Not that you asked, but I have some things to say.

This particular post will be a massive rant. Do not read any further if you are easily offended...especially if you are easily offended...consider yourself warned. Seriously...take heed. Only one thing offends me. People that are easily offended. Pride, arrogance, condescension, anger...I can look past all of these traits much easier than I can of the easily offended. Get over it. Grow up. Stop taking yourself so seriously. A well placed expletive can be the most succinct way to your point So many of these thin-skinned individuals spend too much time looking for something to get their knickers in a twist about, when they should be more focused on self-development. Many of these people possess boring, single-faceted, insipid, luke-warm, myopic, reactionary, hypocritical personalities. The irony is that so many of these people so focused on the appearance of "good" do little real good. It seems their nature to focus on the superficial and never on the depth of the world around ...

Success begets success. It's funny, but it's true. People love to be around a winner and get nauseous when they sniff a loser. Sadly, there have been times in my career where you could hear the desperation in my voice. When this happens, one tends to lose bargaining power.....or more accurately, one bargains less efficiently. Desperation always leads to leaving money on the table. No more will I allow this to happen. The reverse, also, has always seemed to ring true. There is a cheesy line from "Boiler Room" where Vin Diesel's character says "I don't need your business, I value it." It's a guilty pleasure, but damn I love that line. Having a bad month? Write it off. Make the next month a bang. But do not chase that particular rabbit down a hole. Having a bad quarter? Shit happens...... (more than that however, and you may need to look into the food-service industry or possibly hit the diesel college). For those of us who believe that there is an...

I suck.... At a lot. I also do not have the true objectivity to know how bad, and at how much (have at it haters, give me hell) None of us do. It's something to strive towards, but never achieve. It's a process. Step one of any self improvement begins with that statement. Remove all emotion. What's your percentage? If you screw up 25% of everything you touch, is that acceptable? 10%? 5%?...... the closer you get to zero, generally the less likely you are being honest with the question (Dr.s kill people, NASA misses planets, planes crash, etc). My father had a saying about "Keeping the shit to shoe level." I always loved that statement. It was realistic and pragmatic.....and funny. My blog vents in an acerbic and caustic manner about certain "personalities" that I struggle with in the course of a work day....it's by design. But let me make the following disclaimer...I'm human....I will be wrong, I will fail, I will make wrong decisions. It is my a...

Relax. Breathe. Count to ten. Tell me the issue. Now know that I will prioritize you. Feelings hurt? Ask your self why. You are only one of roughly 25 of my clients. It is possible that one of my other clients has a need much more urgent than yours. The same could be true of your need. It may be much more urgent than anything else I am working on. It may go to the bottom of the list. Hence, prioritization. Many people expect their issue, regardless of true urgency, to be treated as though it were crisis. They do not want to feel minimized, especially during a time of high emotion. But, when everything is an escalation, then nothing is an escalation. I want every issue to be resolved with the utmost expediency, for three reasons. The first is integrity. I must believe in my product to be able to use a consultative approach. The second, I'm greedy. I want my clients to continue buying, and nothing is more difficult than overcoming service issues. The third, I often have little patien...

My father, until he retired, was a mechanic. He worked at the same place through two owners and roughly thirty-five years. He was uncompromisingly good. He worked harder and stronger than anyone else there. He made a modest living, which was generally more than any of the other mechanics. He did this simply by working harder. He never took a lunch break, my mother would hand him a brown paper sack in the morning filled with handheld food items. Horribly unhealthy, but highly functional. In a business where a job pays a flat hour amount (regardless of how much time it may actually take), an extra hour could translate into four hours of pay. He is a great man. He never has and probably never will fully understand that. It's possible some of the fire in him was due to something else missing. He seemed to always have something to prove. I don't know if he ever knew who he was trying to prove things to and he seemed to never be able to prove it. As I write this, I realize I inherite...

I had a 300%+ month in March, ending a fantastic quarter. I am already well over 100% for April (yes, I sandbagged a tad) and have the equivalent of 200% more on the hook that could fall in April or May. I have been quite busy. But the weather Monday was incredible. I had some things to do that weren't work. I look around, assessed the situation and called in "well". Emailed actually (it's the boss' preferred method of calling in, sick or well). The email was something to the effect of "Can't possibly fathom why I would come in on such a perfect day. I'm taking a well day!!" There are many things that I love about my line of work / sort of job, and this is one. You build momentum within your personal business approach. You grow, build, design, arrange, meet, conf call, brainstorm, etc, etc, etc, and the momentum grows to a point where you have to only keep the plates balanced on the sticks and give them a little push every now and again. So, it i...