouldn’t really be all that much of a surprise, even it if is troublesome to me. Which scene… Well, the last scene in Oz, of course: the scene in which the Wizard announces he is leaving.
This is what it looks and feels like:
LAP DISSOLVE TO:
basket of balloon -- Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion standing on platform with
them -- people of Oz grouped about them -- the Wizard speaks to them as
the CAMERA MOVES forward -- the people cheer --
WIZARD
Good people of Oz, this is positively the
finest exhibition ever to be shown --
(stammers)
-- yes -- well -- be that as it may -- I,
your Wizard par ardua ad alta, am about to
embark upon a hazardous and technically
unexplainable journey into the outer
stratosphere.
MCS -- Wizard and Dorothy in the basket -- the Wizard speaks to the crowd
o.s. -- CAMERA PANS to left to enter the Tin Man and Scarecrow, then PANS
right as the Wizard points to the Lion --
WIZARD
To confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob
with my brother wizards...
Well, I guess if I really had to explain where I was going and what I will be doing to anyone interested enough to ask, that is precisely what I’d have to say: I’m going to confer, converse, and otherwise hob-nob with my brother wizards…
Why? Well, because that’s what Wizards do!
All kidding aside, that’s pretty much it! I’m going to spend the next few days with a fairly large group of very forward thinking, extremely committed, very involved, automotive service professionals absolutely focused on just about one thing and one thing only: improving their businesses so they can deliver the best quality products and services they are capable of in ways almost guaranteed to delight their/our clients.
The agenda is packed with classes, programs, speakers and discussions all designed to make me… make us… even better at what we do, and that is serve you.
Despite the density and richness of the program and the fact that it goes from early in the morning until late at night, I think I’m going to at least try to drop you a line from the meeting. But, for now, I’m going to have to click my heels together three times and say, “There’s no place like Oz! There’s no place like Oz!”
Monday, March 8, 2010
I'll Have a Pittsburgh Cheese Steak & an Iron City Beer...
There’s only one thing I can think of that’s worse than being in your car and on your way to the airport at three-thirty in the morning for a six a.m. flight and that is finding yourself in a hotel shuttle van on your way back to the airport at four o'clock in the morning for a six o’clock flight home some forty-nine hours later.
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The six o’clock flight home isn’t the bad part… It’s the traveling in general, the airports and the traffic (Yes! There IStraffic on the 405… even at three-thirty in the morning!). It’s the rush hour traffic you fly into regardless of where you go, especially if where you go is due East and the two or three hours you add to your trip almost certainly ensures you’ll be stopping more than going in the stop-and-go traffic you are certain to encounter. It’s eating alone and being ‘up’ and ready for an eight-thirty keynote followed by a three-hour seminar four hours later. Did I mention the eating alone? And, it’s changing planes or worse yet terminals in Chicago or Dallas.
And… and… and…
The only thing that can make any of it worthwhile: the leaving your home and your life and your business, are the people you meet and the natural beauty that you find yourself immersed in regardless of where you go so long as you allow that beauty to wash over you. That, and the intrinsic beauty of the people you meet every time you venture out into the world and the impact each of them can have on you… if you let them touch your life… And, especially if they allow you to touch theirs.
I left the shop for an association meeting and trade show in Pittsburgh this past Friday. Truth be told, I didn’t want to.
I know… I know… Then, why did you go?
Well, it wasn’t the meeting or the city or even the fact that it’s still winter there. Or, the fact they've had more snow than anyone should ever have to deal with. There was just too much going on here: too much going on at the shop, and I was having too much fun doing it to want to go anywhere. But, they asked and I accepted.
So, I got up at three o’clock Friday morning and was on the road by three-thirty. I went over my notes for Saturday’s keynote in the air. I went over the slides for the seminar I was presenting later on that afternoon. I thought about the internal struggle I am currently confronting as I try to figure out how to break up my marketing budget: how much for acquisition, how much for retention and how much for loyalty and reward. And, then I started to think about how fortunate I am: how privileged.
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I was asked… I was asked to share my experience, my knowledge, my life, with some of the most incredible people in the world: the folks who do what I do... automotive service professionals, like me.
They wanted to hear what I had to say. They were gracious and generous and attentive: grateful that I’d come so far to be with them. But, the real truth is I’m the one who was really grateful. You see, I’ve yet to go anywhere and speak to any group where I didn’t come home enriched by the experience. So, if it sounds like I was whining about the opportunity to get up that early, I’m not. Not, really… I love what I do and I love the people I do it for. In fact, it’s pretty much what I’ve got written down on the little piece of paper I keep in my wallet:
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To enrich the lives of those I serve, moving them toward the success that is so elusive in our industry, by sharing my personal knowledge and experience.
In the end, Pittsburgh was wonderful because the people were wonderful (The food wasn’t half-bad either! Especially, that Iron City cheese steak with the coleslaw and French fries built in washed down with some Iron City beer!).
So, it’s a pretty good bet you'll be reading about my getting up before dawn to share what I’ve learned and where I’ve been with another group of shop owners long before I’ve had the chance to process how much I’ve learned and how much my life has been enriched by the last group of shop owners I just left.
.jpg)
The six o’clock flight home isn’t the bad part… It’s the traveling in general, the airports and the traffic (Yes! There IStraffic on the 405… even at three-thirty in the morning!). It’s the rush hour traffic you fly into regardless of where you go, especially if where you go is due East and the two or three hours you add to your trip almost certainly ensures you’ll be stopping more than going in the stop-and-go traffic you are certain to encounter. It’s eating alone and being ‘up’ and ready for an eight-thirty keynote followed by a three-hour seminar four hours later. Did I mention the eating alone? And, it’s changing planes or worse yet terminals in Chicago or Dallas.
And… and… and…
The only thing that can make any of it worthwhile: the leaving your home and your life and your business, are the people you meet and the natural beauty that you find yourself immersed in regardless of where you go so long as you allow that beauty to wash over you. That, and the intrinsic beauty of the people you meet every time you venture out into the world and the impact each of them can have on you… if you let them touch your life… And, especially if they allow you to touch theirs.I left the shop for an association meeting and trade show in Pittsburgh this past Friday. Truth be told, I didn’t want to.
I know… I know… Then, why did you go?
Well, it wasn’t the meeting or the city or even the fact that it’s still winter there. Or, the fact they've had more snow than anyone should ever have to deal with. There was just too much going on here: too much going on at the shop, and I was having too much fun doing it to want to go anywhere. But, they asked and I accepted.
So, I got up at three o’clock Friday morning and was on the road by three-thirty. I went over my notes for Saturday’s keynote in the air. I went over the slides for the seminar I was presenting later on that afternoon. I thought about the internal struggle I am currently confronting as I try to figure out how to break up my marketing budget: how much for acquisition, how much for retention and how much for loyalty and reward. And, then I started to think about how fortunate I am: how privileged.
.jpg)
I was asked… I was asked to share my experience, my knowledge, my life, with some of the most incredible people in the world: the folks who do what I do... automotive service professionals, like me.
They wanted to hear what I had to say. They were gracious and generous and attentive: grateful that I’d come so far to be with them. But, the real truth is I’m the one who was really grateful. You see, I’ve yet to go anywhere and speak to any group where I didn’t come home enriched by the experience. So, if it sounds like I was whining about the opportunity to get up that early, I’m not. Not, really… I love what I do and I love the people I do it for. In fact, it’s pretty much what I’ve got written down on the little piece of paper I keep in my wallet:
.jpg)
To enrich the lives of those I serve, moving them toward the success that is so elusive in our industry, by sharing my personal knowledge and experience.
In the end, Pittsburgh was wonderful because the people were wonderful (The food wasn’t half-bad either! Especially, that Iron City cheese steak with the coleslaw and French fries built in washed down with some Iron City beer!).
So, it’s a pretty good bet you'll be reading about my getting up before dawn to share what I’ve learned and where I’ve been with another group of shop owners long before I’ve had the chance to process how much I’ve learned and how much my life has been enriched by the last group of shop owners I just left.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Car Tunes...
