Ernesto Sirolli—dubbed The Entrepreneurship Coach by strategy+business—tells this story about one of his early failures:
[We] decided to teach Zambians how to grow food in the beautiful fertile valley where they had always lived as pastoralists, shepherding animals but planting nothing. The team imported seeds from Italy—tomatoes and zucchini—but the locals didn’t seem interested. The team tried to pay them money, but there was little in the valley available to buy. Finally, the NGO started importing whiskey and beer in order to coax the men into the fields. “We kept thinking, what is wrong with these people?”
It soon became apparent. The tomatoes appeared on the vines, huge bursting fruits that put the most bountiful Italian crops to shame. The team members were joyful, but the next morning they awoke to find every single one of the plants gone. Hippos had swarmed up from the river and begun gorging. The Italians ran to tell the Zambians what had happened. “Of course,” said the people. “That’s why we don’t plant in the valley.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” asked the Italians.
“Because you never asked,” came the response.1
I have made the same mistake many times. One of my notable failures was when I decided I could run a shipyard without knowing anything about building ships. FAIL.
The primary advice Sirolli gives business leaders is “Shut up and listen.”
That reminds me of one of my favorite, but too often ignored proverbs: “Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent….” (Proverbs 17:28 NIV)
Effective communication has a pattern:
I need to learn to take my own advice.
Dick, repeat after me:
Dick, repeat after me:
Dick, repeat after me:
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© Copyright 2022 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
1 strategy+business, The Entrepreneurship Coach by Sally Helgesen, 1 August 2014
A WSJ article by Lauren Lipton (1/30/14) was titled: Posh Hair Cutters Push the $1000 Envelope. My mind immediately went to how much I save by having my hair cut for only $18. Hmmm…that is a saving of $982 per cut. Assuming one visit per month, that is $11,784 per year. If I invested the $11,784 in dividend stocks paying about 2.75% for ten years, I’d have more than $130,000 in the bank. I sure am glad I don’t live in Manhattan.
Of course, not every hair cut or styling on Madison Avenue gets $1000. Some are discounted to $500. The savings over ten years? A hefty $67,000. If you get a New York haircut at the discounter “Wal-cuts” (not a real company) for a mere $100, your ten-year invested savings will be $12,000. If you get a “street-corner” haircut for $50 (cash only), you will have about $5000 in the bank after ten years.
Now I know some of you are thinking, Dick, you need to spend more on haircuts; it will help your image. Maybe so. But the point of this post is that small savings that seem insignificant on a monthly basis can add up to big savings when viewed over a ten year horizon. I recently cut our monthly utility bills by over $100 per month by making a few simple phones calls. If I save it instead of spending it, I’ll have an extra $12,000+ in the bank in ten years.
There are few things that hurt businesses, families, churches, etc., more than short-term thinking. Instead of asking, What is the impact over five or ten years?, we ignore changes, savings, investments, and relationships that have a long-term payback in favor of short-terms ones. Why is Warren Buffet the best investor on the planet? He’s not a stock trader or company flipper. He buys stocks and companies and holds them—almost forever.
If you expect to be alive ten years from now (I do), there are things you can do now that will have a big payback then. What will 15 minutes per week spent getting to know each of your employees be worth in ten years? How about losing one pound per month instead of a crash diet? If you buy a $2.50 (instead of $5.00) cup of coffee on your way to work, you’ll have an extra $6000 in the bank in ten years. Would a 30-45 minute walk, 5 times a week, stave off diabetes or heart disease for you? Would one hour of training every month for you and your employees make a difference over time?
Today would be a good day to get started. 2032 will be here before you know it.
By the way, I do tip the barber, so the actual cost of my hair cut is $23. So, my ten-year savings compared to Julien’s on Madison Ave is a bit less than $130,000. Rats.
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© Copyright 2022 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
One of my favorite challenges in scripture comes from Paul in 1 Corinthians 9:26 (NASB): “I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” In other words, “I live with purpose.” So, in your personal life, family life, business, church, whatever, run with aim; shoot for something! One thing is certain—if you don’t shoot for something, you hit will hit nothing.
If you haven’t already set your targets for 2022, here are a few suggestions that may help you—it’s not too late!
