Where is the Sun?

Do you realize when factors out of your control affect you? For me a big one is weather. I know that if I don't see the sun for a while, I am going to get in a down mood. It has been quite a while since we have had a nice sunny day here in Ames, Iowa. I try to make sure that I don't do anything rash when I have these moods, but sometimes they last for a while. The best thing I can do is understand the situation and make the best of it (and then I will need to apologize to my wife afterwards).

Our Two Lives

A good friend and mentor of mine had a post yesterday in regards to a book we are reading, "The Go-Giver", for our HTG3 peer group. He has read a lot further than me (he is on vacation) and blogged about a portion of the book that really caught his attention. The quote goes as follows: "A genuinely sound business principle will apply anywhere in life - in your friendships, in your marriage, anywhere. That's the true bottom line. Not whether it simply improves your financial balance sheet, but whether it improves your life's balance sheet". What an interesting concept. How many of us seperate our home lives and our work lives. It has always been one of my goals to merge the two. If you are not doing good in one of the areas, the other will be affected. My wife and I always have the discussion that I am too much of an open book. My thought is that people know where I am coming from, no matter what area of life I know you. There is no just knowing a part of me, it is all or nothing (or at least as much as you can handle).

The Team

I read a great article this weekend that had to do with your company's pitch. It was written by a great friend and mentor of mine, Stuart Crawford, of IT Matters in Calgary, Canada (there is a link to his great blog site on this page). I always find his articles full of things to ponder, and this was no exception. He discusses how important it is for everyone in your organization to understand your mission, vision and value statement - your pitch. To my surprise he used the analogy of baseball. I didn't know Canadians knew much about baseball (is there another sport up there besides hockey?). In his defense, the article was right on. Just like in baseball, everyone on the team needs to be on the same page, especially the pitcher and catcher. The same is in your organization. Do you make sure that your receptionist know the pitch? They have more contact with your clients than anyone else in your organization. We are blessed in my location to have a great Office Manager, but not everyone can be so lucky. Just remember that to win in this game, just like any sport, it takes the whole team.

Live Your Life Correctly

This morning as I left for work I realized someone had broken into my car and taken my GPS unit. It was a pretty nice GPS unit from Garmin and I had not had it very long. Instead of getting angry though I decided that my life will go on without it and I wasn't going to let it spoil my day. Yes I will call the police and the insurance agent (read mother-in-law here) but I will not let it spoil my day nor my holiday weekend. I use to let things run my life, but with the birth of my children I have realized what is really important. Don't get me wrong, I like nice things but I don't let them control me like I use to about 10 years ago. With this change in my life I find it much more enjoyable and worthwhile. Try it!

Thinking Too Much

I helped sponsor and present at a great seminar yesterday. Once a year we hold an event for our education clients to help bring them up to date on exciting things that HP, Microsoft and SonicWALL are doing. While attendence is not always off the charts (yesterday we had about 20 people) the interaction and projects that come out of it are always good. I have already recieved 3 email to sit down and discuss new projects, and the event wasn't even 24 hours ago. One thing I realized is that at meetings like this I find out that I make assumptions with my clients that I should never make. I go through the discussion, of course in my mind and not with the client, and come to the conclusion that the client will not find the value. In meetings like this where there a group, when there is open discussion, sooner or later one of the clients will hear about a service that they didn't know we offered and I get asked "Why didn't you discuss this with me". Why do I do this? I don't think I am alone. I need to follow my gut instinct more (which usually leads me in the correct direction) and stop thinking so much.

Just Say "NO"

It is not always a bad thing to tell people "no" in fact sometimes it is necessary. There are only so many hours in the day and we need to focus (read I need to focus) on the things that get me to reach my goals. I always have the best intentions on helping everyone and doing everything (mainly because I do things the right way and most other people don't). It seems that lately I have been saying "yes" to way to many things that later I have to go back and say "no" to. Why make it more time consuming than it has to? Why don't I just say "no" in the beginning? I am learning and being more realistic with my time constraints, but I feel this will be a battle that is not over yet.

HTG Meeting

Back from another HTG meeting. These meetings, which are made up of peers in the technology industry, continue to add value to my life. It seems that after so many years I would have a basic knowledge of how the industry works, but every time I come home I have a new "ah-ha" moment that I need to integrate into my life. In the past these have included:
* Dave Sobel's P.O.F. (Pockets Of Fun)
* Erik Thorsell's SharePoint Roll Out Kit
* Stuart Crawford's Web 2.0 Ideas
* Steve Riat's MSP 2.0 Roll Outs.
I try to only choose one thing to bring back in order to allow me to focus better. It is like drinking from a firehose when I meet with this group. The only change I would make is I need to dedicate a day after I get home to help go through my notes to make sure I don't forget or miss anything.

Today's Life Lesson

I think I finally made a break through already this morning. I had a client tell me they were going with another solution for a quote I had submitted to them (it didn't meet their needs perfectly and I knew that but thought I would give it a shot) and I didn't take it personally. Why is it that we feel like when a client tells us this we feel like they don't like us (or is it just me)? I held my composure and asked why they went that direction and, after the discussion, would have recommended them to go that direction also. Not only did I learn without letting my ego or emotions get in the way, but I left with a PO for work that we hadn't even discussed before. This was not easy for me, but I know it is the correct way (one of those life lessons that we need learn but is painful). I guess another day another lesson learned.

My Boss - The Client

70 degrees and no wind - so why am I in the office? Sooner or later you need to stop in and get some of that dreaded paperwork done. Why is it that even though we are in the technology industry we still need to create paper? I think it has gotten much better - but there is still a long way to go. Yesterday I spent 5 hours in the car to meet with a client for 2 hours. That is a long time for one client, but I thought it was important to meet face to face. There had been some issues, there were some new projects coming up, but more importantly I had not meet in person with them for a while. While I love email, and phone calls are great, there is still nothing as powerful as meeting in person. To me it states that the client is important in my life. Early in my sales career I learned that email, fax, phone calls and the like are tools to suppliment in between personal visits with the client. At the end of the day - they are the only reason I have a job.