The last few weeks have been tough...
The shop has been busy. We had my wife's aunt staying with us. I finally managed to overcome my own personal nemesis and Achilles Tendon since childhood, Bronchitis - again. And, I haven't been able to work out - in the pool or otherwise, since the last time I wrote about it here.
All in all, this is not the optimum scenario for me or anyone else, for that matter.
I think that's why no one seemed to understand why I would wake up early... really, early... this past Sunday morning to drive the seventy-plus miles to Santa Barbara for a shop management seminar when that's the same kind of thing I've been presenting for more than twenty-five years.
I don't blame them! At first, I couldn't understand it myself. Nevertheless, I was driven - figuratively speaking, of course - to do exactly that!
So, after a quick stop at Java Johnny's - purveyor of the world's most exquisite (and, powerful) coffee - for a "special" and a large coffee with a double-shot... Hey! It's a long drive and the Corvette isn't the only thing that requires "High Octane" fuel! - Bob Seger, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews and John Mayer found ourselves on the "Old Road" to Highway 126, and then the 101 Freeway to the Fess Parker Inn to listen to my friend, Ken Brookings, hold forth.
It would be hard to describe just how beautiful it was taking the "Old Road" to Ventura and then heading North on the 101. So, I'm not going to try...
I'll show you instead. The picture quality isn't what I'd hoped it might be. But, then again, trying to achieve great picture quality while rocketing along at seventy-four or seventy-six mile per hour may not be a realistic goal. Especially, when you're the only one in the vehicle! And, I wasn't able to catch the waves crashing over the rocks on to the southbound lanes like I wanted to... So, you'll just have to take my word for it. But, it was magnificent, nevertheless!
Regardless, I made it to the seminar venue with just enough time to watch the para-gliders do their thing (Sorry, too busy watching and enjoying to think about more pictures...) and park myself for more than four hours of great information, stimulating conversation and a spectacular lunch.
It's interesting to see how others react to a morning spent like this: Why did you go? Didn't you have anything else to do? What in the world could possibly be worth that kind of a drive? Or, my personal favorite: I thought you already knew all that stuff!
The fact of the matter is: Information is power! There isn't anything I wanted to do more than I wanted to go and sit and learn that morning! Hanging out with smart people and listening to what they have to say was well worth the drive! And, yes: I do know all that stuff already! But, as you learn and grow, everything you read or hear or experience impacts you in new and different ways and on formerly unexplored levels based on all the new information you processed. Consequently, the morning was glorious!
Almost as glorious as the ride home listening to the car's tunes and thinking about all the great stuff I just learned for the first time all over again!
The shop has been busy. We had my wife's aunt staying with us. I finally managed to overcome my own personal nemesis and Achilles Tendon since childhood, Bronchitis - again. And, I haven't been able to work out - in the pool or otherwise, since the last time I wrote about it here.
All in all, this is not the optimum scenario for me or anyone else, for that matter.
I think that's why no one seemed to understand why I would wake up early... really, early... this past Sunday morning to drive the seventy-plus miles to Santa Barbara for a shop management seminar when that's the same kind of thing I've been presenting for more than twenty-five years.
I don't blame them! At first, I couldn't understand it myself. Nevertheless, I was driven - figuratively speaking, of course - to do exactly that!
So, after a quick stop at Java Johnny's - purveyor of the world's most exquisite (and, powerful) coffee - for a "special" and a large coffee with a double-shot... Hey! It's a long drive and the Corvette isn't the only thing that requires "High Octane" fuel! - Bob Seger, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews and John Mayer found ourselves on the "Old Road" to Highway 126, and then the 101 Freeway to the Fess Parker Inn to listen to my friend, Ken Brookings, hold forth.
It would be hard to describe just how beautiful it was taking the "Old Road" to Ventura and then heading North on the 101. So, I'm not going to try...
I'll show you instead. The picture quality isn't what I'd hoped it might be. But, then again, trying to achieve great picture quality while rocketing along at seventy-four or seventy-six mile per hour may not be a realistic goal. Especially, when you're the only one in the vehicle! And, I wasn't able to catch the waves crashing over the rocks on to the southbound lanes like I wanted to... So, you'll just have to take my word for it. But, it was magnificent, nevertheless!
Regardless, I made it to the seminar venue with just enough time to watch the para-gliders do their thing (Sorry, too busy watching and enjoying to think about more pictures...) and park myself for more than four hours of great information, stimulating conversation and a spectacular lunch.
It's interesting to see how others react to a morning spent like this: Why did you go? Didn't you have anything else to do? What in the world could possibly be worth that kind of a drive? Or, my personal favorite: I thought you already knew all that stuff!
The fact of the matter is: Information is power! There isn't anything I wanted to do more than I wanted to go and sit and learn that morning! Hanging out with smart people and listening to what they have to say was well worth the drive! And, yes: I do know all that stuff already! But, as you learn and grow, everything you read or hear or experience impacts you in new and different ways and on formerly unexplored levels based on all the new information you processed. Consequently, the morning was glorious!
Almost as glorious as the ride home listening to the car's tunes and thinking about all the great stuff I just learned for the first time all over again!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE…
I was sitting at my desk in my office at the shop a couple of hours ago starring at the little red knobs on the file cabinet drawers. That was just about all I was capable of at that particular moment.
Trying to figure out where the time had gone seemed pointless: it was gone. And, that is saying a lot since I started working on today more than an hour earlier than usual, and usual is lot earlier than most folks start their days.
I went to bed early enough, and slept well for the few hours I slept… But, I found myself stretching to get a decent view of the clock on my wife’s night table just so I could figure out how much rest I could still get in if – and, that turned out to be a mighty big ‘if’ – I could just fall back to sleep. The problem was I couldn’t.
In reality, the problem really wasn’t falling back to sleep: the problem was the million and one things – the million and one, really bizarre and odd things, that play across the screen stretched across the inside of your eyelids when your eyes are closed and you are trying to fool yourself into believing you really can fall back to sleep!
I don’t know about you, but I think about the strangest stuff imaginable! And, there is no rhyme or reason to it; is there?
I go from thinking about what I want to do with the outside of the building at work, to designing a new customer satisfaction survey mirror hanger; from the skill sets I will need to look for in our next new-hire, to getting ready for the speaking engagement I have in Pittsburgh at the end of next week; from what to do about the ‘bump steer’ I’m suddenly experiencing in my car, to the book I just finished…
There is this raging river of thoughts and ideas running through my head leading to an Angel’s Falls drop: but, instead of forming some kind of an idea ‘pool’ at the bottom and then gently flowing off, these thoughts and ideas start bouncing around like a thousand SuperBalls dropped from the roof of the Empire State Building.
They bounce high… They bounce hard… They bounce in just about every conceivable direction! And, some of them are pretty damned scary!
The only thing that saved me this morning was that book I just finished. It helped me understand where, at least, some of this internal dialogue was coming from and the sinister nature of its intent.
The book was Linchpin, by Seth Godin. And, if you haven’t read it, you need to!
No, I don’t care what your interests are – this is a critically important book, regardless.
It’s about human nature and the nature of being human, as much as anything else. And, aside from the fact that it is beautifully written, it helped me understand and confront a demon I’ve been battling for most of my life – that little voice inside your head narrating the images moving across that screen inside your head I was just talking about.
Its formal name is Amygdala, but Godin refers to it simply as the “Lizard Brain.” The amygdale is our ‘first’ brain: our prehistoric, pre-evolutionary brain. Its concerns are more basic than basic: food, sex, fight and flight. It’s the self-talk that isn’t just satisfied to scream out for you to be careful – it is the voice inside your head that will not allow you to take any risk at all!
Before reading Linchpin I didn’t know what the voice was, nor did I understand what mischief it is always up to. After, Linchpin: I understand enough about what it is and what it’s up to, to challenge it!
