hug-free zone.

I read somewhere once that a "20 second hug can release [insert impressive percentage] of stress."
When my wife gets home and has a difficult day, I practice the 20 second hug thing and it seems to help.
With customers, I'm not given that option, and doubt I would take it if I was.

When talking through problems we've been recently encountering with several third-party shippers, I've felt somewhat hopeless.
The problems relating to shipping tend to be larger-than-life, blown out of proportion, and significantly worse than a lot of the daily challenges that arise at work these days.

"I took off work to receive it and it didn't come."
"They re-scheduled three times with me."
"They wouldn't help me bring it inside."
"They were rude with me on the phone."
"I got someone else's package instead and they won't swap it out."

Each time the customer is thousands of miles away and we find ourselves fighting for a reputation that seems like it's no longer in our hands.
I'm learning that is a complete myth.

People can be understanding that problems can arise. They always, always, always want to several things, regardless of the circumstances.

1.) Have you heard what I've been telling you?
2.) Do you agree with me that I'm reasonable in being upset?
3.) What can you specifically do about it?
4.) Will you communicate with me openly and keep me updated?

Very quickly and sincerely answering those questions are secondary to them knowing if it's our fault or not.
The truth of the matter is, they don't care. They just want to receive their shipment.

Once we've established on our end that we are now on the same side of the table, it becomes a much more smooth and sometimes easier.
My last priority I've taken on as a personal challenge is not to hang up with them until I've gotten them to laugh.
It's sometimes a grossly ambitious undertaking and can result in a fifteen minute conversation. However, in the absence of a physical presence where eye contact and listening posture can be incredibly important, it's proven more than apt at bridging the distance and bringing our humanity back to the forefront of the problem at hand.

accidentally fired m'self.

Starting out, my business partner and I were the textbook definition of what Michael Gerber, author and founder of the “E-Myth” book and organization, calls “technicians.” Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we took on challenge after challenge ourselves.
We were entrepreneurs, dammit.
It was what we did.

Soon however, as the months went by and we continued to grow, things began to change.
And somehow, today, I find myself no longer a technician. When did this happen?

Somewhere down the road between 0 and 18 employees, my position began to change.
I am now no longer needed like I once was.
There was a significant chunk of my ego that took a huge hit when I realized this. The people we hired because they reflected the values of our company silently moved into position and became the values of our company. My job is to now support them in whatever they need to better execute the roles they play in their positions.

As an innovative furniture company, we attracted our managers to our company with the bright shining promise of risk and reward. As business owners the risk (and most of the rewards/failures) were possessed almost entirely by my partner and I. Now that is no longer the case.
One of the challenges we run into is how to build systems that allow risk (and rewards/failures) to be owned by both our managers and us. How are we encouraging growth and creativity while still functioning within the support systems now crucial to sustain our long-standing promises of timeliness and excellent quality furniture?

We can crunch numbers, evaluate and re-evaluate cash flow, create systems for systems and monitor every dollar and where it goes from the time it arrives until the time it goes out again, but in the end we build value into our company when we focus on our leadership team. If we focus on them and build into their skill sets as managers and leaders, we maximize our potential to not only have a healthy workplace, but handle growth together as a team while minimizing the growing pains.

Do I get to build furniture anymore? Not very often. But I get to work with a team of people who on their worst day are better at the jobs I taught them to do than me performing at my best.

I had no idea how exponentially more exciting it is to take triumph in someone else's accomplishments rather than my own, but daily our team reminds me of that counter-intuitive truth.

the long fall down.

In June of 2005, I received a letter from my parent's Alma-mater that I had been accepted into John Brown University. My relief was overwhelming.

My stolen high school diploma worked.

I arrived to school, quickly moved in and got settled in my dorm and was growing out my hair in no time. 

Intercultural Studies. Looked easy enough.

"What do you want to do with that?" people would ask.
"I'd love to work overseas someday" I'd answer.

Three semesters later I dropped out of college. Something about not ever doing my homework and a GPA of 1.65

Today I find myself a 50/50 business partner in a company that delivers products to 15 States each month and ships to 48 with 22 employees, and almost no clue how I got here.

Free-market capitalism doesn't reward effort, commend passion, or acknowledge ideas. 

It states simply: when people pay for something, they are saying they want more of it. 

Two years ago my business partner approached me and said "I think this is something the world wants. Are you interested in going in on this 50/50 and seeing how we can maybe grow a business out of this product?"

"Sure" I replied, excited to do something that involved not tutoring, not putting an elderly lady to bed, and not cutting lawns (my three jobs at the time). 

As far as I was concerned, ROI was a fish that swam in ponds outside expensive Asian restaurants. 

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Italicized words are from my Dad. 

MBA Graduate with honors, he resides in Montana as a small business owner and consultant, and I attribute much of who I am and any of my success to his wisdom.