If you've seen the movie Seabiscuit with Jeff Bridges and Toby McGuire, you might remember how the trainer and jockey conditioned the underdog hero horse to explode at the sound of a bell in preparation for a historic race against a world class thoroughbred named War Admiral.
It's a scene that's replayed in my mind every time our doorbell rings and my kids launch off the couch or out of their rooms in a mad dash to see who might be at the door to play. The involuntary response to the sound is so instantaneous and amusing I am compelled to kid my kids about it.
Last week at a restaurant, my kids could have been kidding me about the same thing when a few tables over, someone's cell phone rang. My reaction was instantaneous and surprisingly negative. It was involuntary response to a ringtone from my past, the one I'd had on my own cell phone years ago when a call was more than likely bearing bad news... a broken counter in the shop, a missed appointment, or a stove hole cut off center in the field, etc, etc.
What caused the stress, which as evidenced by my negative ring-tone reaction is apparently still embedded in my subconscious, was not the problems themselves, but my inability to resolve them so they didn't happen again.
At the time my company and I were in a transitionary phase moving from the point where I could be present and involved in every phase of every job, from sale to installation to collection, to a phase where out of necessity, a growing number of important tasks had to be delegated to the people I had hired.
As my company grew it simply became impossible for me to be everywhere at once, thus the need for a cell phone to either answer questions due to the systemic lack of information from department to department or to deal with the latest mistake or disaster. And because I had no constructive reaction to these problems; instead, they persisted... to the point where I began to bitterly resent my phone and my circumstances.
Fast forward to today, where my business operation is roughly three times larger than it was during this transitional era and yet my cell phone rarely rings. Come to think of it, its always on vibrate...but that's not the point.
The point is that it is possible to make sure that the work gets done right and at the right time...even in my absence. And that fact has dramatically and forever altered my small business experience. So much so, that last year I wrote a book about the principles that have transformed my business with the hopes that others stone fabricators who may be similarly weary and frustrated, will use them to transform their businesses too.
In the final moments of the movie mentioned above, the beat up, weary little horse from nowhere explodes off the line at the ring of a bell and shocks the world by winning a race no one thought he could even finish.
If you are weary, but willing to do what it takes to win, rent Seabiscuit tonight and watch the ultimate come from behind victory story. Then visit www.LessChaosMoreCash.com and invest in a process that will shock your employees, customers, and local competition!
Aaron J. Crowley is the founder and president of FabricatorsFriend.com, the exclusive promoter of Stone Sleeve fabricator sleeves and Bullet Proof aprons.
")