I’m sure I’ll be writing about both this book, and another Godin book, Tribes, over the next few weeks. After all, they are all I can think about when I’m not thinking about all this other weird stuff!
In the meantime, I think I’ll lie down, close my eyes and try not to think about anything, for at least for a little while!
Sunday, February 21, 2010
A Difficult Day...
Today was a difficult day... Actually, it wasn't today... as in: Sunday the 21st. Today was a difficult day as in: Thursday, February 17th - that's when I started writing this and the fact that it took four days to get it down on paper might suggest just how difficult it was!
Not for any special reason. Just, because...
It started out that way, and once begun, I guess there was just no way to effectively turn things around. Another day of re-acting, rather than acting.
I'm not a big fan of days that begin this way. They result in far too much philosophical reflection as far as I'm concerned. And, realistically, I would rather be "doing" than "thinking" anyway!
There was no indication I would be sailing with the "Tidy Bowl Man" when I awoke this morning. In fact, I felt pretty good. So good, I decided to dine out for breakfast and a turkey sausage and egg soufflé at Panera sounded absolutely wonderful. Those of you who might be following this blog already know that eating breakfast out was a family ritual for more than thirty-eight years. It was the best way my father could find to keep the family in our family business, and it worked. However, since I'm the only Schneider at Schneider's Automotive these days, dining out has lost a lot of its significance and consequently, its appeal.
Instead of anxiously looking forward to the sense of community breakfast provided first thing each morning, I find myself eating out when being alone and reflecting on the last few days or planning for the next seems somehow necessary or more important than working out or sleeping in.
This morning was one of those "reflective" mornings... At least, it did until I found someone from the original breakfast club sitting down at my booth.
Please don’t misunderstand! I like this person. I really do! I just didn’t want company THIS particular morning and things just naturally seemed to go to hell from there. She can be a bit negative at times: Why am I doing this? I hate it! I want to retire… NOW!
That kind of negativity can be contagious and this morning, I caught it!
After arriving at work there were problems with suppliers, customers, equipment and technicians… just about my whole universe when you think about it. Even one of the dogs was limping when I got in: an open sore on his right front paw which meant an unscheduled trip to the Vet.
There was a time when me at the nexus of all of these things coming together would have been more than enough send me into the bathroom for a serious attempt to drown myself in the toilet, but the way things were going I was pretty sure it would just back up, and…
I think you get the visual.
That being said, I’m not the same person I was a number of years ago when my reaction would have been less than mature, or adult, or even appropriate.
Now, I just try to back up a little and reflect… Reflect on what just happened... Reflect on why it may have happened… Reflect on the role I may have played in causing it to happen… You get the idea.
Instead of internalizing everything, I try to back away at least a little and process it all with an: “Isn’t that fascinating…” Or, two. You would be surprised how much of a difference not taking these kinds of problems personally can really make on your day, especially when they seem to be occurring minute-by-minute and with frightening regularity.
What makes it all worse is being a professional technician by trade. I’ve spent my life ‘fixing’ stuff and problems like these fall into the “This needs fixing NOW!” bucket. The only problem is that not everything in the bucket can be fixed right now… As a matter of fact, not all the broken things you are likely to encounter can be fixed at all; At least, not by you!
You see, if it wasn’t ‘yours’ to break, it isn’t likely you’re going to be able to ‘fix’ it: I mean, really fix it! You may find a work around or two, but “Fixed?” I don’t think so! The people who broke it are going to have to fix it – and, that’s only fair.
And, the minute you begin to realize that a day that started out to be difficult can get a whole lot easier… And, it did!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
0:Dark:Thirty
Old habits really do die hard... Like getting up long before the Sun decides to shake off the night's comforting darkness. Or, getting home long after the Sun has gone to bed itself.
That's been my routine for so long I can't remember a different time. It started on Saturday mornings with my Dad. Up at four o'clock in the morning, dressed and out before four-thirty, fishing on the sand at Jones Beach on Long Island, on the road and at work in Bensonhurst before seven. After we moved to California and found ourselves - me included, this time - back in the automotive service business in a 24-hour service station in Santa Monica, the cycle of short - very short - nights and long days returned. Only, there really aren't any 'set' hours in a 24-hour service station. At least, there weren't when we first opened in 1966.
We would go to work early and leave whenever we were done, regardless of the hour. Add the occasional "missed shift," where someone fails to show up and you find yourself working twenty hours and not just the 'normal' ten, and the boundaries between work and life began to evaporate, and not so slowly.
Years ago, my father determined that the day went more smoothly if we started it with breakfast: sort of like easing into the pool slowly, rather than just throwing yourself headlong into the icy water. Subsequently, breakfast became a ritual - even when no one was talking to each other!
There was a simple and inherent wisdom in that when you think about it. Even when we were at war with each other and not speaking - which didn't happen often, but did happen - someone would ultimately have to say, "Please pass the salt..." And, the fire that fuels most family feuds would ultimately die out.
This 'tradition' of early morning breakfasts continued for the better part of forty years, through countless restaurants and greasy-spoon breakfast emporiums. It transcended family battles, good times and bad, here in Simi and before that, in Santa Monica, and it served our family well.
Now, that I'm the only Schneider still standing at Schneider's Automotive, it is a tradition or habit or whatever it is, still.
I'm up before six, regardless... Regardless, of whether it is Monday morning with a 'solid' day on the books or Saturday when I could actually 'sleep in.' But, there are differences... With the exception of one or two of the regular places we ate for years where a basic breakfast club formed - and, even that's not the same when you find yourself sitting by yourself in a booth that once accommodated four or five - eating alone is different: not the same.
I still get up early... too early, probably. And, I still eat breakfast... albeit, a protein shake or a bowl of oatmeal. But, I find myself dining alone for the most part.
I still leave the house in the dark and most nights won't return until long after the Sun has gone down. But, now, I head straight to work after fixing breakfast and try to get as much paperwork and planning done before the phones start ringing and the people start coming in.
You would be surprised at just how much you can get accomplished - how much more you can get accomplished - without interruption: without distraction!
And, that's what I've been doing for the past hour or so: that is, of course, with the exception of chatting with you.
I've done the deposit. Finished signing the payroll checks. Planned for the rest of the week, more or less. Worked on our marketing plan for the coming year. Thought about the conference call I have scheduled for later on this morning to identify training for the Industry, big "I," conference scheduled for this coming October. Finished up my notes for the presentation I will deliver in Santa Barbara later on this evening. And, still managed to reflect on breakfast with my Mom, Dad and whoever else dropped by.
Not a bad morning when you think about it. Especially, when you consider that it began at 0:Dark:Thirty in the morning...
That's been my routine for so long I can't remember a different time. It started on Saturday mornings with my Dad. Up at four o'clock in the morning, dressed and out before four-thirty, fishing on the sand at Jones Beach on Long Island, on the road and at work in Bensonhurst before seven. After we moved to California and found ourselves - me included, this time - back in the automotive service business in a 24-hour service station in Santa Monica, the cycle of short - very short - nights and long days returned. Only, there really aren't any 'set' hours in a 24-hour service station. At least, there weren't when we first opened in 1966.
We would go to work early and leave whenever we were done, regardless of the hour. Add the occasional "missed shift," where someone fails to show up and you find yourself working twenty hours and not just the 'normal' ten, and the boundaries between work and life began to evaporate, and not so slowly.
Years ago, my father determined that the day went more smoothly if we started it with breakfast: sort of like easing into the pool slowly, rather than just throwing yourself headlong into the icy water. Subsequently, breakfast became a ritual - even when no one was talking to each other!
There was a simple and inherent wisdom in that when you think about it. Even when we were at war with each other and not speaking - which didn't happen often, but did happen - someone would ultimately have to say, "Please pass the salt..." And, the fire that fuels most family feuds would ultimately die out.
This 'tradition' of early morning breakfasts continued for the better part of forty years, through countless restaurants and greasy-spoon breakfast emporiums. It transcended family battles, good times and bad, here in Simi and before that, in Santa Monica, and it served our family well.
