It's Not Fair

When our daughter was little and she didn't like something I said, the restrictions I imposed or the limits I placed on her, she would do what affectionately became known as the "It's Not Fair! Dance."

It was a site to behold...

This beautiful child with an angelic smile and the cutest pigtails you've ever seen, would turn red, contort that beautiful face, plant one foot firmly on the ground and then ratchet herself around in a circle, stamping one foot on the ground, pumping her fists up and down and screaming at the top of her lungs, "It's Not Fair!"

The more frustrated and angry she became the harder it was to take her admonitions seriously. There were times I actually had to look away rather than break out in what would have been a very inappropriate outburst under the circumstances. And, that sensitivity, the realization that as comical as daughter's behavior might have been it was the result of some very serious frustration, anger and anxiety - all of which were very real to her.

Well, I feel like it's my turn to do the "It's Not Fair! Dance"today. I know it won't accomplish anything. I know it's not going to change what happened. Nor, is it likely any good could come of it. But, realistically, I'll bet the exhaustion that followed such an outburst and the release of all that frustration and anger, anxiety and angst, would have to leave you in better shape than just bottling it all up and keeping it inside.

Besides, it's not like we're at a loss of things likely to torment us... There are days Dante's Inferno would probably seem like a pretty good choice for a vacation spot!

The reason I want to plant my foot and bounce around in a circle screaming "It's Not Fair!" today is the one accident our business has experienced in just about twenty years and what it just did to our Worker's Comp Insurance. One accident in twenty years, with an otherwise spotless record - Admittedly, a mildly serious laceration to one finger, something no technician wants to comtemplate - and, our rates are about to go up 47%.

I know... That isn't very fair, is it? And, that's the rub. The prison is being run by the inmates with more crooks and charlatans in positions of responsibility, authority and power than there are honest, thoughtful, reasonable people to fight the lunacy.

One accident: twenty years: 47% increase in premium... Well, it doesn't seem fair to me and I'm not sure what to do short of 'the Dance.'

I understand the need to protect our employees: all employees, for that matter. It's the right thing to do. I understand there are those who would brutalize the system through abuse. But, I'm not one of them. I just want to fix cars, take care of our customers, take care of the people who have cast their fate with mine and live a relatively simple yet productive life. It's hard to do that in our business when your overhead is about to increase by $700 a month!

It's hard to do that when Comp is based on Payroll and the only reasonable way to control the cost is to reduce the overhead and that means laying people off! Not exactly the way to end a Recession, is it?

So, here I am at sixty-five feeling like a five-year-old: jaw locked, teeth clenched, fingers curled into a ball and the vein in my forehead about to burst, begging to plant that left foot in the ground, ready to start singing and dancing.

I want to be five and my daughter and scream, "It's Not Fair!" But, I know it won't do any good. There is only one of me and one of me isn't enough to tilt against that Windmill. It would take all of us... All of us in every State... To stand up and say, "It's Not Fair! You can't get rich on our backs any more! You can charge a fair premium for the service you provide, but it will have to reflect your record and not just a random mischance of fate. And, you certainly are NOT entitled to make back your loses no matter how large or small in a period of time so small it constitutes and unfair burden on your insureds!"

I don't know about you, but I've had enough!

OK, ok... I know... Calm down! But, you know something... It's hard to remain calm when the insurance companies are making more money than they have ever made in the past and the people they insure are working harder, making less and struggling more than at any time in history.

So, are you ready? Are you ready to stomp and shout and raise a little hell? If you are, all you have to do is plant that left foot, scrunch your face up a little, clench your fists and then slowly, yet methodically, take your right foot, raise it up and then set it down hard just a few inches in front of where it was when you started, and howl at the top of your lungs, "It's Not Fair!"

It may not change anything, but I'll bet you feel better when you're done!

On Purchasing a Profit...

I just finished reading an online article on our industry. It made no sense to me so I read it again. It didn’t help. I was still left with a strangely familiar, yet somehow very uncomfortable feeling I’ve come to expect when I’m confronted with two conflicting realities fighting for the same small piece of real estate in my head.

Psychiatrists, psychologists and social scientists generally refer to this phenomenon as “Cognitive Dissonance.” If you wanted to translate that into English, conflicting ideas used to describe or explain the same concept or event would be a good start.

We could steal a few lines from an old George Carlin routine to help explain Cognitive Dissonance, like: Jumbo Shrimp or Military Intelligence, but I’m not sure we have to. There are plenty of examples in our industry to draw from that are equally as provocative, but far less amusing.

For instance, using Good and Cheap to describe automotive service comes to mind almost immediately. But, it is just as applicable when you try to apply Good and Cheap to Aftermarket parts or any other parts for that matter. 

