One of the points that is articulated well in the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is the awareness that:
Any Excuse, No Matter How Valid, Is Still an Excuse
We rotate kolache and donut duty at our office and the email went out this morning with this line in it.
“Not a lot of varieties. The guy in the Kolache store just had a baby last night, so he didn’t get much time to make more.”
Read that again. The man’s wife had a baby THAT NIGHT and still opened the store for business taking care of his customers. While his regulars would surely have understood if he wasn’t there, new customers would have wondered if the store was closed. So he opened it regardless.
This is a guy, who for better or worse, understands the phrase "any excuse, no matter how valid, is still an excuse". This is the competition. This is why I work on Saturdays. Yes be smart. Yes have a work/life balance. But know that the competition opens the kolache store at 4 AM after being up all night with his wife who just had a baby. That is the competition. Be afraid.
Update: before you ask, yes I was there when my kids were born so judge me by my actions. I am not advocating or even agreeing with this man’s actions. I am however impressed with his drive.
I’m sure the wife of the Kolache owner could pose the same agrument.
Wife: “Hunny, you should have been there.”
Husband: “But babe, I had to open the store.”
Wife: “Any excuse … “
Posted on October 5, 2007 at 8:07 am.
oh ya, I think had I done such a thing I would have been dead.
Posted on October 5, 2007 at 9:32 am.
What’s the guy’s excuse for not having someone trained and available to cover for him? I mean did the birth of his baby really just sneak up on him out of the blue?
Posted on October 5, 2007 at 2:41 pm.
The scientists are still working on discerning a pattern regarding pregnancy. These things just sneak up on people. But with research, and practice, I am sure we can nail down the cause.
Sorry…. no, not really. Heh.
Posted on October 5, 2007 at 5:55 pm.
Amazing story, thanks for sharing! In my (limited) experience each person (and her or his partner) has ALL sorts of agreements – stated and UNstated, agreed upon and NOT agreed upon).
Think of the two business partners who start an enterprise and after a few years realize it’s not working. You could have known before; just ask them in the beginning what their vision of wild success is!
PARTNER A: Grow this business, hire people, open offices all over the world and be HUGE.
PARTNER B: Build a company intelligently so we can take time off, have just a few people take care of things, and enjoy our time with family and friends.
Thanks for writing about something that gets the thinking started!
Posted on October 5, 2007 at 6:54 pm.