Now, that I'm the only Schneider still standing at Schneider's Automotive, it is a tradition or habit or whatever it is, still.
I'm up before six, regardless... Regardless, of whether it is Monday morning with a 'solid' day on the books or Saturday when I could actually 'sleep in.' But, there are differences... With the exception of one or two of the regular places we ate for years where a basic breakfast club formed - and, even that's not the same when you find yourself sitting by yourself in a booth that once accommodated four or five - eating alone is different: not the same.
I still get up early... too early, probably. And, I still eat breakfast... albeit, a protein shake or a bowl of oatmeal. But, I find myself dining alone for the most part.
I still leave the house in the dark and most nights won't return until long after the Sun has gone down. But, now, I head straight to work after fixing breakfast and try to get as much paperwork and planning done before the phones start ringing and the people start coming in.
You would be surprised at just how much you can get accomplished - how much more you can get accomplished - without interruption: without distraction!
And, that's what I've been doing for the past hour or so: that is, of course, with the exception of chatting with you.
I've done the deposit. Finished signing the payroll checks. Planned for the rest of the week, more or less. Worked on our marketing plan for the coming year. Thought about the conference call I have scheduled for later on this morning to identify training for the Industry, big "I," conference scheduled for this coming October. Finished up my notes for the presentation I will deliver in Santa Barbara later on this evening. And, still managed to reflect on breakfast with my Mom, Dad and whoever else dropped by.
Not a bad morning when you think about it. Especially, when you consider that it began at 0:Dark:Thirty in the morning...
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A RELUCTANT TOURIST…
We just returned home from a day out…
We left the house at about ten this morning and pulled into the driveway just after eight: a ten hour day spent wandering up and down the Coast of California
My wife’s aunt flew in from New Jersey
Of course, that was after awakening at 0:Dark:Thirty for breakfast, coffee – Java Johnny’s for some ‘real’ coffee: an espresso double-shot to get the day crank-started simply referred to by all as the “Special – to the shop for some paperwork, and then home again to begin the rest of the day!
The rest of the day started with a trip to the wine country just above Santa Barbara California 154 (we hadn’t, but I couldn’t convince her) – the route that takes you through the Los Padres National Forest and past Lake Cachuma
I tried to suggest – I’m not sure convince would be the right word to use in this particular instance – that my way would be shorter and faster, but she was sure the “my way” option was literally behind us. Consequently, we got to see both the forest and the lake, which wasn’t really such a bad thing considering this was one of those magnificent February California afternoons that sets folks on the East Coast still reeling from the record snow falls to thinking about why they are living there instead of here. Or, at least, it should!
After the heavy rains we’ve had just recently everything was Technicolor perfect. The ride, even going the long way: maybe, especially because we went the long way, was breathtaking.
We stumbled upon a great little restaurant in Los Olivos: Patrick’s Side Street Café, had a great Pinot Noir, then took in the Santa Ynez Valley, made it to Solvang, Buellton and then Santa Barbara Santa Barbara and worked our way through the hills of Montecito back to the freeway, through Ventura , Oxnard , Camarillo
It would probably be safe to say that my wife’s aunt was blown away by the raw beauty of this part of California
The only thing I could think of was that this truly is the Golden State
Well, that’s not altogether true. That wasn’t the only thing I was thinking of. I was thinking of the fact that I really didn’t want to go – “other things to do” and all the other stuff we use to rationalize wrong decisions like that. But, I went anyway and became a reluctant tourist of sorts: and, in the process realized that having people come from someplace else, forcing you to show them the host of wonders we take for granted because we live here and it’s easy – the ‘we’ being just about every one of us regardless of where we live and what those wonders are – is a wonderful thing!
It’s a wonderful thing because there is great beauty everywhere that seems somehow even more delicious when confronted with it, even reluctantly: especially, when you recognize and appreciate the wonder in watching hawks circle over head waiting for their lunch to begin, the stillness of a mountain lake or the sun setting on the Pacific.
Today was one of those days I was really glad my father came home after being trapped in Brooklyn for five days during the Winter of 1962, and very quietly mentioned that we would be in California
I'm Sick and Sick Sucks!
I'm sick!
Not the kind of sick that sends you sprinting into the arms of a psychiatrist, although I know a number of people who would argue that's exactly where I belong.
And, who knows: in the end they could be right! Aside from that, who am I to argue! Especially, when the numbers suggest that one out of every four people is nuts. Think about that for a moment: one out of four! If that really is the case, you need to think about your three best friends. Do they seem normal? Are they OK? If they do, and if they are: chances are you're "the One!"
But, even that's OK. Because, I for one, think 'normal' is more than a little over rated!
I'm talking about 'sick' as in infirmed. You know, head stuffed up, runny nose, chest congestion, head ache, and on and on and on! the kind of sick that makes you look terrible and feel worse, the kind of sick you won't do anything about because you think it's 'just a cold' and going to go away any minute. That's the kind of sick I'm talking about...
When it became apparent the symptoms were getting worse and not better, I began to think it might not be a cold after all: I decided it had to be the flu! But, which one...
Was it the 'normal,' run of the mill kind of influenza that's currently making its rounds? Or, could it be something more exotic? After all, I did fly to Philadelphia and back. I was in an airplane: an aluminum alloy germ factory, for more than ten hours! The temperature change was violent: seventy degrees here, twenty-five there. In fact, I just missed the almost three feet of snow they just experienced!
And, what about that weird guy in seat just behind me... the one hacking up a lung all the way to Los Angeles! He didn't look like he was from either Philadelphia or L.A. In fact, he didn't look or sound like he was from anywhere on this side of the world.
He looked like a carrier, if I ever saw one: the kind of guy who wouldn't miss an opportunity to kiss a pig!
Or, that woman... the one just across from me, the one with the little kid who kept sneezing. Or, the flight attendant with the runny nose.
That was just a week ago, and now I'm the one sneezing: the one coughing, the one with the runny nose.
I let this run its course for last couple of days hoping against hope I would turn the corner and start to feel better. I took my vitamins, downed my supplements, drank my orange juice: all to no avail. So, this afternoon I went to the doctor only to find out that what thought was a cold in the beginning, and the flu in the end: was really bronchitis coupled with a sinus infection complicated by a very, very sore throat!
The doctor told me to go home and get into bed... I told her that she's been reading too much fiction! I can't. I don't have that luxury. And, I'm not sure I would go home and get into bed even if I could. I know there are plenty of things you can do in bed when you're feeling OK. But, what is there to do in bed besides sleep WHEN YOU ARE FEELING LOUSY!
And, that's not the worst of it! Being sick is annoying and downright inconvenient! I want to go to the "Y" and swim. I can't - partially, because I know I'll sink to the bottom of the pool and drown the way I feel right now. And, partially, because I don't want to be the guy responsible for getting half the people in the pool sick: the one responsible for the next pandemic!
I want to get back to my martial arts training. But, I can't, pretty much for the same reasons. I have all kinds of other things to do. But, I can't. For the most part, because I've got nothing left by the time I get home from the shop at night.
So, if you come to the shop tomorrow don't shake my hand. If you do, ask for the Purell. It's waiting for both of us just behind where I sit. I'll understand. In the meantime, I'm going to take the bag full of medication the doc prescribed for me and get into bed because I'm sick and sick sucks, and the only thing I feel like doing is sleep...
Not the kind of sick that sends you sprinting into the arms of a psychiatrist, although I know a number of people who would argue that's exactly where I belong.
And, who knows: in the end they could be right! Aside from that, who am I to argue! Especially, when the numbers suggest that one out of every four people is nuts. Think about that for a moment: one out of four! If that really is the case, you need to think about your three best friends. Do they seem normal? Are they OK? If they do, and if they are: chances are you're "the One!"
But, even that's OK. Because, I for one, think 'normal' is more than a little over rated!
I'm talking about 'sick' as in infirmed. You know, head stuffed up, runny nose, chest congestion, head ache, and on and on and on! the kind of sick that makes you look terrible and feel worse, the kind of sick you won't do anything about because you think it's 'just a cold' and going to go away any minute. That's the kind of sick I'm talking about...