Fast and Good is another example of Cognitive Dissonance.

What kind of experience have you had with Fast and Good when talking about the same event? They are almost mutually exclusive, aren’t they?

When it comes to Fast, Good and Cheap, it almost seems as if you can have any two you choose… You just can’t have all three!

You can have Fast and Good – we do it every day. But, it won’t be Cheap. You can have Fast and Cheap, but it isn’t likely to be Good. You can even have Fast and Cheap… But, what are the chances of Fast and Cheap turning out to be Good?

What about Fast and Good? Sure… we’ll put two of our best Techs on it: but, Cheap? I don’t think so.

See what I mean…

And, that was the problem with what I’d just read. It suggested that while today’s Do-It-For-Me consumers are still searching for a relationship: for familiarity, trust and convenience, when it comes to their automotive service needs, they are still looking for a “great deal” to take that transaction way beyond it being just a good value.

The statistics were compelling as were the quotes. Consumers want the best of both worlds. “They want to know they are investing in quality service and feel like they got a bargain at the same time.”*

Who doesn’t?

The problem is the reality of the marketplace. The problem is an industry that never got the memo and as a result missed the lecture on Business Management and Best Practices: an industry in which a room full of independent repair shop owners is more likely to produce an Average Net Operating Profit of between -2.5% to +2.5% than not!

It makes perfect sense and yet it makes no sense at all: Cognitive Dissonance, all over again!

More consumers want bigger discounts or better deals – up to 35% of the DIY or DIFM purchases of automotive services or products were purchased at a below retail price according to the article I , so if you want more consumers it just stands to reason that you would have to offer more of whatever it is you are willing or able to offer. The problem is, at 2.5% NOP, anything you give away is too much!

The problem is a repair community that has been subsidizing automotive service for the better part of a hundred years with unrealistically low pricing for both parts and labor because most shop owners haven’t got a clue what it costs them to open their doors every morning. And, because Charlie, across the street, is giving away his family’s future by discounting and unrealistic pricing, you may find yourself drawn into that vortex of high volume, low profit repair orders.

The problem is you can’t purchase a profit… You can’t read an article like this and decide the only way to succeed in a future that demands bigger discounts and lower prices is to get along by going along: to either purchase cheaper, lower quality parts and/or put extraordinary pressure on your suppliers to emasculate their margins on quality parts so you can pass those savings along to an ever more insatiable motoring public.

When those savings are passed along everyone loses! The only one with any chance of winning is the vehicle owner and only then, when he or she is purchasing a quality part at bargain prices.

You can’t purchase a profit any more than you can put Good, Fast and Cheap in the same basket. It just won’t work. So, my best advice is don’t try!

Continue to search for clients that are still interested in quality work, done right the first time, finished on time and at a fair price. Continue to move your business toward Best Practices and the profits that will almost certainly follow. And, if you still want to give some of your hard earned money away, make sure it’s some of the money that’s left over after you’ve become profitable and achieved a 25% NOP, not the money you need to survive when that NOP is just 2.5%. 

*David Portalatin, NPD Group, CSPnet.com,  June 6, 2012

Day One...

I've been doing so much for so long doing too much seems almost like not enough...

If that makes sense to you, you're in too deep and in as much trouble as I generally am, trouble that probably stems from being 'Recognition Dependent' and never really being able to say, No!

If you think I'm kidding ask your analyst... No, really, I'm not going to force you schedule an appointment. Instead, I'll offer my own definition.

In its simplest form, "Recognition Dependent" just means caring too much about being recognized - how you are thought of or esteemed by others - particularly, those whose opinions are meaningful to you. Because you want people to think highly of you, because you want people to like you... You are likely to do whatever they ask you to do, whatever you think they want, need or expect from you.

My experience has taught me most 'good' shop owners are "Recognition Dependent." They care and act accordingly as the result of that caring. They bend over backwards to satisfy their clients, at least in part because they want their clients to 'like' them.

Most of us are "Recognition Dependent" to one degree or another if you think about it and that's OK. The wheels start to come off, however, when you're trying to please too many different people or groups of people, especially when there are conflicting agendas.

I'm no stranger when it comes to being over committed. I've been working at the shop, writing to the Automotive Aftermarket, presenting seminars and delivering speeches for more than twenty five years. That's a long time and a lot of balls in the air. It's a lot of conversations that end with, "Sure, I'll do it!"
If you don't believe me you can ask Lesley, my wife! Our conversations generally either start or end with Lesley asking, "When were you going to tell me you were going out of town? The night before..." And, me responding with, "I'm almost sure we talked about this when it came up a few months ago..."