#1 Have no more than three or four personal goals for the year. Choose things that are doable and will really make a difference.
#2 Choose one goal that is primary—an “if-I-only-get one-thing-done” goal, this is it. Make sure you reach this goal!
#3 Don’t let past failures keep you from trying again.
Living in the past is an enemy of the future.
Erwin McManus
Forget “what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead”
Philippians 3:13 (NASB)
#4 Plan in detail for the next 60 days. It is important to get off to a good start. In late March, plan for April through June, and so on. The greatest motivation for continuing will be progress.
Setting a goal is not the main thing. It is deciding how you will go about achieving it and staying with that plan.
Coach Tom Landry
It won’t just happen. You need a plan.
#5 Make sure you have an accountability mechanism. Post your plan on the refrigerator or give it to a friend who won’t say “don’t worry about it” if you begin to slip.
Leadership author John Maxwell challenges us with: “You don’t have to be great to start; but you have to start to be great.” 2022 is as good a time as any to start. Why wait?
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© Copyright 2022 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
There isn’t much more frustrating than road signs that don’t help you find your way. If you have a GPS system, you can find your way no matter what the road signs say. But if you don’t, you sometimes have to guess and hope you end up at the right place.
In organizations, the best road signs are the people. Pay attention to the signals you are getting from them. Ignoring them can lead to dead ends, or worse, bridge-out disasters.
WHEN PEOPLE ARE…
LOST: It is because the organization (including the leadership) doesn’t know where it is, and probably didn’t know where it was going before it got lost. [Denial of reality is often the problem.]
UNSURE: It is because the organization is always changing direction—west today, east tomorrow, and then west again. [This is often a result of a latest-fad strategy. And since the latest fad is always changing…well, you get the idea.]
CONFUSED: It is because the road signs are in conflict, one pointing north and one pointing south. [One leader is saying one thing; another leader is saying something different.]
UNCLEAR: It is because communication is unclear: “Do you have any idea what he/she said?” [The responsibility for clarity is with the communicator, not the listener. What you think you said and what people heard may not be the same thing.]
PERPLEXED: It is because the values, policies, etc., don’t apply to everyone. [Preferential treatment for some will kill your credibility as a leader.]
BEWILDERED: It is because they have no idea “why” the organization is headed in a particular direction. [Purpose, values, vision, etc., are not understood.]
DISORIENTED: It is because they are LOST, UNSURE, CONFUSED, UNCLEAR, PERPLEXED, AND BEWILDERED. The organization seems to be spinning out of control and they feel helpless. [This is an organization that is nearing the end. Read How The Mighty Fall by Jim Collins.]
Wonder where your organization is headed? Look at the road signs.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
One thing is sure. You won’t love your job if you hate your boss. First and foremost, people leave companies (or churches or universities or whatever) because of who they work for, and they stay because of who they work for. It is the day-to-day interactions of boss/employee that make the most difference—one way or the other.
The October 28 (2013) edition of Forbes featured the 50 Best Small Companies. Four executives were asked, “How do you charge up your employees?” I don’t much like the idea of having to “charge up” employees because it implies they show up “charged down.” Fortunately, the four answers had to do with everyday leading that makes employees show up already charged up:
Today would be a good day for you to help your employees love their jobs. Had a really good month? Give everyone a carwash coupon. Ready to finally solve that nagging-every-month problem? Ask for their ideas instead of insisting on your own. And so on…. You’ll be surprised at how much difference it makes.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells at The Hard Lessons Company
“I hate my job. I thought working here was going to be great, but my attitude gets worse every day that goes by.”
“I am trained to be an accountant. You know, make ledger entries, draw double lines at the end of the month, explain variances, and help people understand their budgets. But all I do is check other people’s work and grind out reports. A robot could do it.”
“The company is making decent money, but none of it ever flows downhill. I don’t expect to make as much as the CFO, or even close, but a little extra every now and then would sure be appreciated.”
“Too many of the people around me don’t do an honest day’s work. They have been here a long time and feel like they are entitled to the job no matter what. Us newbies are doing more than our share.”
“My supervisor is a jerk. He doesn’t care about us individually—except for his golf buddies—and everything is a last-minute crisis with him.”