When it became apparent the symptoms were getting worse and not better, I began to think it might not be a cold after all: I decided it had to be the flu! But, which one...
Was it the 'normal,' run of the mill kind of influenza that's currently making its rounds? Or, could it be something more exotic? After all, I did fly to Philadelphia and back. I was in an airplane: an aluminum alloy germ factory, for more than ten hours! The temperature change was violent: seventy degrees here, twenty-five there. In fact, I just missed the almost three feet of snow they just experienced!
And, what about that weird guy in seat just behind me... the one hacking up a lung all the way to Los Angeles! He didn't look like he was from either Philadelphia or L.A. In fact, he didn't look or sound like he was from anywhere on this side of the world.
He looked like a carrier, if I ever saw one: the kind of guy who wouldn't miss an opportunity to kiss a pig!
Or, that woman... the one just across from me, the one with the little kid who kept sneezing. Or, the flight attendant with the runny nose.
That was just a week ago, and now I'm the one sneezing: the one coughing, the one with the runny nose.
I let this run its course for last couple of days hoping against hope I would turn the corner and start to feel better. I took my vitamins, downed my supplements, drank my orange juice: all to no avail. So, this afternoon I went to the doctor only to find out that what thought was a cold in the beginning, and the flu in the end: was really bronchitis coupled with a sinus infection complicated by a very, very sore throat!
The doctor told me to go home and get into bed... I told her that she's been reading too much fiction! I can't. I don't have that luxury. And, I'm not sure I would go home and get into bed even if I could. I know there are plenty of things you can do in bed when you're feeling OK. But, what is there to do in bed besides sleep WHEN YOU ARE FEELING LOUSY!
And, that's not the worst of it! Being sick is annoying and downright inconvenient! I want to go to the "Y" and swim. I can't - partially, because I know I'll sink to the bottom of the pool and drown the way I feel right now. And, partially, because I don't want to be the guy responsible for getting half the people in the pool sick: the one responsible for the next pandemic!
I want to get back to my martial arts training. But, I can't, pretty much for the same reasons. I have all kinds of other things to do. But, I can't. For the most part, because I've got nothing left by the time I get home from the shop at night.
So, if you come to the shop tomorrow don't shake my hand. If you do, ask for the Purell. It's waiting for both of us just behind where I sit. I'll understand. In the meantime, I'm going to take the bag full of medication the doc prescribed for me and get into bed because I'm sick and sick sucks, and the only thing I feel like doing is sleep...
Monday, February 8, 2010
Teach A Man (Or, A Woman...) To Fish....
I wrote this for my other blog and finished it just a few minutes ago. After reading it through a second time I kind of think it belongs here to... So, here it is.
I love to teach...
Well, that's not actually one hundred percent accurate. What I really love is to help people. And, the way I do that, and have done it in the past, is by sharing what I know and what I have learned over the years.
I do it at the service counter with our clients every day. Or, at least I try to.
I do it through the columns I contribute to the magazines I write for and through the books I've written... Or, at least I try to.
I do it in seminar work I've done and the keynotes I've delivered... And, yes, you guessed it: Or, at least I try to.
And, I've done it with just about everyone that's ever worked here. In fact, I don't think there is anyone who has ever worked here for either my father or myself who hasn't learned something: something about themselves, or something about their profession while in our care and custody.
Sharing what you've learned and what you know is powerful. The exchange that takes places changes both the teacher and the student for ever in profound and powerful ways neither is likely to understand. At least, not while it's happening. But, the foundation for those changes is poured when the first gift of knowledge is offered.
It's fascinating, really. One moment your content with everything you know. And, the next you are confronted with something new: something that can and will change you forever.
Why? How?
Because, no matter how hard you try or how much you resist, you really can't isolate yourself from experience or ideas if or when they are properly, or effectively, or dramatically, or passionately, presented. You can disagree. You can try to ignore what you have been exposed to. You can fight to remain static: unmoved. But, even the act of any of those actions (or,non-actions) is a direct result of the new knowledge you have gained.
The more 'new things' you've tried, the more experiences you've had, and the more mistakes you've made: the more you have to offer those around you. When you've been as successful as I have at any or all of the above, you have a lot to offer! And, offer it you must...
That's what we're doing right now at the shop. We're sharing what we - all of us - have learned over the years with two young entry-level people and it's more fun and more rewarding than ought to be legal. What makes it even better is the raw energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace - the curiosity and the questions - the constant attention they require - and the thought and consideration that has to go into every response.
Teaching makes the teacher(s) sharper: better, in almost every way, just for that reason... If you care.
When a new-hire asks you what you're doing or why you're doing it a certain way, you are forced to you to look at everything you do with a critical eye.
Why do we do this? Because, that's the way we've always done it?
Why do we do it this way and not that? Do we recognize the choices available to us, or are we lost in the subtle sameness and comfort of the familiar?
When asked about hiring practices an old friend would simply say: "Hire for attitude. Train for ability. You can train someone to deliver great customer service - But, you can't train them to want to!"
That kind of says it all, doesn't it.
Well, the two people we're working with are filled with attitude. Not the kind of edgy, in-your-face attitude that you see on the street or in the movies: the kind that makes you want to show up early so you don't miss anything! And, that kind of enthusiasm and attitude is contagious. It filled the shop today and had just about everyone smiling. I can't say that it will last. Or, how long everyone will be riding this 'high.' But, I can promise we'll do everything we can to keep it going because it just plain feels like the right thing to do!
It feels great to share that knowledge - and, in our shop that knowledge totals well over a hundred years! And, it feels better to watch the changes that are taking place: the changes I spoke about earlier, transform these kids.
It's the ultimate: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime!"
We're teaching a couple of young kids just starting out how to fish: we're teaching them how to fish smart, how to fish efficiently and how to fish intelligently. And, in the process, we are becoming better fishermen ourselves.
I love to teach...
Well, that's not actually one hundred percent accurate. What I really love is to help people. And, the way I do that, and have done it in the past, is by sharing what I know and what I have learned over the years.
I do it at the service counter with our clients every day. Or, at least I try to.
I do it through the columns I contribute to the magazines I write for and through the books I've written... Or, at least I try to.
I do it in seminar work I've done and the keynotes I've delivered... And, yes, you guessed it: Or, at least I try to.
And, I've done it with just about everyone that's ever worked here. In fact, I don't think there is anyone who has ever worked here for either my father or myself who hasn't learned something: something about themselves, or something about their profession while in our care and custody.
Sharing what you've learned and what you know is powerful. The exchange that takes places changes both the teacher and the student for ever in profound and powerful ways neither is likely to understand. At least, not while it's happening. But, the foundation for those changes is poured when the first gift of knowledge is offered.
It's fascinating, really. One moment your content with everything you know. And, the next you are confronted with something new: something that can and will change you forever.
Why? How?
Because, no matter how hard you try or how much you resist, you really can't isolate yourself from experience or ideas if or when they are properly, or effectively, or dramatically, or passionately, presented. You can disagree. You can try to ignore what you have been exposed to. You can fight to remain static: unmoved. But, even the act of any of those actions (or,non-actions) is a direct result of the new knowledge you have gained.
The more 'new things' you've tried, the more experiences you've had, and the more mistakes you've made: the more you have to offer those around you. When you've been as successful as I have at any or all of the above, you have a lot to offer! And, offer it you must...
That's what we're doing right now at the shop. We're sharing what we - all of us - have learned over the years with two young entry-level people and it's more fun and more rewarding than ought to be legal. What makes it even better is the raw energy and enthusiasm they bring to the workplace - the curiosity and the questions - the constant attention they require - and the thought and consideration that has to go into every response.
Teaching makes the teacher(s) sharper: better, in almost every way, just for that reason... If you care.
When a new-hire asks you what you're doing or why you're doing it a certain way, you are forced to you to look at everything you do with a critical eye.