The biggest problem with being over committed, at least for me is fighting fires: putting out the hottest and most pressing fires before they singe the door and burn everything in your front yard to the ground. You do that a lot when you have lots of fires and lots of deadlines and you're trying to juggle them all without searing your toes. Oddly enough, I've gotten pretty good at managing the chaos and frankly, I must like it because I'm stilling doing it!

The bad news is, I fall apart when the fire is out and I have to figure out where I was and what's left to do on all the other projects that were abandoned when the alarm bells began to ring and I went diving for that shiny brass pole in the center of that big hole in the middle of the floor.

I mean, where do you start?

The answer came from a blog I read yesterday morning, a blog by Chris Brogan, a web marketing expert, auther, speaker and all around good guy...

The blog was titled, What Does Day One Look Like, and it really struck a nerve. Strange how something like that can turn your world upside down...

What I got out of the blog was elegantly simple... when things fall apart and it's time to clean up and get started again, instead of looking at whatever it was you were involved in from the beginning, pick it up from where you left off as if where you left off was the beginning. In other words, as if it was Day One...

Hurt your back and quit going to the gym, but you're feeling better now: Day One...

Got distracted by a wedding and watched the Marketing Plan you were working on grind to a halt, but the wedding is over now and the kids are back from their honeymoon, so there is no reason not to start working on it all over again... No problem: Day One...

Way behind on writing assignments or the presentation looming up in your rear view mirror because you were working on everything else... Fugheddaboudit! Day One...

The coolest part about it is I have great hope it just might work! OK... So, it's early and I've only tried it twice and it is only the first day! But... so far it's two for two. In fact, I'm convinced it's going to work.

Of course, it wouldn't hurt anything if I could just learn to say, No! a little more forcefully and a little more often!

Qi Thieves...

I am not a Roshi or a Tao Master. Nor, am I an Obi-Wan Kenobi “wanna be.” But, it would be hard to deny there isn't some kind of a unifying force at work in the world. 

It’s role may not always be altogether clear, but most of us have sensed its presence or felt it at work. It may not always be referred to as Qi, Ch’i or even, the “Force.” However, what it’s called isn’t nearly as important as what it is, how it works or the impact it can and does have on your everyday existence.

When everything in your world is ‘aligned,’ this energy flows through you as well as all around you. When things are out of alignment - something many of us know an awful lot about - things begin to fall apart rather quickly. In fact, depending upon the severity of the mis-alignment, it can feel like the wheels are just about ready to come off your life.

In the human body, the nexus for this energy is the Tan T’ien, located an inch or two below the navel. For all intent and purpose, it’s the body’s warehouse for Qi. Everyone has a spiritual center. Although, it’s certain not everyone is in touch with theirs. It is equally as certain the majority of people are just plain unaware it exists at all.

The more aware of this energy center you become the more you begin to realize just how important it is to remain centered and an integral part of the world surrounding you: a kind of “at one with.” You do this through situational awareness and a sensitivity to the energy of everything in your world. If you have ever folded your body onto the floor board between the front seat of the vehicle you are working on and the firewall, reached up into the wiring harness and instrument cluster between the brake and accelerator pedals like a surgeon searching for a leaky blood vessel, closed your eyes and then seen something you could not see or done something you knew you could not do, because for that fleeting moment you and the vehicle were one, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

You know with equal certainty that it’s impossible to do that unless you have achieved a minimal level of harmony, both internal and external. You know just as clearly how little it takes to destroy that moment and how quickly you can find yourself struggling with the machine, contending against self-imposed physical and mental constraints. 

Much of this we bring on ourselves - our minds and our lives are filled with a symphony of noise and clutter.  The chaos that surrounds all of us and fills our lives with a constant and unrealistic demand for attention loves nothing more then to draw you in: texts, cell phone calls, blog posts, tweets, four thousand friends clamoring for attention and the never ending requests to “send this to your ten  closest friends” is more than enough to disturb the calm we secretly yearn for and our minds and bodies so desperately need.

But, as frustrating and distracting as the world around us is or can be, it is not the devil I fear most. The devil I fear most is the Qi Thief! He is the insidious bastard who delights in destroying the harmony you seek. He is the monster lulling you into a false sense of peace and security and then sharttering the harmony you yearn to be a part of by crashing and banging through your world like a Dragon in the middle of a Chinese New Year’s parade!

He is the master of the unkind word, the center of his own selfish world. He doesn’t care about anyone or anything else. Because of the demons that torment him, he can never be at peace, and because he will never be at peace, he will do whatever he can to ensure you will never find the peace you seek. 