“There are a lot of things we could do more effectively and more efficiently, but new ideas aren’t really encouraged. We could actually do with less people, but our boss is always complaining about how understaffed we are.”
Sound familiar? There are two ways to look at this:
Either #1 or #2 could be true. If you are the leader, it’s your job to know which it is and fix it. And if you are the problem, fix yourself first!
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
I love Auntie Anne’s soft pretzels (upper level at Cool Springs Mall, and in airports everywhere). You can get them plain, with salt, with cinnamon, dipped in mustard, and so on. My favorite? Plain. (Those of you who know me well are not surprised.)
Auntie Anne’s founder was Anne Beiler. Her husband’s parents loaned her $6000 in 1988 to buy a pizza/ice cream/pretzel store in a Downingtown, PA, indoor farmers market. The first store opened in February and the second came only five months later. After deciding to specialize in pretzels, the first-year sales were $100,000—not too bad for a $6000 investment. The rest is history. Today, Auntie Anne’s (now owned by Focus Brands) has more than 1500 locations worldwide.
As the story is told by Dinah Eng in her article, Soft Pretzels out of Hard Times (Fortune, July 22, 2013), Anne Beiler’s success formula was p1 + p2 + p3 = P:
Actually, according to Beiler, there is an important F in the formula (p1 + p2 + p3 + F = P) because one of her foundational values is her faith in God.
Is your enterprise floundering a bit? Why don’t you try the 3p + F formula?
p1 (purpose greater than self)
+p2 (product/service excellence)
+p3 (people you count on and count on you)
+F (faith in God)
Focus on three little p’s of your own choosing—augmented with some F—instead of worrying about the big P. Not only will you enjoy leading more, but you’ll also be more effective, and the big P will come if you get the little p’s—and the F—right.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
More accurately, she is a heroine. I first wrote about Elinor Otto in 2013 when she was 93 and still working a regular five-days-a-week, eight-hour shift at the Boeing plant in Long Beach—not in an office, not as a receptionist—as a riveter on the C-17 assembly line—just like she did back in 1942 during World War II.
According to the LA Times (This Rosie Is Still Working by Samantha Schaefer, 9/18/2013), she “is out of bed at 4 a.m. and drives to work early to grab a coffee and a newspaper before the 6 a.m. meeting. In the Boeing lot, she parks as far from the plant as possible so she can get some exercise. Every Thursday, she brings in cookies and goes to the beauty parlor to have her hair and nails touched up after her shift ends.” According to coworker Craig Ryba, “She’s an inspiration. She just enjoys working and enjoys life.” She continued on the C-17 line until 2015 when C-17 production ended. Today, she is 101 and still “going strong” according to Station KLAS in Las Vegas.
In Chapter 9 (A Hard Hat For Everyone) of my book, 16 Stones, I shared my own thoughts and experience with Rosie the Riveters:
It is common today for women to work in heavy industry factories. They do all the things men do on assembly lines, in machine shops, in quality labs, and stockrooms. But that hasn’t always been the case. It started during World War II when the men were off fighting, and workers were needed to produce airplanes, tanks, rifles, jeeps, and bullets. Women stepped up and were immortalized in a hit song, “Rosie the Riveter”:
All day long, whether rain or shine, she’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history, working for victory, Rosie the Riveter.It’s not an exaggeration to say that without thousands of Rosies, the war would have dragged on for years longer than it did. The women had no experience, but they were motivated to get the job done—and they did.
I had my own Rosie the Riveter experience in the late ’80s. While serving as VP of Finance for a midsize aerospace company, we were confronted with a crippling thirteen-week strike. At least it could have been crippling, but it wasn’t. Why? Because accountants, secretaries, engineers, buyers, vice-presidents, and even the lawyers all “went to the factory floor” to keep production going. Since they didn’t trust me with anything that moved or made noise, I was a wing wiper, meaning I took a rag, squirted Trike (trichloroethylene) on it, and cleaned excess adhesive, oil, dirt, and grime off of aluminum surfaces before they went to the paint shop. We were organized, inspired, and well-led by our president, John Kleban. For thirteen weeks, our motley crew, by working hard with enthusiasm, kept the production lines moving and our customers satisfied. That is when the value of a hard hat for everyone was indelibly imprinted into my leadership DNA.