Why do we do this? Because, that's the way we've always done it?
Why do we do it this way and not that? Do we recognize the choices available to us, or are we lost in the subtle sameness and comfort of the familiar?
When asked about hiring practices an old friend would simply say: "Hire for attitude. Train for ability. You can train someone to deliver great customer service - But, you can't train them to want to!"
That kind of says it all, doesn't it.
Well, the two people we're working with are filled with attitude. Not the kind of edgy, in-your-face attitude that you see on the street or in the movies: the kind that makes you want to show up early so you don't miss anything! And, that kind of enthusiasm and attitude is contagious. It filled the shop today and had just about everyone smiling. I can't say that it will last. Or, how long everyone will be riding this 'high.' But, I can promise we'll do everything we can to keep it going because it just plain feels like the right thing to do!
It feels great to share that knowledge - and, in our shop that knowledge totals well over a hundred years! And, it feels better to watch the changes that are taking place: the changes I spoke about earlier, transform these kids.
It's the ultimate: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime!"
We're teaching a couple of young kids just starting out how to fish: we're teaching them how to fish smart, how to fish efficiently and how to fish intelligently. And, in the process, we are becoming better fishermen ourselves.
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Guilt By Association...
I feel guilty... almost, like I was cheating on a friend. I should have checked in Friday night or, certainly, some time on Saturday: Maybe, even this morning. But, I definitely feel like I should have checked in...
What does that feel like? Well, it kind of feels like 'playing hookie.' (Does anyone still call it that? Has that expression been lost somehow, like so many of the other expressions I grew up with: A victim of "generational context?"). Whatever it is: it feels like you really should be somewhere else, doing something else... that you're not!
Now, the entire weekend has gotten away from me and I feel as if I've been untrue somehow. Trying to rationalize it all, I know I shouldn't feel this way. After all, it's not like I spent the weekend in bed or sprawled out on the couch. I didn't! I swear it!
In fact, I didn't even get to watch the whole Super Bowl: just the first Quarter - which I watched while visiting my Mother; and, then the last two Quarters and the end of the game, at home. I was driving home while the Second Quarter - Perhaps, the best Quarter, if you are a Saints fan - was being played.
To some degree, at least: that's the heart of the problem! I'm always running somewhere to do something: something, it seems, I absolutely must do - and, generally, for someone else and not me!
Do I have to tell you how frustrating that can be? I didn't think so! Especially, when you start off exhausted most Friday nights. That exhaustion is almost always the result of a fifty-five or sixty hour work week: and, that's just the hours spent at work Monday through Friday. It doesn't count all the 'stuff' you have to... Or, at least, I have to do on the weekends in order to stay current. I think that's what makes it so hard. You come home completely "torched" Friday after work and then you find yourself desperately trying to cram five quarts of everything into a one gallon container for the rest of the weekend.
The cold hard truth is; it won't fit... At least, not without making a mess!
So, it was off to the shop Saturday morning for at least a couple of 'quiet' hours: productive hours. Home for some errands... Swimming at the "Y" for me!
Did I mention that I started swimming. I wanted to say: Did I mention that I started swimming again, but the fact of the matter is... what I was doing before wasn't really swimming. It was more like not drowning than it was like swimming! Now, I'm actually trying to teach myself how to move through the water as effectively (and, gracefully) as I can while expending as little energy as possible. That means learning how to breathe as well as the other, more technical elements of swimming like proper kicking, arm movements, body position, et al. And, Saturday was the best time in the water I've had so far!
I didn't get as tired as fast as I have in the past. I was able to keep my heart from exploding. I did more laps with more different strokes - I wonder if that's where the expression came from? And, I wasn't as sore this morning. Consequently, I'll be there again tomorrow morning before the sun gets up!
After the pool, it was off to volunteer at an event where my wife works. And, then, out with some of the other volunteers afterward.
I know there was other stuff... But, to tell you the truth, there was so much of it I can't remember what it was!
Today was more of the same. Only we managed to visit my mother some fifteen or twenty miles away, ran some more errands, got some more work done, watched a little football, and did some more work.
Now, I'm finally checking in again.
Outside of going to the "Y," I can honestly say that nothing I did was for me. At least, not in the sense that it was only for me. In fact, just about everything I did was done for some other person or organization.
I'd like to make the argument that it shouldn't be that way, but I can't. Although, I'm not sure how much rest I really allowed myself, everything I did felt 'right' somehow. Everything I did, albeit, for someone or something else - needed to be done. So, I guess it's a good kind of exhaustion: the kind that helps heal the world... And, that really does make it OK. At least, it does for me.
And, if I am guilty of trying to do too much, it's a kind of guilt by association, I suppose. Guilty of doing too much of the right kind of things, things that really do need to get done... And, guilty of associating with the right kind of people, the kind of people who do the right kinds of things because they are the right things to do.
Now, it's off to bed... and, finally, some rest!
What does that feel like? Well, it kind of feels like 'playing hookie.' (Does anyone still call it that? Has that expression been lost somehow, like so many of the other expressions I grew up with: A victim of "generational context?"). Whatever it is: it feels like you really should be somewhere else, doing something else... that you're not!
Now, the entire weekend has gotten away from me and I feel as if I've been untrue somehow. Trying to rationalize it all, I know I shouldn't feel this way. After all, it's not like I spent the weekend in bed or sprawled out on the couch. I didn't! I swear it!
In fact, I didn't even get to watch the whole Super Bowl: just the first Quarter - which I watched while visiting my Mother; and, then the last two Quarters and the end of the game, at home. I was driving home while the Second Quarter - Perhaps, the best Quarter, if you are a Saints fan - was being played.
To some degree, at least: that's the heart of the problem! I'm always running somewhere to do something: something, it seems, I absolutely must do - and, generally, for someone else and not me!
Do I have to tell you how frustrating that can be? I didn't think so! Especially, when you start off exhausted most Friday nights. That exhaustion is almost always the result of a fifty-five or sixty hour work week: and, that's just the hours spent at work Monday through Friday. It doesn't count all the 'stuff' you have to... Or, at least, I have to do on the weekends in order to stay current. I think that's what makes it so hard. You come home completely "torched" Friday after work and then you find yourself desperately trying to cram five quarts of everything into a one gallon container for the rest of the weekend.
The cold hard truth is; it won't fit... At least, not without making a mess!
So, it was off to the shop Saturday morning for at least a couple of 'quiet' hours: productive hours. Home for some errands... Swimming at the "Y" for me!
Did I mention that I started swimming. I wanted to say: Did I mention that I started swimming again, but the fact of the matter is... what I was doing before wasn't really swimming. It was more like not drowning than it was like swimming! Now, I'm actually trying to teach myself how to move through the water as effectively (and, gracefully) as I can while expending as little energy as possible. That means learning how to breathe as well as the other, more technical elements of swimming like proper kicking, arm movements, body position, et al. And, Saturday was the best time in the water I've had so far!
I didn't get as tired as fast as I have in the past. I was able to keep my heart from exploding. I did more laps with more different strokes - I wonder if that's where the expression came from? And, I wasn't as sore this morning. Consequently, I'll be there again tomorrow morning before the sun gets up!
After the pool, it was off to volunteer at an event where my wife works. And, then, out with some of the other volunteers afterward.
I know there was other stuff... But, to tell you the truth, there was so much of it I can't remember what it was!
Today was more of the same. Only we managed to visit my mother some fifteen or twenty miles away, ran some more errands, got some more work done, watched a little football, and did some more work.
Now, I'm finally checking in again.
Outside of going to the "Y," I can honestly say that nothing I did was for me. At least, not in the sense that it was only for me. In fact, just about everything I did was done for some other person or organization.
I'd like to make the argument that it shouldn't be that way, but I can't. Although, I'm not sure how much rest I really allowed myself, everything I did felt 'right' somehow. Everything I did, albeit, for someone or something else - needed to be done. So, I guess it's a good kind of exhaustion: the kind that helps heal the world... And, that really does make it OK. At least, it does for me.