Where you try to tread lightly, he is likely to stomp. Where you try desperately to find that quiet place within, he works just as hard to marshal a roiling storm of chaos and contention pointing it all straight at you.

If you’ve been in this industry as long as I have, you’ve already associated a name with the portrait I’ve just painted. You know this person... Or, you knew him (Or, her...). They are energy thieves and they rob you of your center. Sadly, the worst part is they aren’t trying to steal the life out of you because they want it for themselves... All they really want is to ensure that if they can’t find peace, you will never have it either. 

There is no rehabilitating a Qi Thief, at least nothing I know of that will work. You can try, but experience has taught me that it is rarely more than a game: a game created by the Qi Thief to frustrate and disappoint you. The only way to win is not to play. The only way to win is to become strong enough to ignore their efforts to disturb you and the world around you or to eliminate them from your world altogether.

The best way to ensure harmony and a constant flow of energy to you and through you is to create an environment that is as peaceful and calm as you can make it: as peaceful and calm as it needs to be. 

The best way to ensure that constant flow of energy is to deny the Qi Thief his prize or to steal it back from him when he isn't paying attention.

More Time...

Everyone is always asking for more time...

"If I only had more time..." "Gee, I wish I had more time..." "There aren't enough hours in the day..."

What in the world is that all about?

I don't want more time... I want more discipline! I want the courage to say No! more often! I want to be able to power on my computer and just start writing without feeling the irresistable pull of facebook or gmail tugging at my sleeve!

No! I don't want more time... Not until I'm sure I'm making the best use of the time I've got now!

Sure, I'd love to be more productive... Who wouldn't? Wouldn't you?

OK, so there are a few individuals we all know who laugh at the rest of us as we scurry around with that permanent look of constipated intensity etched into our collective portrait, people who don't give a damn about productivity: yours or their own. And, while they are laughing at us we're probably racing around feeling sorry for them, bathing in a false sense of moral superiority.

The question is: Who is right and who is wrong...

I don't want more time... I want to be happy with the time I've got! No... That isn't entirely correct. It's not happy with the time I've got that I want: it's "satisfied!" I want to be satisfied that I used the time I've got wisely, and wisely means for something other than work: something more than work!

I want the willpower to ignore Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Yahoo and the four thousand, eight hundred and thirty two other browsers that are clawing for my attention every second of every minute of every day. I want to silence the constant noise!

I don't want to connect with someone half-way around the world on the Internet: not, when I can connect with another human being in the same room!

I don't want to watch someone else exercise either! I want to get up from my desk and move around a little myself!

I don't want to watch someone on television. I don't want to watch the story unfold on the the screen. I don't want someone to tell it for me or to me. I want to experience it for myself. I want to experience it myself!

I don't want more time until I know I can and will make the best use of the time I have and quite frankly, I'm pretty sure I'm not there yet! 

Do you know how I know that? If you don't I'll tell you. I know I'm not there yet because every time I make a list of the "To Do's" I need to get done there is always one thing conspicuously absent from the list and that is the "To Do's" I need to do for me.

I'm not whining... I'm not crying the blues... I'm not bemoaning the fact I've dealt myself out of this equation. And, no, I'm not afraid of being considered selfish. I'd just like to get better at the art of living: living a full and satisfying life that recognizes that it's alright to find yourself penciled in on your own "To Do" list. That being selfish doesn't have anything to do with being on that list: Being selfish has everything to do with being the only thing thing on the list!

No... More time isn't the answer. Everyone's got the same amount of time: the same number of seconds, hours and days they are allotted. More living and more life in the time we all have is the answer!

So, until we have the wisdom to ask better questions and make more intelligent decisions, I think I'll just have to satisfy myself with the time I have... the time we all have. I'll just have to muddle through and make the best of it. 

And, if someone stops me to ask if I have the time, I'll smile and rejoice in the hidden knowledge that there is a lot more to that question than a wristwatch, cell phone or a clock will ever tell you.

Kickin' The Can Down The Road...

I don't know about you, but it seems like we're approaching some kind of a record for the use of lame expressions during a campaign year. The one that annoys me the most this year is, "Kickin' the can down the road..."

It isn't the metaphor itself that bothers me. Politicians have been "Kickin'" that can down the road for generations: long enough for it to finally come back and haunt them. What bothers me about this particular phrase is the way the OEM's - the Original Equipment Manufacturers: the people who build the cars and trucks you purchase and I work on, have started to kick the maintenance can down the road.

