Change 2013

It’s 2013!  Time to change!  If you didn’t see the video check out my YouTube page, it is time to change.  For the past three years I think we as an economy have felt the better part of pure stagnancy.  We have seen ups and downs.  I for one am tired of it.  This is the year business controls the economy.  I am so sick of listening to excuse after excuse about how we can’t be better than we are.  The economy sucks, the drought killed sales, the competition cut prices.  Done! I’m done with it!  Time to change.  No one controls your fate except you.  But how do you get ahead, how do you get on top.  I got a few ideas…

1.       Take chances….You can’t get anywhere playing it safe.  This is the time, this is the year.  Take the risk.  We have been saving up this energy for years now, let’s release it.  Take the risk.  Make products you haven’t made before, try new processes that may make you more efficient, invest in the new technologies…TRY!  You don’t know what is out there unless you try.  Plain and simple try, try, try.

2.       Believe in your people….Your people have either stood by you through the mud of the bad economy or you have hired new people who believe in a new vision, one of hope.  Most of you have a combination of both.  Now is the time to unite those folks under one common vision.  I believe in you, believe in me.  Make them understand your vision, make them understand your dream!

3.       Support your local economy….Do you know what your neighbor does?  Chances are you don’t.  Ask them.  Challenge your local manufactures to make things that will help you.  This will do three things.  It will inspire them to take chances, keep your costs low, and plug money in your locale.  Support your local economy; chances are they are as passionate about their business as you are in yours.  Help them help you.

4.       Support your organizations…Your organizations are the ones that have been behind you this whole time.  They are the associates who help you build that item, they are the members who gave you that advice, they are the professionals went to bat for you when you wanted change.  Support them.  Without your support they don’t exist, and sadly neither will you. 

5.       Be humble…Things will happen this year.  Good and bad.  I don’t care what you do, where you come from, where you work.  Things will be good and bad this year.  This is the year, though, that we as a nation are on the edge waiting to be pulled back down the sunset trail or pushed off the edge.  Don’t be pushed off the edge.  Stand tall, believe in your path.  Stick to you what you believe and you will succeed. 

6.       Learn…I can’t say this enough.  Learn! Learn! Learn! You have never ever learned enough.  Learn from your mistakes, learn from your organizations, learn from your elders, and learn from your experiences.  Be smart this year.  That is what it’s about.  Learn and react.

The construction season is about to start.  Let’s be smart this year and let’s succeed.  We have the power, we have the knowledge, and most important we have the people.  Everyone from top to bottom is hungry.  Let‘s do this thing!

You Learn Alot From Your Boys

One of my greatest releases from the daily grind is to sit back and watch movies with my sons Brady and Caleb.  I get excited every weekend when it’s too cold out or too rainy out because I know its movie day.  One of Brady’s favorite movies is Ratatouille, the story of a mouse who has acquired a special talent that makes him an effective chef in the kitchen just like his idol, famed chef Gusteau.  One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Remy, the mouse is talking with his father Django.  Remy and Django are arguing over life and death matters and meshing between rodent and human.  In front of a mouse trap store Django says to Remy. “Take a good long look, Remy.  This is what happens when a rat gets a little too uncomfortable around humans.  The world we live in belongs to the enemy, we must live carefully.  We look out for our own kind, Remy.  When all is said and done, we’re all we’ve got.  Remy replies, “No.” “What?” Says Django.  Remy mutters, “No. Dad I don’t believe it.  You’re telling me that the future is – can only be more of this (this being mice killed in traps)?” Django replies, “This is the way things are. You can’t change nature.”  Remy wittingly says, “Change is nature, Dad.  The part we can influence. And it starts when we decide.”  As Remy walks away Django says, “Where are you going?”  With a sparkle in his eye Remy turns and says, “With luck, forward.”  There is such a positive message in this conversation that maybe my sons don’t see, but I do and I hope they do one day.  Change is nature, but it only happens when we decide.  When we get off our asses and say I’m going to be better, I’m going to rebuild this, I’m going to write this and it’s going to be successful.  The motivation in that piece is so powerful, as buffered as it is in a Disney movie it’s still present.  I’ve been beaten down my whole life, told you can’t do that, no it will never work, you can’t do that.  You know what that does to me?  Motivates me, I love showing thet world that I don’t live to the standard, I make the standard.  That’s who I am and I hope my boys live this way too. 

            The last part of this piece where Remy says “With luck, forward” is a tremendous message for everyone.  I can’t stand being around negative backwards thinkers.  It drives me up the damn wall.  Think positive, generate ideas, and above all move forward.  The waters get murky from time to time, but if business was easy everyone would do it.  It’s hard at times, but creative thinking goes along way.  I encourage my people to bring up their thoughts; it is the only way we learn as an industry.  Owners don’t always have the best ideas.  Typically it’s the guys who do the day to day stuff every day.  Its pure ignorance of the owners to deny these people their God given right of change.  Listen, learn, and for Christ sake change.  Get out of the wheels and sprockets of history.  History is important, but it’s also a school subject.  Change isn’t.  We make change by what we do every day.  So do it and stay motivated. 

            So it’s been a blog of ranting and raving, but it’s time to change folks.  We live in a constantly changing world; let’s apply this to the way we think.  Live, learn, and listen.  Sometimes a little listening goes a long way both to the person listening and to the person speaking.