And, if I am guilty of trying to do too much, it's a kind of guilt by association, I suppose. Guilty of doing too much of the right kind of things, things that really do need to get done... And, guilty of associating with the right kind of people, the kind of people who do the right kinds of things because they are the right things to do.
Now, it's off to bed... and, finally, some rest!
Thursday, February 4, 2010
ARRRRGGGGGHHHH!
I hate to keep whining about traveling, but it’s been a while since I’ve found myself a prisoner of the airlines; my time and my life in the hands of a TSA agent who decided I appear to be more of a menace than the scowling, beady-eyed Mullah with no visible body hair going through the line just ahead of me. Maybe, I’ve lost it… Maybe, the blessed interval in between flying fifty to a hundred thousand miles a year and the more than a year and a half I took off was enough to dull the pain and allow the horrid memories to evaporate. But, it just seemed harder somehow this last trip.
Maybe, it was the early morning flight: one leaving, and this morning’s absurdly early flight home (Yes, I was the one who made the reservations so I really don't have anyone else to blame.). Or, it could have been the different nature of the engagements altogether. Who knows…
Normally, I fly on Fridays to present a six or seven hour seminar on Saturday (during the day), have dinner and then head home early Sunday morning. I know – I spend more time on the road, at the airport and in the air than wherever it is I’m working and for the most part, I was OK with that. It was the compromise I decided I could live with between helping other shop owners avoid the same mistakes I’ve made over all these many years and “sticking close to the knitting” with regard to my own automotive service business. And, for a very long time it proved to be a good model.
This time I flew out early Monday morning to be in the Greater Philadelphia area for an hour-long presentation Tuesday evening; repeated again the following night, a couple of hours down (Or, was it ‘up?’) the Interstate, in another community; followed by a long drive to the airport; and, a ‘first flight’ out this morning.
Normally, I wouldn’t complain. Especially, since both presentations were received very well by capacity crowds of shop owners who were dialed in and right there with me both nights! I was happy… REALLY happy! My host was happy… The shop owners seemed happy… Everyone was happy...
But, right now, I’m sitting here at forty thousand feet, traveling at over five hundred miles an hour, wondering why I did it and whether or not I should even consider doing it again.
It could have been all the “stuff” I left on my desk in the rush to get out Monday morning, like the laptop's charger and the USB tether for my Blackberry that I found myself searching for frantically Tuesday morning. All of which I had to replace almost instantly (Let's hear it for the Best Buy just down the road from the hotel!)!
That was the bad news. The good news is that after purchasing a universal assortment of each accessory I can now charge any… And, I mean any… laptop computer made by any manufacturer in the known universe and connect to and transfer data to or from any phone or PDA made today – If we’re traveling together the next time you’re out and you need either, just let me know!
It could have been finding the only Starbucks I have ever patronized that DIDN’T have WiFi available and then struggling to find a location that did.
It could have been the long drive back to the airport hotel, followed by a mid-night treasure hunt for someplace to purchase fuel Wednesday night instead of frantically searching for a gas station at 0:Dark:Thirty in the morning (translate 0:Dark:Thirty as in before 5:00 A.M.) which somehow led me to the Sports Complex five times no matter where I went or where I tried to go!
After this experience I can tell you one thing for certain: there isn’t a hell of a lot going on at the Sports Complex at mid-night!
It could have been getting pulled out of the security line… again!
Whatever it was, it has gotten harder. It is more difficult. And, it isn’t as ‘pleasant:’ if pleasant is a term you could ever use to describe business travel, as it once was.
Nevertheless, despite all my bitching and moaning, I probably will do it again – maybe, not as much. And, maybe, not as often – but, I will find myself headed to the airport too early or coming home too late, or going back to work at the shop too tired, from a trip very much like this one because I love the teaching/sharing/interacting part of what I do. I love the shop owners I do it for as well. They are a very special group: another ‘endangered species’ on the verge of extinction that has no idea how much trouble they are in or the dangers they are facing.
What I really love and appreciate are the companies that host presentations like these regardless of who the presenters might be or what they might be presenting. They take profit dollars out of their own pocket to ensure their customers get the education and training they need even when those very same customers don’t necessarily understand how important it is or much they need it.
I’ll probably do it again because I’m addicted to the sparkling moment of awareness that occurs every so often: the light that goes on in the eyes of someone sitting three rows in front of you on the right. Or, the guy on the left in the back that is struggling to get every word down on paper because he knows that there is something in there that has the potential to change his life. Or, the shop owner and his thirteen-year-old daughter who is desperately trying to figure out how to get the help he needs before he burns out, implodes or self-destructs.
How can you not go out when you feel you have something to offer?
Despite all the pain and inconvenience, I wouldn’t believe me if I said this was the last time. I know my wife won't.
So, I guess the real question is why should anyone else believe me?
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
On Being Alone Together
How many of you like… I mean, really LIKE traveling on business?
That’s what I thought! It's like asking how many of you like to sleep alone… Or, eat alone… Or, sit in a room filled with strangers… alone.
I know I don’t like it: like, as in relish or look forward to.
The airlines have taken the joy and excitement – Well, maybe not the excitement! – out of flying anywhere. After all, half the time you won’t know whether or not you’re actually going to get where you are going until you arrive at the airport and find out whether or not your flight has been cancelled or how long it's been delayed. Even when everything goes smoothly you can be reasonably certain you’ll be press-fit between two individuals, who like everything else in our society, have been super-sized. Or, you are wedged up against the window. Or, you wind up sitting on the aisle getting your foot, knee, shoulder or elbow bruised and bloodied every time the food cart moves up or down because the aisles are too narrow because the seats are too damned close together. GRRRRRRRRRR!
Add to that the screaming infants, 4th grade field trip classes or being forced to sit next to the ‘goat herder’ and his family, and you have an experience everyone could live very nicely without!
How many of you have ever wondered about the safety announcements. I mean, really: how many people are there in the world who have never fastened a seat belt before… But, after the last few trips, I’m willing to bet there are lots of people who have never flown before. In fact, I’ll bet there are lots of people flying who have never been in the company of civilized human beings before. If they have, they sure act like they haven't!
Now, I am just sitting here in a hotel room just outside Philadelphia
The same thing tomorrow evening: An instant replay in a different community.
I know… I know… Quite whining! If you don’t like it: Don’t do it!
Great advice! But, there is a problem. While I can’t stand traveling for all the reasons identified above, I do love helping other shop owners. And, one of the most effective ways to help them is to be where they are: to be up close and personal. So, every so often I find myself sitting alone in a hotel room waiting: waiting to eat, waiting to be picked up, waiting to present, or just waiting to come home.
The only thing that makes any of it worthwhile is knowing there will be someone there this evening who really needs to hear what I have to say: who really wants to hear what anyone speaking directly to them has to say.
They need to know they are not alone and that’s why I do it, even if it means sitting here alone to get it done...
That Was Then... This Is Now...
I think I'm finally starting to find a way into 2010.
I don't want to seem impatient. After all, it's only January 7th. But, I think I'm starting to find a rhythm: my rhythm. The problem is, I'm not altogether comfortable with exactly how that rhythm feels yet. It's a work/life balance 'thing' I'm just going to have work my way through. The problem is, working my way through it is complicated given the nature of everything I do.
Because of everything I do, I made a concerted effort to shed responsibilities: to simplify my life, both at home and at work. I was successful, although that success did not come without at least
Last year was difficult for me and just about everyone I know. Nevertheless, we all managed to get through it somehow. That actually sounds easier than it was. We have an automotive service business and despite what the pundits suggest: life can't be good for me and the people who work with me if it isn't good for the people we serve
In many ways, it feels like it's going to be an extension of 2009 - And, that's OK. We made it through 2009 and that wasn't
I don't want to seem impatient. After all, it's only January 7th. But, I think I'm starting to find a rhythm: my rhythm. The problem is, I'm not altogether comfortable with exactly how that rhythm feels yet. It's a work/life balance 'thing' I'm just going to have work my way through. The problem is, working my way through it is complicated given the nature of everything I do.