I have always said, “I want to work as long as I can, and when I can’t, drop dead at my desk.” Today, my desk is in my home office and Dottie (my wife) will be the one who finds me. Of course, I am aware that I don’t get to prescribe my future, but as long as I can, I am going to stay on the assembly line of life, doing something useful in a way that honors God.
Elinor Otto reminds me of one my biblical heroes, Caleb, who, when 85 years old said:
I am still as strong today as I was in the day Moses sent me; as my strength was then, so my strength is now, for war and for going out and coming in. Now then, give me this hill country about which the Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities; perhaps the Lord will be with me, and I will drive them out as the Lord has spoken.
Joshua 14 :11-12 NIV
Eighty-five and taking on the Anakim giants! Driving rivets until age 95!. That is living life to the fullest. My bucket list can wait. I have all of eternity for it.
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
In my book, 16 Stones, I wrote about the importance of vision: “It wasn’t a Saturn rocket that launched Apollo 11, it was a vision.” President John Kennedy cast the vision on May 25, 1961. It was fulfilled eight years and fifty-six days later (July 20, 1969) when the Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the moon, announced by Astronaut Neil Armstrong’s historic statement: “The Eagle has landed.” Though President Kennedy deserves immense credit for casting the vision, the real story is what happened during the eight years and fifty-six days.
The cost of Neil Armstrong’s “…one small step for a man. One giant leap for mankind.” was $24B and three lives—the entire crew of Apollo 1 was killed in a cabin fire during a 1967 pre-launch test. More than 400,000 people from 20,000 companies and universities were involved in the project. There were thousands of tests, changes and retests in the systems and flight vehicles. There were the six Mercury and twelve Gemini/Titan launches, plus six unmanned Apollo launches and four manned non-lunar Apollo launches, all before Apollo 11. It is truly said that every good idea is a lot of hard work for someone.
There are a lot more visions unfulfilled than fulfilled. Why? Poor execution. In their best selling 2002 book, Execution, Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan made it painfully clear:
…unless you translate big thoughts into concrete steps for action, they’re pointless . . . Many people regard execution as detail work that’s beneath the dignity of a . . . leader. That’s wrong. To the contrary, it’s the leader’s most important job.
The leader’s most important job? Yes, and Warren Bennis agrees:
Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality.
I love these quotes because I admit I’m a leader more than a bit biased toward action. Without action, the “next big thing” soon becomes the “last abandoned thing.” So don’t fall into the trap of believing that just because you may be great at casting vision, you are a great leader. Great leaders may or may not be good at casting vision. However, they will always be great at getting things done. Leaders are remembered for great accomplishment, not great dreams.
If your organization is floundering and you’ve cast vision until your vocal cords are worn out, it’s time to focus on execution—“…the leader’s most important job.”
By the way, if you are a leader, think you are a leader or want to be a leader, Execution should be on your required reading list.
© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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There aren’t many jobs less fun than slopping hogs. But it has to be done. If someone doesn’t slop the hogs, then calamity will strike: NO BACON! What could be worse than that?
My friend, Leon Drennan (see last post: What Happens When You Don’t Milk The Cows), grew up on a 160 acre Kentucky farm. They raised hogs, cattle, and a few small crops (including tobacco). Leon’s first job on the farm was hog slopping. It was the worst job on the farm. One step up from hog slopping was feeding the calves. It was a big day when his father trusted him enough to move from the pig pen to the calf pen. He had earned that trust by doing a great job at slopping hogs. And that is the same way any of us get out of the pig pen—we earn our way out.
If you or someone you know is stuck in the pig pen, the way out is:
Escaping the pig pen happens at the intersection of opportunity and preparation. When opportunity knocks, be prepared! Leon was ready to feed the calves when the opportunity came. Much later, he was ready to lead a major division of HCA when the opportunity came.
If you are a mediocre hog slopper, why should anyone give you a chance at something else?
Never forget: the most important job you’ll ever have is the job you have now. (Chapter 4 of 16 Stones has a lot more on this subject.)
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© Copyright 2021 by Dick Wells, The Hard Lessons Company
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