This was actually never supposed to be published. Periodically, I have too much swirling around in my mind and I have to just put it down. These thoughts are an example of this. They may help, they may not. My staff found them saved and decided to make them into an article. Here we go…
1. Time doesn’t fill me. I fill time.
Deadlines and time frames establish parameters, but typically not in a good way. The average person who is given two weeks to complete a task will instinctively adjust his or her effort so it actually takes two weeks.
Forget deadlines, at least as way to manage your activity. Tasks should only take as long as they need to take. Do everything as quickly and effectively as you can. Then, use your “free” time to get other things done just as quickly and effectively.
Average people allow time to impost its will on them; remarkable people impose their will on their time.
2. The people around me are the people I chose.
Some of your employees drive you nuts in your contracting business. Some of your customers are obnoxious. Some of your friends are selfish, all-about-me jerks.
You chose them. If the people around you make you unhappy, it’s not their fault. It’s your fault. They’re in your professional or personal life because you drew them to you – and you let them remain.
Think about the type of people you want to work with. Think about the types of concrete customers you would enjoy serving. Think about the friends in the Concrete Industry you want to have.
Then, change what you do so that you can start attracting those people. Hardworking people want to work with hardworking people. Kind people like to associate with kind people. Remarkable employees want to work for remarkable bosses.
Successful people are naturally drawn to successful people. Successful concrete contractors are naturally drawn to other successful concrete contractors.
3. I have never paid my dues.
Dues aren’t paid, past tense. Dues get paid in the concrete industry, each and every day, on each and every concrete project. The only real measure of your value is the tangible contribution you make on a daily basis.
No matter what you’ve done or accomplished in the past, you’re never too good to roll up your sleeves, get dirty, and do the grunt work on the concrete project. No job is ever too menial, no task ever too unskilled or boring.
Remarkably successful people never feel entitled. They earn it on the job every single day.
4. Experience and years in the concrete industry are irrelevant. Accomplishments are everything.
You have “10 years in the Decorative Concrete business.” Whoopee. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing what you do. Years of service indicate nothing; you could be the worth 10-year contractor in the world.
I care about what you’ve done: how many sites you’ve created, how many back-end systems you’ve installed, how many customer-specific applications you’ve developed (and what kind)… all that matters is what you’ve done.
Successful people don’t need to describe themselves using hyperbolic adjectives like passionate, innovative, driven, etc. They can just describe, hopefully in a humble way, what they’ve done.
5. Failure is something I accomplish; it doesn’t just happen to me.
Ask people why they have been successful. Their answers will be filled with personal pronouns: I, me, and the sometimes too occasional we.
Ask them why they failed. most will revert to childhood and instinctively distance themselves, like the kid of says, “My toy go broken…” instead of, “I broke my toy.”
They’ll say the economy tanked. They’ll say the concrete market wasn’t ready. They’ll say their construction chemical suppliers and manufacturers couldn’t keep up. They’ll say it was someone or something else. They’ll blame others. And by distancing themselves, they don’t learn from their failures.
Occasionally something completely outside your control will cause you to fail. Most of the time, though, it’s you. And that’s okay. Every successful person had failed. Numerous times. Most of them have failed a lot more often than you. That’s why they’re successful now.
Embrace every failure: Own it, learn from it, and take full responsibility for making sure that next time, things will turn out differently.
6. Volunteers always win. Seek to build the concrete industry up!
Whenever you raise your hand, you wind up being asked to do more.
That’s great. Doing more is a concrete opportunity: to learn, to impress, to gain skills, to build new relationships – to do something more than you would otherwise been able to do.
Success is based on concrete action. The more you volunteer, the more you get to act. Successful people step forward to create opportunities.
Remarkably successful people sprint forward in the concrete industry and on the job.
7. As long as I’m paid well, it’s all good.
Specialization is good. Focus is good. Finding a niche is good.
Generating revenue is great.
Anything a customer will pay you a reasonable price to do – as long as it isn’t unethical, immoral, or illegal – is something you should do. Your concrete customers want you to deliver outside your normal territory? If they’ll pay you for it, fine.
Your concrete customers want you to add services you don’t normally include? If they’ll pay you for it, fine. The customer wants you to perform some relatively manual labor and you’re an exclusively decorative shop? Shut up, roll ’em up, do the work, and get paid.
Only do what you want to do and you might build an okay business. Be willing to do what the customers want you to do and you can build a successful business.
Be willing to do even more and you can build a remarkable concrete contracting business.
And speaking of decorative concrete customers…
8. People who pay me always have the right to tell me what to do.
Get over your cocky, pretentious, I-must-be-free-to-express-my-individuality self. Be that way on your own time.
The people who pay you, whether customers or employers, earn the right to dictate what you do and how you do it – sometimes down to the last detail.
Instead of complaining, work to align what you like to do with what the people who pay you want you to do.
Then, you turn issues like control and micro-management into non-issues.
9. The extra mile is wide open in the concrete industry. No one’s there.
Everyone says they go the extra mile. Almost no one actually does. Most people who go there think, “Wait… no one else is here… why am I doing this?” and leave, never to return.
That’s why the extra mile is such a lonely place.
That’s also why the extra mile is a place filled with opportunities.
Be early. Stay late. Make the extra phone call. Send the extra email. Do the extra concrete research. Help a customer unload or unpack a shipment. Don’t wait to be asked; offer. Don’t just tell employees what to do – show them what to do and work beside them. They will love you for this.
Every time you do something, think of one extra thing you can do – especially if other people aren’t doing that one thing. Sure, it’s hard.
But, that’s what will make you different.
And over time, that’s what will make you incredibly successful in the concrete industry.
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