Because of everything I do, I made a concerted effort to shed responsibilities: to simplify my life, both at home and at work. I was successful, although that success did not come without at least
Last year was difficult for me and just about everyone I know. Nevertheless, we all managed to get through it somehow. That actually sounds easier than it was. We have an automotive service business and despite what the pundits suggest: life can't be good for me and the people who work with me if it isn't good for the people we serve
In many ways, it feels like it's going to be an extension of 2009 - And, that's OK. We made it through 2009 and that wasn't
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Setting The Table...
I just returned home from dinner at the end of what seems like a marathon Anniversary Weekend. Yesterday, we celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary with a very small group of our most intimate friends. It was a very special luncheon made even more special by our kids who put the whole thing together.
One of oldest and closest friends taught me that "Friends are the family you get to choose..." and this was a very special "family" occasion.
This evening, we had dinner with our kids and our daughters "young man." In a toast, my wife put it together better than I ever could... Here's what she said... "Yesterday afternoon we had lunch with the friends who have become our family... And, this evening we get to have dinner with our family - who have become friends!" Wow!
But, believe it or not, that isn't what I'm writing about.
I'm writing about this evening's dinner experience which was incredible in every respect. It was made even more special... at least, for me, because I am in the middle of Danny Meyer's, Setting The Table - a book about restaurants and what he likes to call, "gracious hospitality."
If you don't know who Danny Meyer is I'll do my best to help you understand. But, let's just say it would be worth a trip to New York
It's really all about picking the right people: people who want to shine... people who want to create great art in the kitchen and deliver the gift of great service at the table.
We had a Danny Meyer experience in Westlake this evening at Tuscany Manhattan
What else can you say about a dinner at a restaurant like this other than that it was expensive... and, worth every penny! All you can say is that it helped make a special event even more special.
We have a service business that you would think has virtually nothing to do with serving fine food. We service and maintain automobiles and trucks. And, yet, there is a lot to be learned from a Danny Meyer experience regardless of where you experience it. There was a great deal of energy and effort apparent in the training invested in the staff. There was enthusiasm, pride and excitement. There was a definite desire to ensure a powerful and positive experience. And, it was obvious the goal was to have you return as soon as possible, and to have you share a great experience with your friends, family members and colleagues.
All I can say is that it worked! And, that I'll take this experience back to the shop with me and try to help our people understand the importance of understanding, practicing and delivering "gracious hospitality" in every interaction we have with our customers, clients and friends with the same powerful goals in mind...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Life Is What Happens...
Do you know what happens when you've had a difficult week, you're up later than would be considered prudent, you're really tired; and, angry just in general - you hit the wrong combination of keys on the keyboard and the five or six hundred "perfect" words you've just written disappear just as the software decides to "SAVE NOW!"
Do you know what's even worse? How about trying to reconstruct or, better yet, remember; what you've just written! Bet you can't do it... I know I couldn't: not last night, not this morning, not this afternoon.
Now, we're another day deeper into the first month of the second decade of the 21st Century and I still can't remember. Although, I'm sure it had something to do with doing too many things at the same time, being up later than would or should be considered prudent, being really tired... Especially, when there is a full moon to contend with!
Essentially, that's the problem. I start each day with a list of things to do - if you asked my wife, she would tell you that my problems begin with that list, because it is unreasonably ambitious. I go over the list in my head trying to ensure it is, in fact, reasonable: reasonable, as in possible. I write everything down. And, then I head for work with every intention of working my way through the list: every intention of following the plan. But, I never do...
It's not that I don't try. I try very damned hard most of the time; sometimes when I don't really feel like trying. And, there are days I get closer to successfully working my way through that list than others. But, to tell you the truth I'm not sure I've ever actually gotten through a whole one. At least, it's been long enough so I can't remember finishing if I did.
Someone with the brains G-d gave a duck would think about building a shorter list: a list not quite so ambitious. But, I guess I don't qualify. The best part of the whole story is the fact I've actually managed to 'shed' a number of responsibilities and was actually looking forward to living with fewer "To Do's." But, 'stuff' keeps bubbling up through the floor until my socks get wet and I find myself adding more stuff to an already impossible list.
When things begin to fall apart, as they often do I can hear my Grandmother laughing in the background. Her favorite saying, although it loses something in translation, was: "Man plans, and G-d laughs..."
John Lennon said it another way in "Baby Boy:" "Life is what happens when you're making other plans..." I think he should have said, "making ANY plans!"
I'm starting to think it's just plain futile.
Oh, and before you suggest it's just a matter of organization - I'm not sure it is. In fact, I have a row of books on time management - although, I've never understood why they call it that. You can't manage time... It won't cooperate. All you can hope to do is manage yourself - in time. Consequently, it should be called "Personal Management." In any case, I've got a library full of books on the subject filled with systems and suggestions galore. I know how to prioritize. I know how to attack the most difficult tasks first. I get it! The problem is dealing with other people whose priorities, wants, needs and expectations differ from my own. Throw in a service business: a retail service business, and you know that my plans are subject to change at any moment based upon someone else's needs or wants.
When you own and operate an automotive service business someone else's crisis does justify an emergency in your world!
So, I wake up, plan the day, make my lists and try to force the day to comply... at least, a little.
I make my plans and life happens. I make my plans... and, G-d laughs.
Let's see, what was it I had to get done tomorrow morning...
Do you know what's even worse? How about trying to reconstruct or, better yet, remember; what you've just written! Bet you can't do it... I know I couldn't: not last night, not this morning, not this afternoon.
Now, we're another day deeper into the first month of the second decade of the 21st Century and I still can't remember. Although, I'm sure it had something to do with doing too many things at the same time, being up later than would or should be considered prudent, being really tired... Especially, when there is a full moon to contend with!
Essentially, that's the problem. I start each day with a list of things to do - if you asked my wife, she would tell you that my problems begin with that list, because it is unreasonably ambitious. I go over the list in my head trying to ensure it is, in fact, reasonable: reasonable, as in possible. I write everything down. And, then I head for work with every intention of working my way through the list: every intention of following the plan. But, I never do...
It's not that I don't try. I try very damned hard most of the time; sometimes when I don't really feel like trying. And, there are days I get closer to successfully working my way through that list than others. But, to tell you the truth I'm not sure I've ever actually gotten through a whole one. At least, it's been long enough so I can't remember finishing if I did.
Someone with the brains G-d gave a duck would think about building a shorter list: a list not quite so ambitious. But, I guess I don't qualify. The best part of the whole story is the fact I've actually managed to 'shed' a number of responsibilities and was actually looking forward to living with fewer "To Do's." But, 'stuff' keeps bubbling up through the floor until my socks get wet and I find myself adding more stuff to an already impossible list.
When things begin to fall apart, as they often do I can hear my Grandmother laughing in the background. Her favorite saying, although it loses something in translation, was: "Man plans, and G-d laughs..."
John Lennon said it another way in "Baby Boy:" "Life is what happens when you're making other plans..." I think he should have said, "making ANY plans!"
I'm starting to think it's just plain futile.
Oh, and before you suggest it's just a matter of organization - I'm not sure it is. In fact, I have a row of books on time management - although, I've never understood why they call it that. You can't manage time... It won't cooperate. All you can hope to do is manage yourself - in time. Consequently, it should be called "Personal Management." In any case, I've got a library full of books on the subject filled with systems and suggestions galore. I know how to prioritize. I know how to attack the most difficult tasks first. I get it! The problem is dealing with other people whose priorities, wants, needs and expectations differ from my own. Throw in a service business: a retail service business, and you know that my plans are subject to change at any moment based upon someone else's needs or wants.
When you own and operate an automotive service business someone else's crisis does justify an emergency in your world!
So, I wake up, plan the day, make my lists and try to force the day to comply... at least, a little.
I make my plans and life happens. I make my plans... and, G-d laughs.
Let's see, what was it I had to get done tomorrow morning...
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