In an earlier blog post, I wrote about what the OEM's consider "acceptable" oil consumption rates and the disastrous impact extended service intervals can have when it's "normal" to use a quart of oil every 800 or 900 miles and appropriate to change oil every 10,000. You don't have to be a Math scholar to realize that unless you have a twelve or thirteen quart crankcase capacity you will run out of oil before you run out of miles.

Well, the same thing is happening with other service requirements and recommendations. But, that isn't the "can" I'm talking about. The "can" I'm talking about are the normally scheduled maintenance operations that are no longer even listed in your owner's manual: services that are no less important and yet no longer there. For all intent and purpose, they've disappeared or the interval is so long the service feels unnecessary, even irrelevant.

One manufacturer recommends a transmission service: a fluid exchange, every fifteen years! The average Californian drives more than 12,000 miles a year. That's a fluid exchange every 180,000 miles! How many transmissions are you aware of that will last that long without some kind of maintenance?

It seems attractive until you stop and think about it for a moment, something we ask our clients to do just about every day when someone kicks the can into the office and onto the service counter!

Think about what? How about just one simple, but realistic question: Who gets to pay if "it," whatever "it" is, fails and the vehicle is out of warranty? The answer is just as simple: You! And, the cost can be in the thousands!

You see, these services are being deferred in many cases to create an illusion of false economy. The fewer services required or the longer the interval between service, the less the overall cost of operation. Or, at least that's the way it looks on paper. And, while there is no argument that just about everything on your vehicle is being made better and to last longer, we still haven't managed to create a perpetual motion machine or even a machine that is maintenance free!

That's something you need to think about when you kick that maintenance can down the road... The fact that sooner or later the road will end and that can and lot more just like it will be there just waiting for you to show up!

2:45 A.M.

Standing at the kitchen counter at 2:45 in the morning, staring out the window at the rain with a glass of water in your hand isn't exactly the kind of place you would think a flood of positive emotions about our industry would wash over you. I certainly didn't think it would happen to me, at least not there and not then. 

But, it did and for whatever its worth, there wasn't much I could do about it...

Now, at 2:45 A.M., most people would let those positive and powerful emotions wash right over them and then go back to bed. In fact, I'll bet most people might even have lied to their significant other about why they were up, what they were doing and what they were thinking, but I didn't...

Lesley asked why I was up and I told her. I told her I was thinking about "the industry:" our code for what you and I do, and how it had been very good to me... very good to us. 

Fortunately, she was so tired she just grunted and went back to sleep, but not before she mumbled, "That's good, because you've been very good to the industry."

I wasn't that lucky. I had to analyze why there was an instant replay of a lifetime committed to the motoring public, our customers and this industry running in my head and why I was convinced I'd gotten so much more from the commitment I'd made to my craft all those years ago, than I'd given. After all, it hasn't all been fun and games!

You can come up with some strange explanations for all kinds of "stuff" at 3:00 A.M. while you're watching the numbers on your digital clock change minute by minute. "Stuff" you might never have even considered during the day... Like all the incredible relationships you were privileged to experience: the wonderful people who enriched your life in more ways than you could ever articulate or explain.

 

You think about all you've learned: invaluable life-lessons that may not have fully registered when "class" was in session because you were too deeply involved in them to recognize everything you were absorbing.

If you were me staring out the window at 3:15, you were thinking about how your future father-in-law was so concerned about your ability to support his daughter: your wife of what has now been forty-two years, he felt compelled to warn her not to hang out with you because all you did was "pump gas and work on cars..." And, the fact that "pumping gas" and "fixing cars" has paid for a pretty good life so far: a house, more than a couple of nice cars over the years - cars that always ran and ran well, two great kids, two four-year college degrees, some really incredible vacations, a big chunk of one wedding ten months ago... and, just about a week ago, a bigger chunk of another.

 

You think about the fact that after more than forty-six years, it isn't over yet. And, perhaps, more important, the fact that you're still excited about getting up every morning and going to work every day! 

Maybe, not in two-and-a-half hours… But, most days, anyway!

How many people do you know who can say they feel the same way about what they do... And, mean it?

I guess it's true, you do think about a lot of strange "stuff" in the middle of the night and not all of it is likely to make you smile or feel good about yourself. I was lucky this time: lucky to find myself thinking about why I decided to keep working with my father when I had more than a couple of chances to leave, lucky to understand how and why I was drawn to the same challenges and satisfaction that motivated him and lucky to realize just how privileged I am to be able to share it all with you.

Perhaps, more important, I was lucky enough to fall back to sleep before the sun finally did come up. And, even though I only slept for a couple of hours, I was lucky enough to sleep soundly and to sleep well: lucky enough to realize that when it comes to this industry, it would be safe to say that we just might have been good for each other.